No new nests but many hatchlings are beginning their adventure in the big blue world. We are having inventories almost every day now. Inventories are conducted three days after a nest hatches and everyone is welcome to join us to learn more about these fascinating creatures. Education is provided and you might even get to see a real live turtle hatchling! Information about upcoming inventories can be found on Tidelines and the Seabrook Island Turtle Patrol website https://www.siturtlepatrol.com/nest-inventories. Results of these inventories are also published.
Even though we haven’t had any new nests there is still so much to be done. The walkers are out every morning checking the nests to see if they have boiled, looking for predators, clearing trash off the beaches, and enjoying the beauty of our beach. The Pre-Hatching Activity Team (PHAT) is working every afternoon clearing excess sand off the nests that are close to hatching, creating backboards to assist the hatchlings in finding the right direction to go and anything else that can help these diminutive dinosaurs on their way to the ocean. Please feel free to ask questions from any of the turtle patrollers that you see on the beach in the colorful Seabrook Island Turtle Patrol shirts. We may be busy but we are always happy to help educate the public about our favorite herptiles.
As of Thursday evening, Seabrook Island still has 38 nests out of 78 that haven’t hatched. We did have one false crawl this week and last week we had numerous wild nests. There’s no telling how many more nests we might have before the season is over.
-Submitted by Anne Snelgrove for SI Turtle Patrol