When marine turtles and vessels overlap: Mapping encounter risk along Florida's Atlantic coast

Marine turtle encounters with vessels can alter their behavior and habitat use and may lead to collisions causing injury and/or mortality. Despite existing protective measures, recreational vessel activity in coastal areas remains a significant threat due to limited understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of turtle–vessel interactions at regional scales. To address this, we assessed the spatiotemporal overlap between turtles and vessels along a section of Florida's Atlantic coast, an area with high incidence of stranded turtles with vessel strike injury (VSI) and investigated which factors predict observed turtle strandings with VSI. A total of 3271 turtles and 2407 vessels were recorded from May 2023 to November 2024 and spatially compared with the distribution of 174 reported stranded turtles documented with VSI. Turtle distribution showed significant spatiotemporal variability, whereas vessels remained relatively consistent. Relative vessel exposure to marine turtles was greater during the nesting season and in the northern region of the study area, with the highest exposure observed near passes and inlets. Our results can help guide the development of conservation initiatives to reduce vessel‐related impacts on marine turtles in the region.