A loggerhead sea turtle crawled up onto Cumberland Island over the weekend to lay the year's first nest.

A loggerhead sea turtle crawled up onto Cumberland Island over the weekend to lay the year's first nest. / National Park Service

A loggerhead sea turtle laid the first nest of the year on Cumberland Island over the weekend.It's not yet clear how coronavirus restrictions on beaches might affect sea turtle nesting.

 

The sea turtles are nesting right on schedule, but humans are acting differently because of COVID-19. Disturbances from people are a major threat to nesting turtles.

 

While people cannot gather on the beach, they can still take walks. State wildlife biologist Mark Dodd said with more people at home, foot traffic could go up.

 

"So it'll be interesting to see whether we actually end up with a similar level of disturbance to turtles that we've had in the past," he said.

 

The state's turtle monitoring program has had to adapt to coronavirus as well by cutting back volunteers on busy beaches and arranging backups in case someone gets sick.

 

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