Sea turtle nesting season starts now. Is it another record year for Beaufort Co. beaches?
Warming waters off the S.C. coast have already lured some of the state’s most recognizable visitors.
While sea turtle nesting season in South Carolina began Friday, turtles have been spotted in state waters. An early spring and reports of high numbers of nests in Florida indicate the ancient creatures could already be coming ashore to lay eggs.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, state wildlife officials don’t yet have record of whether nesting has started here. Armies of volunteers that patrol South Carolina’s beaches for nesting activity are sidelined while awaiting permission to proceed due to COVID-19.
Turtle patrols and nest records are conducted by groups from various coastal communities permitted by S.C. Department of Natural Resources. The volunteer coordinators are waiting for the agency to tell them when to begin and best practices for maintaining proper distance in an activity where volunteers are generally in close contact.
“We can’t really do anything with our nests until we get the green light from them,” said Karen Natoli, the turtle coordinator on Fripp Island. “Which is sad, because if the umbrellas start coming and drill through nests, we can’t protect them. But what are you going to do?”
State employees are still under work-from-home directives, and DNR biologists haven’t been cleared to return to the field, agency spokeswoman Erin Weeks said. Until beaches are fully open and biologists return to work, the approximately 1,500 turtle volunteers will have to wait to begin counting, protecting and monitoring nests, she said.
The area seems poised for an early start.
Florida’s first turtle nest was reported on Hutchinson Island on Feb. 6, the earliest recorded by wildlife officials in the state. Much of South Carolina recorded extremely early spring blooming and leaf activity, and sea turtles and manatees have been spotted off the coast.
Hilton Head Island reported the state’s first turtle nest in 2019, on April 26.
Experts say fewer people on the beaches amid restricted access due to COVID-19 could lead to more nesting. All species of turtles are considered endangered or threatened for reasons that can be attributed to human interaction.
The turtles that find their way to South Carolina’s beaches each year — mostly loggerheads but also Kemp’s ridley, leatherback and green turtles — rely on undisturbed beaches for successful incubating and hatchlings to return safely to the sea.
Will record numbers continue?
Fewer people on the beach during COVID-19 has been cited as a reason for promising early nesting numbers in Florida and other parts of the world.
A record 8.,800 nests were recorded on South Carolina’s beaches in 2019, up from 2,700 the year prior. Record numbers were reported throughout Beaufort County, including on Hilton Head Island, which boasted the first nest reported in the state and the last baby turtle to emerge in the fall.
“It’s going to be interesting to know if that was a fluke or if it was a serious, important trend,” said David Owens, a retired College of Charleston professor who has extensively studied sea turtle reproduction and conservation. “That’s why we’re all excited to see what happens this year.”
Counting can’t begin until volunteers return to the beaches and are permitted to formally start counts and recording.
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster reopened public beach access Monday. Local authorities maintain control over when their beaches open.
Hunting Island State Park remains closed with other state parks through April 30. Volunteers noted a record 153 nests on the barrier island’s beaches in 2019. A recent beach renourishment project rebuilt dunes destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the most recent record-setting year.
“That should make a difference, especially if we can’t be out there to monitor,” Hunting Island park employee and turtle volunteer Buddy Lawrence said. “It’s a very good thing we got that sand this year.”
Social distancing and turtle patrol
Tracking and protecting turtle nests is a group effort.
The Hunting Island turtle volunteer program has grown since 1993 to include about 200 people. Groups walk the 4 1/2 miles of beach each morning at 6 a.m. to mark nests and relocate eggs if necessary.
Baby turtles emerge in a boil beginning in mid-July to make their way to the ocean and head for the Gulf Stream.
On Hilton Head, the SCDNR-affiliated Turtle Patrol is preparing for a different start of the nesting season. Amber Kuehn, a marine biologist who leads the program, said the patrol will only be collecting observational data as long as the island’s beach access points are closed.
The patrol typically marks nests with three wooden stakes and an orange ribbon that warns people not to disturb them. Without a permit from DNR to start, Kuehn said her group will do its best to identify potential nests without touching or marking them.
“We might put a survey pole well behind the area, but we won’t be able to verify that it is a nest,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to come back later.”
With fewer people on the beach, volunteers are optimistic sea turtle nests will remain undisturbed. But ”it only takes one person to dig into a nest by accident,” Kuehn warns.
She expects the island’s first sea turtle nest to be coming soon, whether the patrol can mark it or not.
The process to locate nests, erect protect cages and dig for eggs and hatchlings requires multiple people often working shoulder-to-shoulder. With health guidelines meant to slow the spread of coronavirus, volunteers expect to implement precautions while on the beach when patrols can resume.
“But we’re certainly ready for a big year if we need to be,” Natoli said. “We’re ready as far as supplies go. It’s just people working together closely. We just don’t know how that’s going to happen.
We’ll come up with something, I’m sure.”
Reporter Katherine Kokal contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 2:29 PM.
