Sea Turtles in Miami-Dade: 2025 Nest Counts, Nesting Season, Lighting Rules and Who to Call

Loggerheads dominate Miami-Dade nesting: the FWC 2025 statewide survey counted 793 loggerhead nests in the county, against 63 green turtle nests and 11 leatherback nests.

FWC also counts non-nesting emergences, tracks where a turtle came ashore but laid no eggs. Miami-Dade logged 926 of those for loggerheads, 56 for green turtles and none for leatherbacks in 2025, so loggerhead crawls without a nest outnumbered loggerhead nests on county beaches (FWC 2025 Statewide Nesting Totals).

The county's Sea Turtle Conservation Program names the loggerhead as Miami-Dade's most common nesting species and says county beaches are also nesting habitat for green and leatherback turtles, while Kemp's ridley and hawksbill turtles use the inshore and offshore waters (Miami-Dade Sea Turtle Conservation Program).

Miami-Dade County puts its nesting season at March 1 through October 31 each year, and it notes that nesting occasionally happens outside those dates.

During nesting season the county surveys its beaches daily (Miami-Dade County Parks), and the Mayor's statement on the County lighting ordinance gives the same season, generally March 1 through October 31 (Miami-Dade Agenda Item 7(C)). Biscayne National Park describes a shorter window for its own beaches: monitoring from May through October, new nests usually found May through August, and loggerhead nesting peaking in June and July (Biscayne National Park). The two agencies describe different stretches of coast, and each date range is given here as published.

Hatching runs later. Biscayne National Park says hatchlings can emerge as soon as 45 days after eggs are laid, and incubation can reach 95 days, which is why nest checks continue after the last new nests appear (National Park Service).

All three species that nest in Miami-Dade are protected under the Endangered Species Act: the leatherback is listed as endangered, and the loggerhead and green turtle populations that nest in Florida are listed as threatened.

For the loggerheads on Miami beaches, NOAA Fisheries says only two loggerhead nesting aggregations have more than 10,000 females nesting a year, peninsular Florida and Oman (NOAA Fisheries loggerhead page). For green turtles, NOAA reports nests trending upward in Florida (NOAA Fisheries green turtle page).

The county program notes that it is a violation of state and federal law to disturb a sea turtle, its nest, eggs or hatchlings (Miami-Dade Sea Turtle Conservation Program).

Miami-Dade County voted in 2026 on an ordinance creating code section 24-48.27, a set of beachfront lighting guidelines for sea turtle nesting, and Miami Beach has its own Turtle Nesting Protection Ordinance.

The Mayor's fiscal statement for the ordinance calls it a framework of recommended best-practice guidelines. It discourages bonfires, fireworks and unnecessary nighttime vehicle use on beaches, and encourages shielded, downward-directed, long-wavelength red or amber lighting, lower intensity, tinted or treated glass and control of interior light visible from the beach (Miami-Dade ordinance, Agenda Item 7(C)).

The County file records the Board of County Commissioners action on April 21, 2026, as Adopted, after first reading on February 18 and a favorable committee recommendation on March 10. The status field on the same Miami-Dade page still reads In Committee (Miami-Dade Legislative Item 260199). Both entries appear on the official file.

Cities have their own rules. The county program reports that on October 30, 2024, the Miami Beach City Commission updated its 18-year-old Turtle Nesting Protection Ordinance to cover lights visible from the beach, including interior lighting standards for hotels and commercial properties, and limited fireworks to barges (Miami-Dade County Parks). For any other address, the county directs residents to their own municipality's code enforcement department. FWC's criteria for wildlife lighting are Keep it LOW, Keep it LONG with long wavelength light above 560 nm such as amber, orange and red LEDs, and Keep it SHIELDED with full cutoff fixtures (FWC wildlife lighting).

Beachgoers in Miami-Dade should stay clear of staked nests, keep flashlights and flash photography off the beach at night, and report any hatchlings heading away from the ocean to FWC at 1-888-404-3922.

County biologists mark each confirmed nest with stakes, neon tape and signage that stay in place through incubation. The county asks people not to use bonfires, flashlights, flash photography or video camera lights on the beach at night, and to keep any necessary lighting low, shielded and long (Miami-Dade Sea Turtle Conservation Program).

Two numbers cover most situations. FWC's 24-hour wildlife hotline is 1-888-404-3922, or *FWC from a mobile phone, and the county stranding response line is 305-310-3046, for hatchlings wandering inland or a dead, sick or injured turtle. Picking up or interfering with hatchlings without the right permits is a violation of the law, the county notes (Miami-Dade County Parks).

Biscayne National Park explains why lights matter: hatchlings use the reflection of moonlight on the ocean to find the water, and in heavily lit coastal areas they can follow lights from houses, buildings and traffic instead (Biscayne National Park).

The Miami-Dade County Parks Sea Turtle Conservation Program does, under FWC Marine Turtle Permit MTP-150, covering most county beaches across seven municipalities and two county parks.

The county started the program in 1980, after hatchlings that had lost their way were found along A1A (Collins Ave) in Miami Beach; until then, nesting in the county went undocumented. Its biologists walk 19 miles of beach every day from March to October and send their data to local, state and federal agencies (Miami-Dade Sea Turtle Conservation Program). FWC lists a 36.8 km survey length for Miami-Dade in the 2025 statewide survey, a separate measure of the surveyed shoreline (FWC).

The public can take part. A symbolic Adopt-a-Nest program places a named stake beside a nest in Crandon, Miami Beach or Haulover Park, with a certificate and a hatch-day photo email, and the county is clear that adopting a nest does not allow anyone to touch it. Education programs, in person or virtual, are booked through the Education Outreach Manager at 786-719-6836 (Miami-Dade County Parks).

Yes, mostly loggerheads: Biscayne National Park says loggerhead nests are the ones usually found in the park, and its first documented green turtle nest was excavated on August 15, 2013.

Biologists released 66 green turtle hatchlings from that 2013 nest, and the park reported 21 nests observed that year, over three times its normal number, in a news release now marked as archived (Biscayne National Park, August 19, 2013).

Park staff concentrate monitoring on five beaches with a history of nesting and run habitat restoration year round, largely clearing marine debris that builds up on its nesting beaches (Biscayne National Park monitoring).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-fetching the FWC 2025 county nest table and lighting standard, the Miami-Dade turtle program page and ordinance file, three NOAA Fisheries species pages and two Biscayne National Park pages.