Sea turtle season like vacationers’ season is slowly winding down along Bogue Banks and elsewhere on the North Carolina coast. Both have been very successful and this video speaks to the success of sea turtle season. Coastwide, as of Monday morning, there have been 1,931 sea turtle nests reported. The record number recorded is 2,356 in 2019. In 2021, 1,497 were reported. In Emerald Isle, Dale Baquer, head of the town’s all-volunteer nonprofit sea turtle patrol, said that as of Sunday, 21 0f 31 nests on the beach have hatched. But, nests continue to “boil.” The latest one was reported Sunday. It was a wild nest because no tracks were left. Of 113 eggs in the nest, 95 hatched, for an excellent 84% mean egg hatch rate. On the previous day, Saturday, the team reported that a nest hatched and 102 of 113 hatchlings made it out, for an even better hatch rate of 90%. Hatch rates are critical to protecting and enhancing sea turtle species for several reasons. First, female sea turtles generally aren’t sexually mature until about age 30, although they might nest until they are 80. Second, they nest only every three to four years. Third, on the beach, hatchlings must escape natural predators like to make it to the sea. Sea turtle teams like the one in Emerald Isle seek to protect the hatchlings from land predators like birds, crabs, raccoons and foxes by building a lined path for them to reach the ocean unimpeded. Once in the water, hatchlings still face considerable predatory challenges from sea prey like seabirds and fish. The predatory challenges are so considerable that few survive to adulthood, with estimates ranging from one in 1,000 to one in 10,000.
There are also volunteer programs in Atlantic Beach, Indian Beach-Salter Path and Pine Knoll Shores, all trained and under the auspices of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. This year, according to the Commission, the mean hatch success rate in Emerald Isle as of Sunday has been 78%. Of the 31 hatched nests, 30 are loggerheads, by far the most common species found in North Carolina. About 95 percent of the nests in the state are loggerhead. One Emerald Isle nest was from the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley, the smallest sea turtle. A total of 31 successfully hatched nests is a good number for Emerald Isle, especially considering there were only 26 in 2021. The town’s record is 52 in 2016. Several nests remain to ‘boil’ including two near where I live on Live Oak street.
Elsewhere on Bogue Banks, according to the latest reports on Seaturtle.org, the website for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Sea Turtle Project, Pine Knoll Shores had 13 nests hatch with four still incubating. The mean hatch rate was 91.2%, all loggerheads. Indian Beach-Salter Path reported 10 nests, five still incubating, 82% mean hatch rate, all loggerheads. Atlantic Beach reported six nests, two still incubating, 93.9% mean hatch rate, five loggerheads, one green turtle. At Fort Macon State Park, six nests were discovered, three still incubating, and a mean hatch rate 95.5%, all loggerheads. OnHammocks Beach State Park on Bear Island just west of Bogue Banks, 20 nests were reported with, six still incubating. There was a 87% mean hatch rate, all loggerheads. On Cape Lookout National Seashore, 435 nests were found, 179 still incubating. Of these, 426 are loggerheads, five greens, one leatherback, three Kemp’s ridleys. On Cape Hatteras National Seashore, 375 nests were reported, with 179 still incubating. To date, there was a 68.2% mean hatch rate, with 359 loggerheads, 13 greens, one Kemp’s ridley, one leatherback, and one unknown.
Nesting season generally begins in May and runs through August or early September. Hatching usually takes place within 60 days, but sometimes takes up to 100 days.When I was a student at Duke University, sea turtles would lay their eggs on the beach in Emerald Isle, and no one thought much about it. Now, though, it’s a huge deal. Loggerheads are on bumper stickers and signs. They’re an attraction, like the wild horses on Shackleford Banks. The spot where the eggs are laid is marked by driving a bright yellow stake into the sand, and when the time arrives for the eggs to hatch a team of volunteers from the Turtle Patrol is dispatched. These volunteers dig a trench that makes it easier for the hatchlings to find the ocean. They sweep the beach smooth, something akin to the red carpet at the Academy Awards. At night, people line the trench with folding chairs and sit with infrared flashlights, intently staring down, watching for the slightest movement, with their cameras at the ready. It’s actually called a boil,” a sea turtle patrol volunteer told me a long time ago. “That’s because when the eggs hatch, and the babies claw their way to the surface, the sand churns.” The eggs are the size of Ping Pong balls.
One egg is removed from every identified nest and sacrificed for scientific study. By collecting an egg from every single nest, biologists are able to use DNA genetic fingerprinting (CSI for sea turtles) to identify individual sea turtle females, to gather information about sea turtle nesting behavior and habits, and to provide a census of the actual nesting population. This data gives us a good idea of the species of the turtle – Loggerhead are most common on Carolina beaches but some Green’s , Kemp’s Ridley’s Leatherback, and even a surprise Hawksbill crawl up on Carolina beaches. This data also tells how many clutches of eggs (nests) each nesting female lays in a year. The data can tell whether the turtle is nesting on more than one beach and how close together or far apart each individual turtle lays her nests, both within the same summer and from year-to-year. The data can also tell the number of turtles nesting in more than one state and how often each turtle nests; every two years, three, more, less? Lastly, the data can tell how precisely a daughter returns to her hatching beach to lay her own eggs. For example, a 2015 mom laid one nest in her first season. She returned to lay five nests in 2018 and five in 2020; all eleven nests within a range of less than 7 miles. For more updates on the sea turtle population along the Crystal Coast, please 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 or at Kindle.
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