Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project

Carolina Beach - Sea Turtles!

This has been so awesome to be a part of here! This season there are 13 Loggerhead Turtles nests that were laid by Mama Loggerheads. I think 8 have hatched so there are just a handful remaining. The Loggerhead babies are the turtles you see in the picture below in the bucket.

Everyone has been VERY excited about the 1 Leatherback Turtle nest that is on Carolina Beach. There were 2 other of these nests on the NC beaches. The first nests ever laid on NC beaches. The Leatherbacks are about the size of your palm, maybe a little smaller based on what I've heard and seen online.

This is my first helping out with the trenching of this nest. I am helping make a sand wall around the area where the turtle eggs are buried. Below this area, digging of the trench was done to help guide the baby turtles on a nice path to the ocean. This is done with every nest. I'm not sure what gestational day it is when the trench is made. I think it is day 55 or 60.

115 turtle shells that hatched and all swam out to sea 3 days before I took this picture. A few eggs did not hatch. There were no turtles at this excavation which is great because it means they all got out on their own and not one got left behind needing help. The excavation happens 3 days after the entire nest hatches. The eggs are counted and reported to the state at the time of the excavation. Out of the 3 excavations I have seen: 8 turtles were saved and released; then none; then 7 were saved and released. The saved turtles are put into buckets like the one below until all that needed help to get out, got out. After the buckets are passed around for all to see and take pictures of, but it's very important that all flashes on any cameras are OFF. The flash can confuse the turtles into crawling in different directions than they need to go. The experienced turtle people have Army flashlights with a red light that is safe for the turtles that they use at night to check on the nests. The buckets are then placed near the ocean on their sides. The turtles crawl out and pitter patter to the sea. Cool.

This was at my 3rd excavation where I finally brought a camera and was able to take pictures of the cute little Loggerhead turtles!

It's been so awesome to help out with this project! I look forward to an entire season starting next May 1, 2010!