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The loggerheads nest from May through August on beaches along the state's coast.
While residents and tourists might keep their eyes out for small orange signs indicating a loggerhead has laid her eggs near the dunes, they now can use an online database at www.seaturtle.org to find the most popular nesting grounds and learn how many eggs hatch.
The Web site was created in 1996 by the nonprofit Seaturtle.org to support research and conservation efforts. This year, the organization created the "Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring System" with state agencies, such as the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
The database includes real-time numbers of nests along 710 miles of coastline from North Carolina to Georgia. The data is collected by groups and agencies.
DNR's Marine Turtle Conservation Program, for example, trains sea turtle patrollers to track the number of nests, relocate them if necessary and help hatchlings find the ocean if stuck at the bottom of the nests. Locally, trained patrollers monitor beaches from Hunting Island State Park to Hilton Head.
The data is crucial to monitoring populations, formulating protective regulations and making management decisions for the recovery of threatened and endangered sea turtle populations, according to DNR biologist Charlotte Hope.
The data can help biologists determine if predators are a problem in some areas. False crawls -- where turtles came on land but didn't lay eggs -- might indicate too many lights are on at night. (Local ordinances require residents or tourists on beachfront properties to keep lights off from dusk to dawn because they can confuse the turtles that use the reflection of the moon to find the ocean.)
Aside from loggerheads, the Web site tracks nesting numbers for three other species: green turtles, leatherbacks and Kemp's ridleys.
All four species are federally protected -- green turtles are threatened, Kemp's ridleys and leatherbacks are endangered, and the National Fisheries Services is considering changing the loggerhead's status from threatened to endangered.The most common nesting species in South Carolina is the loggerhead. Last year, loggerheads set nesting records with 3,000 nests in the Palmetto State and 1,500 in Georgia.
On Hilton Head Island, 200 nests were found last year, which was the second largest nesting season since 1985 -- the year the island's Sea Turtle Protection Project began. The Town of Hilton Head Island and the Coastal Discovery Museum operate that project by patrolling area beaches every morning to track nesting habits and numbers.
So far, about 80 nests have been found on Hilton Head, said Carlos Chacon, museum natural history manager. That number is in line with another successful year, he said.
Chacon recorded the first nest on Hilton Head May 14. With incubation periods typically lasting about 50 days, Chacon said the nest should hatch around July 3.
