The town of Emerald Isle does much to prepare for the Sea Turtle nesting and hatching season. Even before the first members of the Emerald Isle Sea Turtle Patrol step onto the sand for their first walk of the season on May 1st, members have been busy through the winter rescuing sick and injured turtles and capturing turtles who were caught in waters that turned way too cold way too quickly. Sick and injured sea turtles are whisked to either NC State’s Center for MArine Sciences in Morehead City or the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores for rehabilitation. The Emerald Isle Sea Turtle nesting and hatching season begins May 1st and runs through the end of October. To help the Sea Patrol volunteers who walk the beach daily before sunrise to look for or monitor nests or hatching, the town of Emerald Isle encourages all visitors to its beaches to do the following: Fill in all holes you dig in the sand. Mother turtles can get stuck and volunteers walking before dawn can get seriously injured. No flash photography and no flashlights. These bright lights confuse nesting mother turtles and can temporarily blind hatching baby turtles. Turn outdoor lights off at night. They disturb nesting mother turtles and disorient hatching baby turtles who will walk toward these lights and away from the ocean where these baby turtles need to be. Pick up all trash, especially plastic bags. Turtles can and do mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, their main food source; they eat the bags and get sick. No Fireworks. Not only are fireworks illegal in North CArolina but loud noises keep mother turtles from coming on shore to nest. REmove beach equipment from the beach at night so nesting mother turtles and hatchlings do not get entangled in chairs or umbrellas. Call the Emerald Isle Police Department @ 252-354-2021 if you see a nesting turtle, a hatching nest on the beach, a stranded sea turtle or an injured or dead turtle. If you come upon a hatching, please sit down, stay quiet and enjoy a once in a lifetime event.
Of the five species of sea turtles that live in the waters of the south Atlantic mainly Loggerheads nest in Emerald Isle. Occasionally a Green will make a nest. Leatherbacks or Kemps Ridley rarely make nests in Emerald Isle although a Kemp Ridley did so in late May, 2020. Hawksbill are uncommon to Emerald Isle. Although Sea Turtles have existed for millions of years, contact with humans over the last two hundred years in the form of net catches, poaching, boat strikes and pollution threaten their future survival. In recent years,we have recognized the damages we have caused to sea turtles and organizations like the Emerald Isle Sea Turtle Patrol have mobilized on the local level to assist in the continued survival of sea turtles.
But we must do more on a global level as there seems to be a very fine line between success or failure for these mystical creatures and that fine line is usually a function of water temperature. For example, female sea turtles spend the winter in warmer waters. sometimes hundreds of miles away. As the air temperatures rise, and the water temperatures increase, the females begin the journey back to the area of their own hatching. When the water temperatures reach a certain level, that’s a signal for turtles to make for shore in order to mate and begin producing eggs. The temperature of the water will even affect how often the female sea turtle will lay her clutches of eggs with warmer water temps tending to shorten the duration between nests.
Once the nests are laid, and the females have lumbered back into the ocean, temperature plays a critical role in determining the sex of these tiny embryos incubating in the eggs. Those eggs that are lower in the nest, in cooler sand, tend to produce more male sea turtles. Those eggs higher up in the inverted light bulb shaped nest, are in warmer sand which mostly produces female turtles. Temperature also influences incubation time. Hotter, dryer summers result in shorter duration between the date the nest is laid and the date the first hatchling(s) emerge. As the season progresses into cooler weather, the duration between those two events tends to become longer.
Cooler weather impacts adult sea turtles as well. Unexpected cold fronts during the season will stun turtles and they will need to be rescued so their core body temperatures can recover. This is good human contact. Organ shutdown is a possibility and, in these cases, the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and the Marine Science Center in Morehead City are nearby to help! Warmer air and water temperatures also shape the livelihood of humans. Indeed, it is way beyond time for we humans to recognize that planet Earth is our only spaceship. And we humans must finally acknowledge that our decision to continue burning fossil fuels has been the main driver of rising temperatures that jeopardize the survival of all flora and fauna on planet Earth. Sea turtles are yet one more reason for all humans to work together to reverse global warming. To learn more about sea turtles and other aquatic animals along the Crystal Coast, go to my website, www.EmeraldIsleHomesforSaleNC.com and sign up for my blog. Ready to buy or sell? Call me at 919-308-2292. Explore the video tab for my weekly uploads to my YouTube channel. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and receive free donuts at my Flip Flops Donut shop. Text your email address to 919-308-2292 and subscribe to my newsletter. My book, "Live Where You Vacation" is available on Amazon.com.
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