A beautiful morning on the beach at 32nd Ave.

Nest #32 at 32nd Ave. never "boiled" and when the inventory was complete there was an overall hatch success of only 25%

The last hatchling of the season makes his way to the water and the beginning of a long swim.

While a young artist leaves one turtle on the beach

With the turtle season coming to an end, the Island Turtle Team is busy with the last few nests emerging at night and inventories early in the morning.

Nest 31 at 31th Ave. is inventoried

Nests at 7th Ave. are inventoried

Nests at 7th Ave. hatch the same night

Nest at 22nd Ave. Inventoried

Nest at 39th Ave. Inventoried

Nest at 31st. Ave Hatches - 09/10/08

Turtle Team Delivers 4 Hatchlings From Nest #23 to the Aquarium

Every three years the DNR asks one to the local turtle teams to deliver 4 hatchlings to the South Carolina Aquarium. These turtles will be on display for three years and then released in the gulf stream. We will follow them closely and keep you posted on their adventures.

Nest #24 at 39th Ave. Inventoried - 26 Live Hatchlings Released and a 91% Success Rate

Turtle Team Moves Nest Inundated by High Tides

Nest #33, the last nest of the season had to be moved....hopefully in time. The nest was under water, but the eggs appeared viable. The nest was moved to a much higher dune and should be safe, even if "Hanna" comes close to Isle of Palmss.

Very Successful Inventories at 5th Ave. and 7th Ave.

High Tide and Onshore Winds Put Nest #21 In Danger

With very high tides and onshore winds the nest was covered when we went out to check on it. It was decided that in order to save the eggs the nest had to be moved to a higher, safer part of the dune.

Nest #19 at 704 Hatches - 08/28/08

Nest #20 Boils at 10:30pm - 08/27/08

Nest #18 Inventoried 08/25/08

Of the 105 eggs laid, all but 11 eggs hatched and there were 8 live hatchlings in the nest at inventory. This was a 90% success. Some of the most interested spectators at this mornings inventory were furry with wet noses. They were very well behaved and most interested is the little guys crawling on the beach.

Nest #16 & #17 Inventoried 08/24/08

Both nests were impacted by the tropical storm Fay. Nest #16 had a good hatch, but 5 hatchlings couldn't make it out and were drowned when the nest was washed over. The nest at 36th Ave (#17) was washed over and 22 hatchlings drowned. Several eggs and imature hatchlings were re-buried and survived.

Nest #13 Inventoried

Nest #16 and #17 Hatched Last Night (August 20)

Barb Bergwerf and Mary Pringle were the only people out at the nest #16 when it started to go. Mary went into the water with a light to give the turtles some "moonlight" to follow. Several people came out on the beach to help the hatchlings into the water. The nest at 36th waited until the turtle team left. Early this morning a crator was discovered.

Nest #10, #12 and #14 Keep the Turtle Team Busy...Night and Day.

The turtle team was out on the beach until the early hours of the morning helping hatchlings make their way to the ocean while keeping track of the crowd that waited to see the nest hatch. Mary Alice found time to autograph her books and answer questions for the sea turtle fans. After being out on the beach until past 2AM, the team was back out at 7AM for an inventory....I guess we'll be able to rest in October!

Nest #15

Nest #15 in front of 606 Ocean took over 5 hours to finally hatch. The turtles broke the surface of the sand about 10PM, but just sat there not moving. Little by little their nest mates pushed them up from underneath. Finlly some time after 1:30AM they all became active and scampered to the sea.

Nest #14 at 7th Ave.

Andressa Chapman was the high bidder at the Scubadoo Auction for the SC Aquarium. Her winning package included being a VIP at a loggerhead nest inventory followed by breakfast with the Island Turtle Team!

Nest #10 at 2nd Ave.

Nest #9 at 51st Ave.

This turned out to be a very small clutch (60 eggs) which is about half the usual size. Thirty-five of these failed to develop, and three of these were very large eggs. There were 22 live hatchlings still in the nest three days after the first ones emerged. Hatch success was only 40%.

Nests on IOP and Sullivans Inventoried

Nest #7 at Station 28.5

Nest #4 at 32nd Ave.

Nests #6 and #5 Inventoried

Relocated Nest Boils - 08/01/02

The hatchlings and eggs that were rescued from the fire ant attack five days earlier had a successful showing last night. We are indebted to Lynn Perotti who found one of them on the beach then which caused us to discover the ant infestation. There will be a story in the next Island Eye Newspaper about the ants. Just after sunset over 30 healthy energetic hatchlings boiled out of the nest which had been moved to Station 28 1/2. This was almost the full number we relocated. With a little help from their friends on the Turtle Team, all of them made it to the water. The tide was just beginning to go back out after being very high on a new moon evening. Final inventory will reveal if all of them hatched and survived.

Nest #3 Inventory has a happy ending.

The first nest of the season was inventoried after a program for a conservation group called "The Sullivan's Islanders." Miraculously 9 more hatchlings had hatched successfully since the nest was moved away from the fire ants. These were released in front of an adoring crowd to crawl to the water. The ants had killed about 21 turtles and bored into some unhatched eggs in this nest of 125 eggs, but the overall hatch success was 69.6% We're glad we were able to save some by emergency relocation.

Nest #3 at Station 26 on Sullivans attacked by fire ants

Last night Erene and her family discovered Nest #3 had a depression consistent with quite a lot of hatchlings having come out of the sand earlier in the evening. Several dead turtles were found on the beach down toward the water after having been stung repeatedly by ants. We could see that it was now a major ant attack, so in order to save the hatchlings who were still alive, we relocated the 5 survivors and 10 eggs that were still possibly viable to a spot just south of the original nest hoping that the ants would not find them. We moved the sign (with no back sticks or orange tape) to the new spot and Erene will monitor it for emerging turtles.. We will do a final inventory in 3-5 days to see if these little guys made it out. Since they were not mature and strong yet and needed a couple of days to absorb their yolk sacs, it would have been a mistake to let them go to the water last night. Twelve additional mature survivors did go to the water last night.