Sea turtle nesting season off to a strong start in the Lowcountry

Good news for sea turtle lovers of South Carolina — this turtle nesting season should be a plentiful one.

Volunteers on the Fripp Island Turtle Team have already discovered four sea turtle nests during their first three days of beach patrol, marking an early and strong start for the season that lasts until October.

“I would say it is a quick ramp up to the season,” Janie Lackman, project leader of the Fripp Island Turtle Team, said. Fripp Island Turtle Team volunteers began patrolling the beaches Sunday and discovered their first nest of the season on the south end of the beach.

More than 65 nests filled with loggerhead sea turtle eggs have been recorded already on beaches in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina since May 1.

Turtle nests are popping up a week to 10 days earlier than usual along the Carolina coast, according to the Associated Press. The earlier nesting season is likely due to warmer ocean temperatures.

"That might signal that we could get more nests this year," said Matthew Godfrey, sea turtle program coordinator for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. "But it's still pretty early."

In South Carolina, the first sea turtle nest of the year was found May 5 at Camp Romain National Wildlife Refuge. Friends of Hunting Island Sea Turtle Conservation Project discovered the first turtle nest of the season on Hunting Island May 11.

Female sea turtles lay eggs once every three years, so regional nesting fluctuates in a three-year cycle, with a below-average year, followed by two plentiful years. In 2014, sea turtles laid just 2,097 nests along the South Carolina coast. In 2015, South Carolina sea turtles almost set records with more 5,111 recorded nests along the coast.

Since the nesting season started so early in South Carolina, conservationists have high hopes for this year.

Sea turtle nests average 120 eggs and hatch after about 60 days. Females may remain in South Carolina waters and continue to nest every two weeks, laying up to six nests per season.

-The Associated Press contributed to this report

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Sea turtle nesting season off to a strong start in the Lowcountry."