By Peter Vankevich
Just as the Outer Banks stunned-turtle patrols are gearing up as the weather gets colder, there is one remaining outlier from this year’s nesting season. On Dec. 3, a green sea turtle nest was found on Hatteras Island near the ORV Ramp 49 at Frisco.
This is the latest known sea turtle nest for North Carolina. The previous late-nesting record was Oct. 31, 2020, also a green sea turtle, and found on Hatteras Island in the same Frisco location.
There has been much speculation as to whether the eggs could withstand the much colder sand temperatures and produce viable hatchlings. The incubation time is about two months and slightly longer when sand temperatures are cooler.
The prognosis for a successful hatching was set back when the nest was overwashed from the nor’easter that struck the Outer Banks on Dec. 17, temporarily shutting down the ferry service and on Ocracoke closing NC 12 north of the pony pens.
“It’s too early to say if that will impact the success of the nest or not,” said Michelle Tongue, deputy chief of Resource Management and Science, Outer Banks Group, that includes the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CAHA). “We did not relocate the nest, as it did not meet the park’s management criteria for relocation. We’ll monitor its incubation the same way we monitor all our late laid nests.
“ If after 70 days of incubation the nest doesn’t show signs of hatching, we’ll continue checking viability every 10 days or so until the point the nest either hatches or is no longer viable. Four days following a hatch or at the point it is no longer viable, we will excavate and inventory the clutch.”
These days, DNA is collected from the turtle nests and provide invaluable insights on the sea turtle populations. Sea turtles will lay more than one nest during the season. At this point it is not known whether the December green sea turtle had laid other eggs this year.
North Carolina had a record number of green turtle nests, 52 in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and 98 in the entire state. In 2022, considered a high nesting year, there were 41 state-wide nests, 16 of them in CAHA.
“The number of green turtle nests laid per year has been increasing along the U.S. Southeast Coast for a while,” said Matthew Godfrey, sea turtle biologist for NC Wildlife Resources Commission. “I believe Florida had a record number of green turtle nests this year. We hope that it is a result of the conservation actions put into place back in the late 1970s/1980s to protect turtles and their nests.”
The Outer Banks has had the three highest number of nests in the past five years with 2019 the benchmark with 2,294 loggerhead, 62 green and two Kemp’s ridley.
Most sea turtles nests laid in North Carolina begin in mid-May and run into early September.
Whereas most nests on the Outer Banks are laid by loggerheads, the ocean and sound waters surrounding the Outer Banks are prime wintering habitat for young green and Kemp’s ridley turtles.
Green juveniles are omnivores, eating a variety of subaquatic vegetation, seagrasses and algae and insects, crustaceans, seagrasses and worms. Adult green turtles are described as herbivores whose diet is primarily plant life. Kemp’s ridleys favorite are crabs, but they also will prey on fish, jellyfish and small mollusks.
When water temperatures decline below 50 degrees for a sustained period, turtles can become lethargic, or cold stunned, experiencing decreased circulation and slowing of other body functions that causes them to float to the surface. At that time, winds and currents may push them onto land.
During these cold periods, NPS staff and volunteers trained by the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles (NEST) comb the ocean and sound side shorelines looking for stranded turtles.
After the recent storm, one live green and one loggerhead and a dead green sea turtle were found on the oceanside of Hatteras Island. The live turtles were transported to the Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation (STAR) Center at the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island.
If you come across a stranded sea turtle, call the NEST 24-hour hotline, 252-441-8622
To read more: Another good year for nesting sea turtles including leatherback
Sea turtles have another banner nesting year but beware of the sands of these times
