Broward County's sea turtle nesting season has officially wrapped up, and beaches across the county hosted 3,762 nests this year — the second-highest total ever recorded by the county's decades-old monitoring program. Loggerheads accounted for the overwhelming majority of that number, with green turtles and leatherbacks rounding out the count.
The final tally, announced by Broward County Government
, breaks down to 3,333 loggerhead nests, 350 green turtle nests, and 79 leatherback nests. “Sea turtle season has officially come to a close,” the county said, adding that “while it was not a record-breaking year, 2026 had the second highest number of nests laid in the entire history of the program.”
That program has been running for a long time. The Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program has monitored the county's beaches for nesting activity since 1981, according to a report from CBS News Miami, and nesting season runs every year from March 1 through October 31. Nova Southeastern University has been contracted by the county for more than 30 years to implement and manage the program, per hcas.nova.edu, with researchers monitoring nesting activity across more than 24 miles of county shoreline.
How 2026 Stacks Up Against Recent Seasons
The county's framing of 2026 as a near-record year lines up with how dramatically nest counts have swung over the past decade. Broward logged a record-setting 4,328 nests in 2023, according to a report from news.yahoo.com, split among 3,445 loggerhead nests, 798 green turtle nests, and 85 leatherback nests. That season marked the first time in the program's history that all three species set records simultaneously, the outlet reported, with the previous species-specific marks standing at 3,400 loggerhead nests in 2016, 788 green turtle nests in 2021, and 86 leatherback nests also in 2021.
Other seasons tell a more modest story. The same CBS News Miami report described one recent nesting season that produced 2,716 total nests — 2,491 loggerheads, 185 green turtles, and 40 leatherbacks — and noted that excluding Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park, the count came in slightly below the previous 10-year average. That report found loggerhead and green turtle nesting both fell short of their 10-year averages that season, while leatherback nesting held roughly steady. The outlet also noted that the year before that particular season, the county had recorded 3,600 nests.
Conflicting Records From Earlier Years
Historical reporting on Broward's nest counts describes successive records. A 2017 report from sun-sentinel.com put that year's total at 3,587 nests, surpassing the 3,567-nest record set in 2016. A separate report from wsvn.com cited 3,567 nests for the season ending October 31 and identified 3,540 nests counted in 2012 as the prior record.
The Sun Sentinel's 2017 report also highlighted a banner year for green turtles specifically, which laid 665 nests that season — smashing the previous record of 495 set in 2013. The same report described green turtle nesting as running nearly twice its historic average and noted loggerhead hatchling numbers climbed 12 percent that year, reversing a downward trend the report attributed to hot summers.
What To Do If You Spot A Turtle In Trouble
The county directed residents who encounter a dead, sick, or injured sea turtle or hatchling anywhere in the county to call (954) 328-0580. With 2026's season now closed, the county's nest totals stand as the latest entry in a program that has tracked the county's beaches since the early 1980s, offering a long-running record of how loggerheads, green turtles, and leatherbacks are faring along South Florida's shoreline.
