Sea Turtles – Hilton Head Island 2019
Saturday October 19, 2019 – That’s a Wrap!
Dear Hilton Head Island sea turtle friends,
The beach is empty – the tourists and the sea turtles have departed –
and the hatching season has ended. But what a season it has been – a record setting 463 nests were laid this year on Hilton Head Island beaches! One was a Kemps Ridley, two were Green sea turtles, and the rest were our most beautiful and favorite mothers, the loggerheads.
Thank you all for sharing the sea turtle journey with us this year – your interest and enthusiasm have been inspiring! You are wonderful ambassadors to help save the sea turtles and our environment.
Our adopters have come from almost every state in the US, almost every province in Canada, and from locations around the world (including Dubai!!!). You are all awesome! This year’s adopters include:
* Classes of students in New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, North Carolina and more, and of course the entire second grade of the Hilton Head Island IB Elementary School!
It is a special joy to hear from all of the children who are becoming fantastic spokespeople for sea turtles with their new found knowledge.
* Children in Arizona, Wisconsin and others receiving birthday gift nests, and adults celebrating milestone birthdays in New Jersey, California and elsewhere.
* A couple receiving 50th Anniversary gifts, and other brides and grooms around the country becoming adoptive sea turtle parents.
* Lost loved ones near and far honored with dedicated memorial nests.
* Friends who travel and send us beautiful pictures of sea turtles that they have encountered from around the world – like Paul Mila (milabooks.com), author, diver and environmentalist who sent a picture of a loggerhead he encountered in the Caribbean who survived a boat propeller strike, another danger to our loggerheads.
* Book Groups – including the Primrose Book Club of West Virginia.
* A mother who adopts for 11 family members around the country so they can compare their nest success stats at the end of the season (thank you, Chickie!).
* Grandparents who share in the joy of sea turtles with their grandchildren, and continue the tradition of environmental stewardship and appreciation.
* Realtors who adopt for their clients – thank you, Lindsay Bunting of Sea Pines Real Estate (The Cottage Group), and Robbie Bunting
* A law firm Winston and Strawn with adopters in offices around the globe – they are changing the world for the better!
And countless others – thank you for adopting.
To our local sea turtle lovers, we say thanks – the amazing Sea Turtle Patrol who does the “heavy lifting” every morning starting at 5:00 am, the Turtle Trackers who help clean up the beach in the evenings, the beach walkers who share their joy and pictures of mother or hatchling sightings, and the Coastal Discovery Museum staff who now prepares and mails all of the certificates and shirts (I finally stopped trying to do it myself last year!) and who teach and inspire endless classes of school children, visitors, and locals.
A special thanks to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources who graciously provides us with the exciting details of each nest hatch.
The 2020 nest adoption form is on the museum website www.coastaldiscovery.org, and the sign ups for next year are underway. I will be at the museum fall market on Tuesday, November 26 from 10-2. Come on over and see me!
You are each so special! With thanks until next season –
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
September 30, 2019
Dear Nest Adopters,
Well, the season is winding down – just a few nests left on the beach to hatch. DNR is gradually sharing the hatch details of each nest with me – I will forward to you as soon as I receive them.
In the meantime, a couple of interesting happenings:
* When doing the inventory on a hatched nest, the sea turtle patrol found a hatchling with TWO HEADS!!!!!
Needless to say, this is VERY unusual, but it does happen in reptiles occasionally. In fact, a nest adopter sent me an article that mentions our two-headed baby, as well as a two-headed rattlesnake found about the same time in New Jersey. Sometimes nature can be just weird!!!
* The other exciting news is that in addition to the green sea turtle that we knew about, there was another Green Sea Turtle nest found this season! Three days after the signs of hatching were noted, the patrol found a green hatchling needing some help getting out. Two nests in one year! Unbelievable!
