The numbers are in. How many nests did sea turtles lay on Hilton Head this year?
Hilton Head’s sea turtle moms have done their job for the season, and now it’s time for the hatchlings to leave the nest.
After two weeks without a new sea turtle nest on Hilton Head, the nesting season is officially over. In total, Hilton Head Sea Turtle Patrol has recorded 237 nests. Lower than the 350 nests that Amber Kuehn, executive director of the Hilton Head Sea Turtle Patrol, expected, but not surprising when considering the year’s weather.
Sea turtles often return to the same area once every two years. When combined with DNA identification, this cycle allows scientists to roughly calculate the number of nests sea turtles will lay in a given year, Kuehn said.
Last year, 204 sea turtle nests were laid on Hilton Head.
While sea turtle moms are done laying eggs, hatchlings will continue to exit their nests and make their way to the ocean in the coming weeks.
What happened?
In January, Hilton Head saw its first snow in eight years. It’s not unusual for the island to see less sea turtle nests months after a rare cold snap and snowfall. The cold can affect the survival and development of the crabs, fish and shrimp that sea turtles rely on for food, Kuehn said. Turtles preparing to nest need a lot of fuel to lay around 120 eggs in several nests over the course of the summer, Kuehn said. If there isn’t enough food, sea turtle moms may wait until the next year to lay their eggs.
The number of hatchlings that ultimately emerge from the nest have been affected by the recent series of storms. Hurricane Erin led to rough conditions on the beach, and the storm pushed water higher than expected up the narrow beach, according to Kuehn. When combined with a series of heavy rainstorms in August, these conditions led to a number of nests becoming too wet for hatchlings to survive.
Even with those losses, the number of hatchlings that emerge from Hilton Head’s nests is still on track to be largely normal, Kuehn said.
Looking Forward
Sea turtle patrol staff have needed to move about a quarter of Hilton Head’s nests to make way for the beach renourishment machinery, Kuehn said. Relocating nests is a delicate and labor intensive process, but all the hard work will pay off next year when much of the sea turtle nesting habitat will be rebuilt by beach renourishment.
The highest number of nests ever recorded came in 2019, with 463 nests laid on the island. Kuehn expects the number of nests laid in the 2026 season will be close to that record.
