The Hunting Island Sea Turtle Conservation Project recorded its 100th nest of the 2022 sea turtle nesting season on Friday. That’s quite a lot of nests signaling an average to above average nesting season this year, and many a sea turtle on Hunting Island.
On Friday, the program announced that volunteers found nests #98, 99 and 100 during their early morning patrol. Not too bad at all for a beach that recently underwent a restoration project.
Hunting Island can be a bit of a challenge for momma sea turtles coming back to lay their eggs the past two seasons because all of the dunes are new. Dunes are made of loose sand which is easier for a pregnant loggerhead to dig up and they also provide a natural cover for sea turtle nests.
Last year it took until July 8th for Hunting Island to record its 100th nest. And, while nobody is predicting how the season will end up on Hunting Island, it is still far off of 2019’s all-time record 153 nests.
In fact, 2019 was a record season all along the Palmetto State’s coast.
A whopping 8,798 loggerhead sea turtle nests were found for the 2019 season on state beaches; destroying the previous record of 6,444 set in 2016, which had surpassed the then-previous record of 5,193 set in 2013, according to official numbers kept at SeaTurtle.org.
Many believe that more females are coming in to nest in recent years and are believed to be breeding-age adults born in the 1980s when more stringent nest protection was getting underway.
Conservation does work.
As of Friday morning, Hunting Island has seen a total of 100 nests (101 as of Saturday), 53 below the full season total of 153 from 2019 and 30 less than all of last year, which is promising. Harbor Island has had a 51 nests so far while Fripp Island has seen only 45, which is 16 below the 61 Fripp had on this date lat year. Other local nesting spots are Little Capers Island with 60 and Pritchards Island with 64 nests.
Even little Coffin Point Beach on St Helena Island is having a huge season with an amazing 14 nests as of today, just 15 less than its record of 29 nests recorded in 2020.
Hilton Head’s beaches have seen 219 nests (with a record 463 total in 2019) and there have been 48 found on Daufuskie Island.
Last year, these local Beaufort-area sea island spots, including Lands End beach on St. Helena Island, accounted for a season total of 823 sea turtle nests. In a record setting 2019, they accounted for 1,197 sea turtle nests which made up a full 14% of all nests found in the Palmetto State, according to SCDNR.
With 4 to 6 weeks left in the nesting season, we can’t wait to see what totals 2022 will bring.
Where there’s a sea turtle…..there’s a way.
