Printed courtesy of Island Free Press
By Joy Crist
Visitors and residents on Ocracoke Island are invited to join rangers at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore for a public sea turtle nest excavation on Monday (Aug. 28) at a nest site approximately 0.04 miles north of the Pony Pen Beach Access.
The excavation will begin promptly at 10 a.m., and visitors can park in the lot adjacent to the Ocracoke Pony Pen. Please allow for extra time to walk to the nest, and bring water and sunscreen.
During the excavation, spectators can watch National Park biologists dig up a recently hatched nest and inventory what’s inside.
Biologists will count empty eggshells, collect unhatched eggs, and occasionally find live and/or dead hatchlings during these excavations. While the biologists perform their examination of the nest, a park ranger will present a program on sea turtles and share what the biologists have found.
For more information and to learn about additional upcoming public nest excavations, call the sea turtle nest excavation hotline at 252-475-9629.
