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What may become the last of the island’s Loggerhead Sea Turtle hatchlings this season made their way to sea Thursday.

Mary Nelson, who calls herself “the turtle lady” is a turtle monitor who has been working on Marco Island for nearly 20 years with Collier County Parks and Recreation.

What started out as a healthy season for the sea turtles may have been greatly damaged by tropical storm Fay, the “turtle lady” said.

There were 34 nests laid on Marco Island so far during turtle season which began May 1, said Nancy Richie, the environmental specialist for the City of Marco Island.

Prior to tropical storm Fay, eight nests had hatched. Fay washed away 10 nests, killed the inhabitants of eight others and left the remaining six in danger. The heavy rains which flooded the island earlier this summer also caused the death of nearly 200 turtles in two of Marco’s nests before Fay ever arrived, Richie said.

To Nelson’s delight, one of the nests survived Fay as well as the early summer rains and hatched Thursday on Sand Dollar Island between Hideaway and Tigertail beaches.

The eggs can often sustain a few waves washing over them, but the nest “wasn’t very successful” with only 27 of the 93 eggs hatching, she said.

Usually about 90 percent of the eggs hatch if not destroyed by Mother Nature, researchers said.

Given the weather it was still a triumph, Nelson exclaimed.

The nest that hatched late last week was disoriented, a term used when the turtles head the wrong way. Turtles tend to use the moon to direct them to the Gulf.

“We’re going into the new moon which makes it very dark at night. It looked like they were drawn inward to city lights,” Nelson said.

The turtles entered the water in the lagoon between Tigertail Beach, Hideaway Beach and Sand Dollar Island.

“It’s not a good place for them to be for any length of time. The further from land the safer they are from birds picking them up,” she said.

The people of Marco Island have been doing a good job turning off lights to help prevent the disorientation of the turtles, Nelson said. But even with the help of the islanders, Marco Island Loggerhead Sea Turtles aren’t having a great season now.

Nelson said most of the losses to the nests were during the high tide and storm surge the day after tropical storm Fay made landfall.

While some nests were completely washed away others were “inundated, over washed by tide or saturated with storm waters causing the eggs to drown,” Richie added.

She explained that embryo hatchlings need a supply of oxygen through the membrane of the shell to breathe or thrive.

Overall Collier County was doing better than last year, however nesting has been down 50 percent in the county over the last five years, Nelson said.

Sea turtles take 20 years to reach nesting age and only nest every other year.

“This decline could be a reflection of something that happened 20 or even 40 years ago,” she explained.

Last year at this time there were 41 nests on Marco Island; with only five nests left and nine hatched so far, it’s turning into a very disappointing year for island sea turtles, according to researchers.

Even without the storms the numbers were already down from 41 last year to 34 at the height of the island’s season this year.

“Marco was already struggling and losing another 10 nests on the top was no help,” Nelson exclaimed.

While Richie said new eggs are occasionally laid and nested as late as September, Nelson said she is not confident there will be any more this season.

“There are doubts that (the remaining nests) will hatch due to the long period of rain the beach sustained and the saturated sand,” Richie said.

Nelson said she’s learned to cope with the losses over the years.

“I’ve learned to expect it. Of course it’s sad. I’ve been looking over these nests since May,” she said, adding that “most of the turtles were nearly ready to hatch.”

Turtle season lasts through November 1.

Richie said “there is still a chance” for more baby turtle hatchlings before then and with a chance comes some hope.