By Ruth Fordon
November 14 was a sunny crisp fall morning with temperatures hovering around highs of mid 50s all week. Ocracoke residents Lou Castro and Sarah Shellow were at the Lifeguard beach for sunrise. In Castro’s words, “We noticed some deer tracks coming from south of the Lifeguard beach ramp next to three turtle nests and going back into the dunes.
“We followed the deer tracks then we were heading back to the ramp when I noticed a baby turtle outside of the fenced in turtle area, on its back in a depression in the sand. It wasn’t moving so I assumed the turtle was dead.
“Then we looked into the fenced-in area on the dune and saw seven more turtles moving very sluggishly. They looked a little bit like grey pinecones with heads and flippers. Some of the babies were on their backs unable to right themselves like the first one. We immediately called Matt Janson.”
Within five minutes, Janson, who is the lead NPS biotech for Ocracoke, arrived with his intern, Margaret Knight. It was obvious that this loggerhead nest was hatching and that the turtles were having some issues with the cooler temperatures.
Ordinarily, a sea turtle nest on an average needs 55 days from the nesting of the adult to reach the hatching window. This particular nest at day 85 was laid Aug. 20– when the island was under an evacuation notice and had been discovered by a local watching the hurricane surf.
From the beginning there was weather-related interference with two well-out-to-sea major hurricanes sending rough surf and high tides that flooded the beach followed by a couple of nor’easters causing the same level of flooding and rough tidal conditions.
Janson speculated that the female loggerhead dug her nest high into the dune because she came ashore during a time of high storm tides and that was the first dry area she found.
This writer arrived at the nest site about 30 minutes after the nest excavation began. Nests that are laid after Aug. 15 usually have longer incubation times due to the cooling temperatures. The NPS biotechs keep an eye on nests that remain unhatched to confirm that a nest is still viable. This nest was still considered viable, but 85 days after nesting is beyond the date where it seems possible that it will produce live hatchlings.
As Janson carefully probed into the nest cavity he eventually recovered 27 live hatchlings before reaching eggs that were still in late stages of hatching. At this point, the nest cavity was refilled with sand so the remaining turtles could hatch when they were ready without further interference.
The live hatchlings were placed in a sand filled cooler and the decision was made to hold them for the rest of the day and to release them toward midafternoon on an outgoing tide, hoping for a rip current to assist them in their efforts.
Volunteers who assist with the cold stunned turtle rescues over the winter months were alerted to the release and about a dozen folks arrived at South Point beach to assist with the release.
Because these hatchlings were still very sluggish and disoriented, volunteers were needed to monitor the progress of the hatchlings to reach swimming depth and to escape the pull of the surf. The surf was tricky and many times the little hatchlings were swept back to shore. Eventually all were able to move into the deeper water with the turtle team sending prayers for their survival.
Two more turtle nests are near where this nest hatched that are at days 83 and 84 in the nesting window. Will they also defy the odds and produce live hatchlings?
If you are on Ocracoke during the winter months and would like to be involved with assisting cold stunned sea turtles, there will be a training workshop at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, the Ocracoke Community Center.
Record number of sea turtles rescued on Ocracoke during cold spell
