Waties Island Sea Turtles

Waties Island, the northernmost barrier island in South Carolina is roughly 4.0 km in length. It is a private undeveloped barrier island at the border of North/South Carolina. All sea turtle monitoring by this group is authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Permit MTP500. We strive to help protect the sea turtle, and we are at it again this season! The site will be updated often during the nesting season - May 1st through October.

Friday, July 28, 2017

Inventory of Nest # 4

Nest # 4 was laid high on the dunes at Marker 6 on Saturday, May 27.
It emerged on Day 59, July 25.
We dug up the nest today and what a great way to start our inventory phase!!
This turtle was "in the system". She had laid nests in 2011, 2013, 2015 on Sunset Beach,
Ocean Isle and North Myrtle Beach. This year she laid her first nest on our beach!! I
hope she has laid several more with us!! Her nests are large, ranging from 104 to 163 eggs.
Today we found 143 hatched eggs, 17 unhatched eggs and 3 dead hatchlings. 89 % hatching
success!! This is a very good result and a good mama turtle!!