Once again it’s sea turtle nesting season, when you can see turtles at night on many a Florida beach. For nature lovers, it is a thrill to watch a big green, leatherback or loggerhead waddle ashore and upland, dig a nest and lay her eggs in the sand, then cover the stash and waddle back to sea.

At the same time, it’s shore bird nesting season — when critical beach areas are likely to be closed and posted. This is a daylight activity. To watch well, you’ll need binoculars and a spotting scope or camera with telephoto lenses.

Birds can’t read signs, so they are liable to make their nests in other spots. That means beach walkers have to watch their steps, for the nests of shells and sand are easy to overlook and step upon.

We can get a lot closer to turtle nests than bird nests, but that means somewhat stricter rules to observe at a respectable distance and not touch them — not even with a beam of white light, other than that of the silvery moon.

Bright light distracts and disrupts them, so use a red LED flashlight.

Here’s good advice from Dr. Robbin Trindell, who’s in charge of sea turtle management for Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) commission:

“People can help save threatened and endangered sea turtles by giving them enough space and privacy to safely and successfully lay their eggs. It’s as simple as keeping your distance and avoiding shining lights or taking flash photos of the nesting sea turtles.”

Sea turtles are protected by law, with threatened or endangered status depending on species. We are not allowed to interfere with them in any way. That includes the nests and eggs after their moms go back in the water.

Last year was a bonanza for sea turtles. Loggerheads alone made 86,870 nests on Florida beaches in 27 counties with nestable beaches.

There also were 5,895 green turtle nests and 1,604 of leatherbacks. FWC knows this because of a statewide posse of volunteers who tour the shore and keep the score.

They also put up the yellow tape fences that beachgoers will see often between now and October, like tiny crime scenes not yet cleared by the cops. The comparison isn’t frivolous; get caught messing with one and you’ll be in trouble. Get caught stealing the eggs and you’ll learn that jail is as interesting as television makes it look, only worse.

NOAA, the federal agency in charge of the oceans, has some good tips for fishing-doers whose bait is grabbed by turtles, but first a few more beach tips from FWC:

If you have beachfront property, don’t leave lounges, kayaks and stuff out overnight during nesting season. Go out there after dark with all your house lights on, then go back in and turn off or shield any lights that cast a glare on the beach.

NOAA’s tip sheet says that when fishing, don’t cast your bait if there are turtles or sea mammals nearby. Go somewhere else if they show an interest in your bait.

In case your hook is grabbed by a turtle you didn’t see until too late, it will be good if that’s a circle hook and even better if you’ve flattened down the barb.

Unhooking a turtle isn’t easy and you could get hurt — they can bite, you know — but if you’re game to try and have someone to help, here are some tips more easily said than done:

Reel the turtle in as close as you can. Hold it still by the shell or flippers or both. If the hook point has gone through the flesh to the outside, use pliers to flatten the barb before trying to back the hook out.

If the hook is swallowed, don’t try to remove it unless it’s a circle hook. If it is, try pulling on the fishing line or leader. Circle hooks usually don’t snag internally.

If you can’t remove the hook, cut your leader off as close to it as you can. Line and leader left trailing after release can entangle the turtle. Don’t leave any line wound around its head, neck or flippers.

Fishing with natural baits is just as likely or more likely to accidentally snag a sea bird. You’d be surprised how similar the removal techniques are to those for turtles. See for yourself here: www.fisheries.noaa.gov /sfa/management/recreational/documents/seabird_protection_avoidance.pdf.

The principles of bird nest etiquette are the same as for turtles, but the details are different.

When nests are close to the edge of a restricted zone, shoot your photos in 10 minute or less. Shore birds get stressed by too much obvious attention.

If you’re in an area that isn’t posted, and birds suddenly get excited, that’s a signal that you’re too close to nests. Increase your distance.

Resist the temptation to startle birds into taking flight for a picture. They need to conserve their energy now.

Don’t feed the birds. That will attract predators like raccoons and crows, which will eat the eggs and chicks. When you see people disturbing nesting birds or turtles, admonish them politely. If they don’t stop, you can snitch to the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922), #FWC or *FWC on a cell phone or by textingTip@MyFWC.com.

You can also report nests that are not posted to Wildlife Alert.

Fishing regulation news

If you’re going to keep reef fish caught from private boats in the Gulf of Mexico, you have to register with FWC. The registration system is posted on the fishing license web pages, even though it’s not for a license.

To reduce confusion, the agency has posted a YouTube video demonstrating the process step by step. Find that here: https://youtu.be/-eHnJt1c_iw.

The species covered are two snappers (red and vermilion), three groupers (gag, black and red), two amberjacks (greater and lesser), gray triggerfish, banded rudderfish and almaco jack.

The covered territory is the Gulf, but excludes the waters of Monroe County — the Florida Keys. How you’ll know you’re within or without that boundary is a question still awaiting an answer.

You’re supposed to register by April 1, but if you missed the deadline do it anyway.

The nuisance factor is supposed to be offset by the fact that fishing-doers keep hectoring FWC to base fishing regulations on better data than it’s been able to collect in the past. This is the agency’s way of trying to comply.

To sign up, go to this web page: https://license.myfwc.com/Customer/InternetCustomerL ookup. It would be helpful to toggle back and forth between that and the video demo.

A new 70-day red snapper season for state waters of the Gulf is scheduled for adoption on April 16 by FWC commissioners — so far without the benefit of an anticonfusion video.

The season will begin on Saturday, May 23, the start of Memorial Day weekend, and continue through Sunday, July 12.

After July 12, you can keep red snapper only during the 3-day Labor Day weekend (Sept. 5-6-7), plus the remaining Saturdays and Sundays for the rest of September and October. Because the last day of October this year is a Saturday, you can keep red snapper that Sunday, even though it’s Nov. 1.

Well, bear in mind you can catch red snapper all the time; you just can’t keep them all the time.

Spiny lobster season closes April 1 for recreational and commercial harvest in state and federal waters. It will reopen on Aug. 6.

Before then, the two-day recreational season will happen on Wednesday and Thursday, July 29 and 30.