Tiny Turtles!
Each spring and summer female sea turtles--loggerhead, green, and occasional leatherback or Kemp’s ridley--make a brief trip to the shores of Cape Hatteras National Seashore to nest. The number of recorded sea turtle nests within the Seashore this year has surpassed previous records. As of August 10, Seashore resource management staff have recorded 310 sea turtle nests and additional new nesting is expected. Last year set a record of 289 nests. Nests at the Seashore comprise nearly 20% of the 1,555 nests currently reported in the State of North Carolina.
Loggerhead sea turtles are the most common nesting sea turtles that appear at the Seashore, comprising 300 of the 310 nests that have been recorded. An additional 7 are green sea turtles.
Be aware of nesting activity or hatchlings while visiting the Seashore. If you see sea turtle tracks, nesting activity, or hatchlings, please notify park biologists by calling our stranding hotline at 252-216-6892.
Park biologists closely monitor the beach for sea turtle nesting activity, and actively monitor nests. Once a nest has hatched, biologists excavate the nest to document how many eggs have hatched. During an excavation, the biologists will dig up the nest, count empty eggshells, and collect un-hatched eggs for research. Live hatchlings are occasionally found during these excavations.
Nest excavations are an important way for the National Park Service to collect valuable data on sea turtle hatch and emergence success rates. This data is added to the turtle nesting databases for the Seashore and the State of North Carolina. Visit http://seaturtle.org for more information and to track nesting activities at Cape Hatteras National Seashore and around the world.
Persons interested in finding out when and where a nest excavation or release of hatchlings will take place can call the excavation program hotline at 252-475-9629. Due to the unpredictability of sea turtle hatchings, notice of these excavations programs will usually occur only one day in advance, so check the hotline often.
The Current's staff writer Crystal Centerbury is a volunteer with the NPS turtle patrol. Check out her videos of an evening hatchling release.
