Sea turtle nests along the Beach at Hunting Island were lost to Hurricane Dorian as it blew past Beaufort and the sea islands whipping up the waters near the height of sea turtle hatchling season in coastal regions in the Southeast U.S.
According to a release published on Facebook by the Friends of Hunting Island Sea Turtle Conservation Project, 47 nests were still left unhatched on the beach when Dorian came through, and nearly half of them did not survive the storm.
At least 20 of those remaining 47 nests were either washed away or washed over.
Information was gathered by Buddy Lawrence, longtime volunteer at Hunting Island and resident turtle expert. Lawrence’s patrol did not get to a couple of other zones in the park and as of Friday, a few more nests still needed to be checked on.
When a sea turtle nest is washed out, the nest is destroyed by the tide or storm surge and all the eggs are either washed out into sea or buried underwater in the new silt bottom that the surge has created.
A nest that is washed over can sit with water on top of it for days. A turtle nest has a pocket of air at the top of the egg clutch and the eggs are porous. The nest ‘breathes’ and a wash over can interfere with the air circulation, drowning the nest.
Hunting Island had a record sea turtle nesting season this year, with a total of 153 nests along the beach.
Hurricane Dorian underscores the efforts of the SC State Park system with Hunting Island and the value of our local volunteers and their effort to work to protect as much sea turtle nesting habitat as possible.
It also underscores what a threat hurricanes are to all of us, sea turtles and other wildlife included.
If Dorian was a more powerful storm, or if it hit our local sea islands head-on in a landfall, it could’ve taken out every single nest.
Not just on Hunting Island, but on all of our sea islands.
