Sea Turtle Nesting Season in New Smyrna Beach: What to Know

Every summer, something extraordinary happens on the beaches of New Smyrna Beach while most visitors are asleep. Under cover of darkness, female sea turtles that were themselves born on these shores decades ago haul out of the Atlantic, dig their nests in the sand, and deposit their eggs. By dawn they're gone, leaving nothing but a wide drag track in the sand. Volusia County beaches recorded 1,516 sea turtle nests in 2023 — the highest total ever measured here — and the 2025 season opened with an early leatherback nesting on March 9, the earliest ever documented on a county-managed beach. If you're staying in NSB between May and October, you're here during one of the more remarkable wildlife events on Florida's east coast. Here's how to witness it responsibly.

• Nesting: May through October (loggerheads and greens). Leatherbacks arrive earlier — as early as March in warm years.
• Hatching: July through October. Incubation takes 50-75 days depending on species, so the first loggerhead nests of May can hatch in early July.
• Peak nesting: June and July, when warm water temperatures are highest and females are coming ashore almost every night on active stretches of beach.
• Peak hatching: August and September — the best months to spot fresh boil tracks (the distinctive marks left by dozens of hatchlings pushing through the sand at once).
• Early arrivals: Leatherbacks have a shorter, earlier season — March through June — so if you're visiting in late spring, a pre-dawn walk might catch something rare.

• Survey walks begin before sunrise during the May 1 - October 31 season
• Each fresh nest is marked with survey stakes and colored ribbon so beachgoers know to give it space
• Washback Watchers — a separate sub-program — rescue young turtles that wash ashore in heavy winds or surf
• The public can support the program by adopting a nest at nsbturtletrackers.org — you receive data updates on your nest as it incubates
• Contact: nsbturtles@gmail.com | Emergency line for injured or distressed turtles: 386-290-0737

• No white light on the beach at night. This is the single most important rule. White flashlights, phone flashlights, and flash photography can deter a female from coming ashore or send disoriented hatchlings moving away from the ocean. If you need light for safety, use a red LED flashlight or tape red film over the lens.
• No flash photography, ever, near a nesting area or hatchling emergence. Red-filtered light is acceptable at a distance. Silhouette photos in available moonlight are fine.
• No bonfires on Volusia County beaches from May 1 through October 31. Bonfires are only permitted November 1 through April 30. The fire restriction is not about the fire itself — it's about light visible from the ocean and the heat near nests.
• Do not approach, touch, or interfere with a nesting female, a marked nest, or any hatchlings. Watching from a distance (30+ feet) is fine. Moving closer is not.
• Do not remove or disturb survey stakes or ribbon marking an identified nest.
• Fill in any holes you dig on the beach before you leave. Hatchlings can fall into holes and become trapped on their way to the water.
• If you find an injured turtle or a disoriented hatchling, call the NSB Turtle Trackers emergency line: 386-290-0737.

• Any stretch of NSB beachfront: The easiest approach is a pre-dawn or sunrise walk. Look for fresh drag tracks in the upper beach zone — wide parallel furrows heading from the water up to the dunes and back, with a disturbed area of loose sand at the top where the nest was dug. A new orange stake means it was found just that morning.
• Smyrna Dunes Park (end of N Peninsula Ave): This 73-acre park at the north end of the island has boardwalks across the dunes that give elevated vantage points along the beach. It's also less trafficked than the Flagler Ave beach, which means less ambient light at night — better conditions for responsible nighttime observation.
• Apollo Beach at Canaveral National Seashore (8 miles south on A1A): The seashore's beaches have recorded some of the highest turtle nest densities in the continental US. Note: the NPS ran guided turtle walks at Apollo Beach on Friday and Saturday evenings from June through late July in most years, but that program has been suspended for 2026 and is expected to return in 2027. The daytime beach and the morning crawl tracks remain accessible with your park entrance fee ($25/vehicle).
• Early morning is better than midnight: Most nesting happens between 10 PM and 2 AM, which means the evidence is sitting on the beach by the time you wake up. A sunrise walk is safer, legal without a permit, and still emotionally striking.

• Marine Discovery Center (520 Barracuda Blvd, NSB): The MDC runs kayak eco-tours on the Indian River Lagoon led by certified Florida Master Naturalists. While these are daytime lagoon tours rather than nighttime turtle watches, the guides cover sea turtle biology and conservation as part of the experience — and turtle sightings on the lagoon side do happen. Tours depart from near 700 Sandpiper St. Book ahead in summer; they fill quickly.
• NSB Turtle Trackers public events: The organization maintains an events calendar at nsbturtletrackers.org for community programs, educational displays at events like the Seaside Fiesta, and public outreach activities. Check their calendar for any summer 2026 public programs.
• Canaveral NPS guided walks: Suspended for 2026 — confirm directly with the Apollo Beach Visitor Center (386-428-3384) before planning around them. The daytime park access and self-guided morning beach walks remain open.
• Volusia County Environmental Management: The county runs its own sea turtle monitoring program and occasionally offers educational events; contact them at 386-238-4668 for the current season's public programming.

• Hatch timing is not predictable to the day: incubation runs 50-75 days, and nest temperature affects the speed. Surveyors mark the expected hatch window on each stake, but actual emergence can happen over a range of nights.
• Early morning after a hatch: Look for a sunken circle of sand roughly two feet across — the collapsed roof of the nest cavity — surrounded by dozens of tiny flipper tracks heading straight toward the waterline. This is what a successful boil looks like the next morning.
• August and September are peak hatching months: The first loggerhead nests from early June are hatching in August; the largest volume of nests laid in June and July hatch through September.
• If you witness an active boil at night: stay at least 30 feet back, use no white light whatsoever, do not block the hatchlings' path to the ocean, and do not pick them up — even hatchlings that appear disoriented need to self-orient using the Earth's magnetic field, a process that's disrupted by human handling.
• A boil on a moonless night, with the Atlantic ahead and no other light visible: that is something you will tell people about for years.

• Walk the beach before 8 AM: fresh nesting tracks are visible before the surf and foot traffic disturb them.
• Look for orange survey stakes: they mark identified nests and give you context for where nesting activity is concentrated.
• Keep phones and flashlights on red-light mode after dark, no exceptions near the water.
• Check nsbturtletrackers.org before your trip for any public events running this season.
• If you want a structured naturalist experience during the day, book a Marine Discovery Center kayak tour for the lagoon perspective.