Last year, when the 2020 sea turtle nesting season started on SC beaches SCDNR put all volunteer turtle patrol and inventories on hold due to safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thankfully, things have changed a little for the upcoming SC sea turtle season, which starts on May 1st.
For this season, SCDNR says that public inventories will not be allowed on any of South Carolina’s beaches and minimal number of patrol volunteers will be working in isolation until COVID-19 restrictions change.
Locally, Friends of Hunting Island has said that no new volunteers will be added to the project, but, if COVID-19 [positive test] numbers continue to decrease, some previous experienced volunteers may be added to their patrols along Hunting Island beach.
That’s still better than 2020, when nobody went out to patrol the beaches until later in the season.
Important message from our Sea Turtle Conservation Team 🐢
Though many of our “Friends” volunteers have been vaccinated…
Posted by Friends of Hunting Island State Park, Inc. on Monday, April 5, 2021
After a record setting 2019 season on local beaches and in the state, there’s no doubt that 2020’s nest and hatchling totals were off. Last year, SCDNR said that sea turtle surveys, responding to injuries, or any associated activities were not defined as essential services for the state. SCDNR staff were working from home and were not allowed to conduct any field work.
We hope that this crisis is over soon enough so our local volunteers can continue their work in helping to protect nesting sea turtles on Beaufort’s local beaches in front of the public.
