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While Florida was relatively unscathed by Hurricane Dorian, the strong surf and high tides took a toll on the east coast.

The damage to the beaches came in the heart of sea turtle nesting season.

While hurricane Dorian didn’t produce the devastating winds on Florida’s East Coast that had been anticipated, it did cause massive waves, which resulted in significant beach erosion.

“Not only can that affect this year’s nest, but if there’s been significant erosion the habitat that’s available for turtles as well as beach nesting birds just won’t be there next year without intervention,” said Executive Director of Audubon Florida Julie Wraithmell.

During the storm some, like one officer seen in a video posted to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Facebook Page, did make efforts to save baby turtles.

Immediately after the storm photos like the ones taken in Brevard County by UCF scientist Erin Seney showed devastating losses.

“The Southern part of Brevard County is one of the most densely nested beaches in the country,” said Seney who is part of the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group. “We’re probably looking at a pretty high nest loss.”

Teams are already preparing survey the beaches, but exact losses likely won’t be known for weeks.

On a positive note, while nesting grounds on the east coast suffered losses, turtles don’t put all their eggs in one basket.

Nests on the Gulf shores got away unscathed.

“We can be hopeful that the nesting activities both for turtles as well as for beach nesting birds elsewhere in the state will provide some resiliency for the overall population,” said Wraithmell.

Wratmell added that while damaging, the greatest threat to turtle nesting grounds is not hurricanes, but human infrastructure.

In particular, seawalls, which can cause significant beach erosion.

If you do come across damaged nests or even surviving hatchling the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission urges you not to interfere.

Instead, you should report the nests directly to the agency by calling the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC.