Florida's turtle nesting starts early

BOCA RATON, Fla., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Wildlife officials say turtle-nesting season in Boca Raton, Fla., got off to an early start this year.

Leatherback turtles began coming ashore at Boca a good three weeks ahead of the usual March 1 start date for the nesting period.

Some scientists told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that they suspected warmer ocean waters triggered a natural instinct that leads the wandering reptiles to come ashore to lay their eggs.

"But chances are it's more likely a function of increasing leatherback numbers," Blair Witherington, a researcher with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, told the Sun-Sentinel.

The Sun-Sentinel said there were a record 498 leatherback nests on the Boca beaches last year compared to 45 in 1989.