I will be back in touch after the last nest has hatched and been inventoried –
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
August 24, 2019
Dear Nest adopters,
Well, the mothers have finished nesting (we think!) but the hatchlings are busily working their way out of the nests and running to the ocean. 281 of our nests have hatched – I am in the process of sending out nest results to each adopter. It has been an amazingly great year for nest success and emergence success – having no hurricanes so far has helped a lot!!
A couple of fun happenings on the island:
A local artist, Mira Scott, has painted a fiberglas sea turtle named Myrtle the Turtle. Myrtle is temporarily sitting near the Tiki Hut on South Forest Beach, along with a reminder of the importance of the sea turtles and the environment that we are all striving to preserve. Here she is:
We know that plastic bags are a danger to sea turtles. (When a sea turtle sees a plastic bag floating in the ocean, they think it is a jelly fish and he eats it…..not good!) Last year, Hilton Head Town Council voted to ban single use plastic bags on Hilton Head Island. This year, Council is taking on the long handled shovels that tourists use to dig deep holes on the beach, like this:
Hooray! No more huge beach holes for mother sea turtles, hatchlings and people to fall into!!
Enjoy the last days of summer! More news later –
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
Friday August 9, 2017
Dear Friends of Sea Turtles,
Good Morning from Hilton Head Island! Here is a nest greeting the day:
What a season! As of yesterday, we are up to a record setting 445 nests on the ocean-facing beaches of Hilton Head Island! There are another 17 that have been laid during the season on Mitchelville Beach and Dolphin Head Point on the Port Royal Sound side of the island. There is some speculation that the higher number this year is because there were lots of sea turtle mothers who were on cycle to nest last year but didn’t because of the cold winter (lessened their food source so they could not reproduce.) They might have joined in the nesting group this year – we will know for sure after the DNA testing is complete. Whatever the reason, we are enjoying a great season for sea turtles.
Our green sea turtle nest is still incubating nicely, waiting to hatch in a few weeks.
Speaking of green sea turtles, quite a few of our adopters have been sharing their experiences with green sea turtles in Hawaii. There, the turtles come ashore and hang out – it is really amazing! Not like the greens that we have which nest and leave! Hawaiian green sea turtles basking in the sun:
This is me with the greens!
Many of you have asked about your nest hatch results. Three days after a nest hatches, the Hilton Head Island Sea Turtle Patrol does an inventory of the nest. (Lots of nest inventories are happening on the beach – if you are out VERY early in the morning, watch for the vehicle and observe the action!) They record and report all the nest egg count and hatch details to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources which controls the data. I will then pass the details of your particular nest on to you.
Lots of season left – stay tuned!!
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
July 17, 2019
Dear Nest Adopters,
The Hilton Head Island beach is a busy place right now: During the day, tourists and locals fill the sand and water with fun, noise and laughter. But in the night, there are still a few mother sea turtles coming ashore to nest – and a lot of hatchlings leaving the nest, racing to the ocean. Everyone on the island is working hard to educate our beach goers with simple instructions: leave the beach at the end of the day as you found it! Fill in the holes, flatten the sand castles and pick up the trash. This is sea turtle territory!!
We now have more than 430 nests that have appeared on our island – and 24 of them have already hatched. No one really knows when a nest will hatch – it can be any time between 45 and 65 days after it was laid. But we do know that hatchlings prefer to come out in the night – it is cooler, quieter and safer for them.
Here is how it happens: more than 100 eggs have been developing under the sand for almost two months. Gradually, the hatchlings start to break out of their shells – still under the sand. You can tell that this is happening when you see a depression in the sand that looks like a bowling ball was dropped on it – like this:
The hatchlings don’t just come out one at a time…..they wait until a whole bunch of them are ready to make a run for it – and lots exit the nest at the same time. This is called a “boil”. In the Coastal Discovery Museum, there is a model of what a nest looks like under the ground during the hatching. Stop in and see it:
The hatchlings climb all over each other to get out:
and then race for the nearest light – which is supposed to be the ocean. (If people have on lights in their beach front houses, the hatchlings will go that way and never make it to the ocean….very sad!)
