Nesting Sea Turtles in Florida Become Disoriented, Unable to Locate Ocean

Sea turtles in Florida are inexplicably becoming disoriented and unable to find their way back to the water after coming ashore to lay eggs. The reptiles wind up under rocks, on roads and even under beach chairs.

On Anna Maria Island, Suzi Fox, director of the Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch, said she's already seen six disoriented turtles in her area of the western Florida peninsula.

The Mote Marine Lab Sea Turtle Patrol covers a 35-mile stretch of beach in the same region as Fox's turtle watch. The organization reportedly found 23 disoriented turtles on the beach this summer, more than double last year's count. Satasota and Manatee beaches have seen the most struggling sea turtles.

Ninety percent of sea turtle nesting in the United States happens on the beaches of Florida, David Godfrey, director of the Sea Turtle Conservancy, told ABC News.

Fox told ABC that it's typical for female turtles to come to the area's beaches to nest, but that generally the turtles head straight back to the water. It's unusual for the reptiles not to find their way back to sea.

"They climb up two-foot rock spaces or up pathways, [and] they mentally become disoriented about which way is back to the sea because they can't turn their way from side to side," Fox said. "They are crawling around for a couple of hours."

On Anna Maria Island, 256 sea turtles have come to nest on shore this summer, Fox said, adding that only a small percentage are becoming disoriented in her jurisdiction. But she told ABC that the six stranded turtles she's seen this summer is three times as many as she's seen in the past 15 years combined.

"Why I have had six this year has been in a mystery," she said.

Fox suspects that shoreline recession in the wake of last year's Tropical Storm Gabby might be a cause of the confusion. There is less nesting real estate now than in the past decade, and the landscape has changed, which may play a role in the turtles' disorientation.

"One trend that we're seeing is in these areas that it's happening, the nesting beaches themselves are extremely narrow," Fox said.

Once nesting season is over, Fox hopes effort to restore some of the beach will be underway.