BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C. — It’s sea turtle nesting season and before we start to see the baby turtles clumsily making their way into the sea, there’s a lot of work to be done beneath the sand.
In Oak Island Beach, the Oak Island Sea Turtle Protection Program has already seen its fair share of nests and volunteers like Suzan Bell know just how important it is to keep those nests safe.
“So we use a metal screen for every nest because we have such a high fox predation issue here on the island,” Bell said. “So we stake it and then we add string with these orange tapes so people walking on the beach can have a visual and of course we put our sign with the number of the nest.”
Bell believes it’s important for beachgoers to know what to do in case they come across a nest or even a nesting turtle.
“If you see a turtle, please stand back, do not approach her, do not shine lights on her, if you shine lights on her she can get disoriented and she’ll turn around and head back to the ocean,” Bell said. “Just stay quiet and stay back and if it’s a natural light, hopefully you’ll be able to watch her lay her nest.”
Keeping the nests’ safety in mind, the hope is to give the baby sea turtles even more of a fighting chance at survival.
“If everybody will just follow the rules, you know, every nest is so important to an endangered species, so just because you want to get a picture with one, or you don’t want to follow the rules, that could endanger even more this population,” Bell said. “Right now, our loggerheads are threatened in North America, which is wonderful. They’re not endangered, they’re threatened, and that means people have been listening and following the rules.”
If people do follow those rules and keep the nests safe, in a couple of months they’ll begin hatching and make all the efforts by Bell and other volunteers worth it.
“Once they come out … it’s like this wonderful excited feeling,” Bell said. “I just have the biggest grin, the biggest smile. I’ve seen many, many, many over the years and I still get that same feeling, so it’s very emotional.”
In North Carolina, the sea turtle nesting season is from May through August.
Each nest — or clutch — will contain about 120 eggs, all roughly the size of a pingpong ball. Those eggs will incubate from 60 to 100 days. After they hatch, they’ll make their way into the ocean and begin their journey to the Sargasso Sea.