Once there, the tiny loggerheads crawl into mats of drifting algae called sargassum. They spend the first few years of their lives passively drifting on their oceanic rafts feeding on almost anything they can catch in the sargassum. After a few years, the juvenile loggerheads leave their protective nursery and move to inshore feeding grounds where they spend the rest of their pre-adult lives. Ultimately, at the age of 12 - 30, adult, female, loggerhead sea turtles return to the beach of their birth to lay nests of their own. Very few sea turtles survive to this point.
Estimates predict that about one in a thousand hatchlings survive to adulthood.
Biologists patrol the beaches each morning looking for the tell-tale signs of sea turtle nesting. Each nest is marked with stakes and warning tape and, if necessary, covered with a metal screen to protect it from predators. After a nest has been marked, it is carefully monitored for signs of tidal inundation, predation, and finally hatching. After hatching, the Collier County biologists excavate the nest and determine how many hatchlings emerged from the nest.