Tropical Storm Bertha threatens sea turtle nests along Collier County beaches

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) — Tropical System Bertha is putting sea turtle nests at risk as higher tides and stronger waves wash away parts of the shoreline.

Beachgoer JJ Huffman described the scene near a threatened nest as looking "like we're going to a funeral." With Bertha churning offshore, high tides are creeping closer to nests along the beach.

"I would imagine today the high tide's probably going to bring it up in there. We may not even see this nest by the end of the day," Huffman said.

He's watched it happen before.

"It was so heartbreaking to see the little things," Huffman said. "The eggs you could see them roll out, and a couple of them actually either hatched or beat up."

If the eggs are completely washed into the Gulf, biologists say they won't survive. However, if the nest stays in place, the eggs can handle a short period of flooding—ideally one to two hours, but after that, the odds drop fast.

"We're coming off the peak kind of nesting season," said Dr. Matt Ware, a conservation biologist with FGCU. "We have most of our nests actively on the beach right now. So a storm this early in the season has the potential to impact a pretty significant number of those."

With nests still incubating, Bertha's timing isn't ideal.

"It's a combination of how bad the storm is, where those nests are, and the timing of it all," Ware said.

But he says this is part of a sea turtle's story.

"Unfortunately, this is par for the course for these turtles. This is not a new phenomenon for them to deal with," Ware said. "Dealing with hurricanes or even just general high tides is part of their nesting biology."

For Huffman, he just has one wish.

"My hope for this nest here is the water stays away from it, and there's some eggs in here, and we can get some life out of here," Huffman said.

If you're walking along the beach and see a nest threatened by the surf, don't touch it—call your local nest monitoring team or FWC.