With the height of the nesting part of the season coming to its close, its been another successful sea turtle season on the sea islands of Beaufort. The hard work is now done for most momma sea turtles, with the exception of a few stragglers here and there over the next several weeks, and now it’s time for baby turtles to hatch and cover our beaches.
With a record sea turtle season last year, nobody really knew what to expect in 2020, but it appears to have been another good local season for nesting.
According to daily records compiled by the South Carolina DNR Sea Turtle Conservation Program our local beaches saw what appears to be an average number of nests in 2020. As of Thursday, July 23, Hunting Island has seen a total of 124 nests, only 29 below the full season total of 153 from last year. Harbor Island has had a whopping 83 nests so far while Fripp Island has seen 133. Other local nesting spots are St. Phillips Island with 4, Little Capers Island with 57 and Pritchards Island with a whopping 100 nests.
Even little Coffin Point Beach on St Helena Island is having a huge season with an amazing 28 nests as of today, which is two more than its all time record of 26 nests recorded last year.
“We truly anticipated a slow season,” said Katrina Rossman, turtle patrol leader at Coffin Point. “And here we are breaking records.”
Hilton Head’s beaches have seen 264 nests (463 total in 2019) and there have been 57 found on Daufuskie Island.
Last year, these local Beaufort-are sea island spots, including Lands End beach on St. Helena Island, accounted for a total of 1,197 sea turtle nests which made up a full 14% of all nests found in the Palmetto State, according to the SCDNR. This year, albeit not over yet, has seen a total of 793.
Nesting can go on into the month of August, and sometimes even into September. Always remember, where there’s a sea turtle…..there’s a way.
Now it’s time for the nests to hatch or “boil” over and baby sea turtles to make their mad dashes for the ocean.
Sea turtle season, it’s always one of the best times of the year here in Beaufort SC.
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