After a nest has hatched, there are the unmistakable signs of a hole where the depression was, and lots of beautiful baby turtle tracks coming out of it.
If you happen to see a nest hatching, you are very lucky – but PLEASE keep a distance away, do not take any pictures, and use only a red turtle safe flashlight. We want to protect every one of those babies!
Hatching will be happening until 60 days after the last sea turtle nest is laid – we still have a long season ahead!
More later –
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
July 12, 2019
Dear Nest Adopters,
In 2016, a record number of sea turtle nests were laid on Hilton Head Island – 411 of them……. and that record has now been shattered!! As of this morning, we are up to 417 nests laid on Hilton Head Island beaches – and there is still a month left to go in the season. One mother even came ashore after sunrise today (they generally nest during the night) and put on a nesting show for the many respectfully distant spectators who happened to be on the beach at the time. Fantastic year!!
There are still also lots of false crawls – 296 of those so far:
Interestingly, tests are being done on each of our sea turtles – without ever touching the mother! One egg is taken from every nest; the yolk is put in one test tube and the shell in another. These samples are sent to a lab in Georgia where the DNA of the mother turtle is tested. From that information, we then will know where else the mother has nested this season and every season since this record keeping began more than 10 years ago. Sometimes I am able to provide that information to adopters about their mother sea turtle – will keep you posted on that.
Occasionally, nature needs a little help! When the mother sea turtle lays her eggs in a place that is too close to the high tide line, the nest is relocated by the Sea Turtle Patrol to a safer spot. They very carefully remove all the eggs, dig another similar hole on higher ground, and gently place the eggs into the new hole:
45% of our nests have been relocated this year. Amazingly, statistics have shown us that relocated nests have a higher percentage of success than ones left in place. Who knew?!
So much action on our beach this year by this wonderful endangered species!
More news later –
P.S. You might have heard the great news that Hilton Head Island has been designated as the Number ONE Island in the continental U.S. for the 4th year in a row!!! Not just the sea turtles are happy here!
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
June 16, 2019
Dear Nest Adopters and Sea Turtle Friends,
World Sea Turtle Day is celebrated every year on June 16th Full focus is on the saving of this endangered species and how we can all help.
And no one can do a better job of telling the story than the people at the World Wildlife Fund. Here is their list of
Ten Things you might not have known about Sea Turtles
(thanks to WWF for sharing this list as directly quoted below)
1. Turtles don’t have teeth. Instead, their upper and lower jaws have sheaths made of keratin (the same stuff your fingernails are made of) that fit onto the skull like a pair of false teeth.
2. Turtle shells are made of over 50 bones fused together – so they’re literally wearing their bones on the outside.
3.The first few years of a marine turtle’s life are often referred to as the ‘lost years’. That’s because the time between when the hatchlings emerge until they return to coastal shallow waters to forage is incredibly difficult to study. The lost years they spend at sea – which can be up to 20 years – largely remain a mystery to humans.
4. Sea turtle species vary greatly in size. The smallest is the Kemp’s Ridley, while the Leatherbacks can weigh more than 1000 pounds! (We have had both nest – one time each – on Hilton Head Island.)
5. It’s estimated that as few as 1 in 1,000 sea turtle eggs will survive to adulthood. And if beaches are strewn with litter, it can prevent hatchlings reaching the sea.
6. Female leatherbacks make some interesting noises when they are nesting – some of which sound similar to a human belch.
7. Turtles seem to prefer red, orange and yellow colored food. They appear to investigate these colors more than others when looking for a meal.
8. Sea turtles can migrate long distances – the known record is a female that swam nearly 13,000 miles over 647 days from Indonesia to the west coast of the United States!
9. Female sea turtles often return to nest on the same beach from which they hatched. Sea turtles’ amazing ability to navigate comes from their sensitivity to the Earth’s magnetic fields.
