Another cold snap is starting today Sand temperatures had just reached 72 degrees. It's been 15 days since sand temperatures around nest 69 were above 72 degrees. It's been since October 9th since sand temperatures were above 80 degrees. On October 9th nest 69 was at 41 days of incubation. At that stage of incubation the eggs should contain almost completely developed hatchlings. Under normal summer conditions a nest at 41 days should emerge 9 or 10 days later. These much col

From our contact at the Sea Turtle hospital: Update on the sea turtle: Saw the turtle at the aquarium this morning. It’s doing better already. Was feeding a bit earlier today.

Friday patrol checking out nest #69, no activity. Some shots from the beach this morning. The pictures were taken by permitted volunteers under permit 2024-MTP537 & 2024 -MTP565, Following all rules and guidelines. Only permitted individuals are allowed to engage in sea turtle conservation activities.

A very ill juvenile green sea turtle was spotted on the north end of zone one by campers . After help was notified the sick sea turtle was transported to the SC Sea turtle hospital in SC Aquarium in Charleston. She/He was named Sweet Pea And is getting best help possible. Stay Tuned for updates.

Graph by Data Czar Keith Unfortunately sand temperatures at nest depth drop below the 72 °F threshold this past week. Temperature data logger is not located inside of the nest chamber. But is at nest depth outside of the cage . Hoping for "warmer" days ahead

The Friday team is still at it in spite of the temperature being only 47 degrees. Checking on the last nest, number 69, at 63 days and with the cold temps not holding much hope of incubation. The pictures were taken by permitted volunteers under permit 2024-MTP537 & 2024 -MTP565, Following all rules and guidelines. Only permitted individuals are allowed to engage in sea turtle conservation activities.

One of the temperature data loggers buried 12 inches in the ground on the outside of the cage of nest 69 ,we can download data from it while it's in the ground. Attached is a graph of the of temps recorded since 9/12 to 10/17. (From Michelle Pate , SC Sea Turtle Coordinator) First some biology about nest environment, egg development and incubation. The short version. A clutch of eggs can be vulnerable to extremes in environmental changes within the nest chamber during incuba

The beauty of nature. Inventoried nest #68 this morning and found four baby turtles alive but unable to get out of the nest. We freed them and set them down on the beach so they could make their way to the ocean. When they got to the ocean they were still cold shocked and unable to make headway so Buddy Lawrence, the license holder for Hunting Island Turtle Conservation gathered them up and will be warming them for release later. The pictures were taken by permitted volunteer

Dunes in front of rustic tent area Those posts mark where the dune was only few days ago Dune in front campground where nests 6 and 61...

first graph - total nests for each year with a 5 yr running average.  The low nesting years keep getting higher.  Next year should be a...

Earlier the start of the season the longer the season Start of nesting trendy earlier

There was no activity on the beach today. There are 69 nests - and 17 remaining nests waiting to hatch. It was a cool breezy morning.....

No new crawls or nest. Nest #62 hatched last night with 116 eggs relocated and the best estimate is that there was about 90 tracks. ...

Courtesy of our Data Czar Keith A spray

Sunrise on Hunting Island Beach The mornings are getting cooler, but the views remain the same. The surprise nest on Friday keeps us at a...

When mama laid nest #68 two weeks ago with 146 eggs we thought she might be back and I guess we were right. 4 crawls this morning in...

July numbers this year were terrible. Lowest, quantity and % wise, over the last 13 years We had a relatively strong May but it fell off...

Checking the beach, some erosion, some nests had been washed over, but was lucky on this beautiful, cool, breezy morning! All sea turtle...

Hurricane Erin is off the coast - some waves and a beautiful sunrise There was no activity on the beach today. Nest count remains at 68...