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, September 9, 2022

Friday, September 9 Inventory of Nest 13

Nest 13 was laid on Wednesday, July 6, halfway between marker 4 and 5. The nest was deep and hard to find. On Tuesday, September 6 this nest emerged, day 62 of incubation. We gathered with CCU students to inventory the nest today.

Jingle started the dig

Students digging and sorting the shells

The nest contained 86 hatched shells and 10 unhatched shells.
We also found 3 dead hatchlings and one live one in the nest.
The total egg count for this nest was 97 (counting the egg used
for DNA research). 88.6% hatch success, 84.5% emergence success