10. Even with all these amazing features and adaptations, sea turtles are threatened with extinction! One major threat to sea turtles is plastic pollution. It is estimated that at leastone sea turtle out of two has ingested plastic – often mistaking it for food such as jellyfish. Luckily, Hilton Head Island has greatly limited by ordinance the use of single-use plastic bags, and many Hilton Head restaurants have stopped offering plastic straws.
We can all do something – spread the word – Happy Sea Turtle Day!
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
June 8, 2019
Dear Nest Adopters and Friends,
What a season!!! Just to give you an idea of the numbers, here is the comparison for numbers of sea turtle nests on Hilton Head Island in past years –
by June 7th:
2014: 28 nests
2015: 106
2016: 120
2017: 105
2018: 47
2019: 169 NESTS!!!
Wow! Not only that, but there have been lots of spottings of the mothers on the beach.
A reminder, if you see a mother sea turtle, keep a good distance away, do not take flash pictures, do not distract or bother her in any way.
Often a sea turtle mother comes ashore and does not nest. We have had 111 false crawls so far this year – that is a big number! Sometimes she is scared off,
sometimes she runs an eroded cliff of sand,
and sometime she is stopped by unnecessary “stuff” on the beach.
Help us by keeping the beach clear at night!!
More news coming soon –
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
May 24, 2019
Dear Friends of Sea Turtles,
Nests are being laid on Hilton Head Island like crazy! Those sea turtle mothers are making up for lost time – and it looks like they might continue at this rate all season! As of today, we are well beyond 60 nests – a good number considering that in last year, we did not even get our first nest until the middle of May!
It is great fun to see how and where the mother sea turtles nest. These two nests are just next to each other – like sisters! You can even see the mother’s tracks from the nest on the right.
In fact, that nest is directly behind the dune retention fence. She came in one side and went out the other! Look closely for the signs of the sea turtle’s nest digging efforts to the right of the orange tape, the the tracks:
This mother found a safe place between a fence and a storage box!
And here are the tracks of a mother who took a v-e-r-y long walk on the beach this week, before she finally settled on a spot near the top of the beach – a long way for her to crawl……and a long way for her babies to go back to the ocean after hatching!
And this morning, a mother left a meandering track as she trudged exhaustedly back to the ocean:
We have some VERY creative sea turtles! More news later –
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
Dear Nest Adopters,
WOW! Lots of huge surprises for Hilton Head Island Sea Turtle watchers:
- The first sea turtle nesting of the season on Hilton Head Island was REALLY early in the season – yesterday morning, April 26th, a mother sea turtle crawled ashore to dig a hole in the sand and lay her eggs. This is the earliest nesting in most people’s memory, and is probably due to the warmer than usual weather recently.
- The sea turtle was a Kemp’s Ridley – the rarest and one of the most endangered of the sea turtle species! Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles are much smaller than the loggerhead sea turtles which generally nest on Hilton Head. This is the first time a Kemp’s Ridley has nested on Hilton Head Island and only the fourth in South Carolina since record-keeping began. (Interestingly, another Kemps Ridley beat out ours by laying a nest on Kiawah Island the evening before.)
- This sea turtle mama came ashore in broad daylight! Loggerhead sea turtle mothers generally come ashore to nest during the night, so spotting one on Hilton Head is a rare treat. The Kemp’s Ridley is a more of a daytime nesting creature, so this event gave lots of our beach-going locals and tourists an amazing show. There is a video of the action on the Island Packet website. https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/untamed-lowcountry/article229722764.html
Now the mother has gone back to the ocean, never to visit her nest again. And her eggs will lie undisturbed in the sand for about 60 days. Hoping for a successful hatch of our first Kemp’s Ridley!
So we are off to a great start! Will keep you posted as the season unfolds…..
Andrea
Andrea B. Siebold
Sea Turtle Nest Adoption Coordinator
Coastal Discovery Museum
843-415-2211
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