The first loggerhead sea turtle nest of the season on our local Beaufort beaches was finally found on Friday. Volunteers with the Fripp Island Loggerhead Partrol found the nest while walking the beach on Friday morning.
“After many false crawls, we finally had our 1st nest of the season,” said the posting on the organization’s Facebook page. “We crossed the beach access at 25 and immediately saw a crawl to the south. The nest chamber was easily located,” it added.
Sea turtle season officially arrived in the Palmetto State with South Carolina’s first sea turtle nest laid on Tuesday night on Seabrook Island, in Charleston County. That was followed on May 10th with the first Beaufort County nest of the season being discovered by volunteers on Hilton Head.
The nest of Fripp is the first one of the year on our local Beaufort beaches.
According to SCDNR records, there have been seven “false crawls” on Fripp Island so far this season. A false crawl is when a sea turtle leaves the ocean for the beach to lay her eggs, but does not find a suitable spot for nesting, so she turns around and goes back into the ocean to try it again another day.
Some of the reasons for false crawls include sand on the beach that is packed too tightly, any man made obstructions, and holes left unfilled or sandcastles left standing at the beach.
As of today, there have been 18 sea turtle nests found on South Carolina beaches in what is the very early part of the 6 month nesting season, which lasts through October. All 18 have been loggerhead sea turtles, the most common species of sea turtle that frequents beaches along the Southeastern U.S.
We’re hoping that Beaufort’s beaches yield a big bountiful sea turtle season in 2021.
Want to help? See what you can do to protect local sea turtles on Beaufort’s beaches.
