The late morning sun shone brightly on the dunes of Southern Shores Monday as members of the nonprofit NEST checked on one of dozens of sea turtle nests.
The nest is within a nondescript, roughly 5-foot square of sand in the middle of the beach, roped off by yellow caution tape.
At first glance, the sand looks like any other patch along the beach. But Jerrica Rea points out a trail of what look like tiny tire marks.
“This morning, we actually had a few turtles emerge from this nest,” said Rea, vice president of NEST, which stands for the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles. “So there's some beautiful tracks leading down to the ocean.”
This sea turtle nest is one of 56 found on North Carolina’s Northern Outer Banks this year, a record since counting began in 2009. And the season’s not over yet.
The region’s beaches are an important nesting habitat for five threatened or endangered sea turtle species, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The nests’ success depends on a lot of effort by humans, too.
Protecting nests
NEST is permitted by the state to monitor and protect sea turtle nests along 60 miles of beach, from the Virginia border to Nags Head. (The southern end, down to Ocracoke, is managed by the National Park Service. It’s even busier for nests, with several hundred.)
The nesting season stretches from May through August. Female sea turtles briefly come ashore to lay an average of 100 eggs about 2 feet under the sand. About two months later, hatchlings emerge and shuffle their way into the ocean.
The nonprofit’s work starts before sunrise with daily ATV patrols, drawing from a network of more than 300 volunteers.
Rea said they look for U-shaped tracks coming out of the water and up toward the dune – the mark of a mama turtle making her nest.
“It's a very distinct thing to see on the beach. It doesn't look like footprints. It doesn't really look like a cart being pulled,” she said. “It is very unique, kind of like a rainbow shape of flipper marks.”
Each species has a different flipper pattern.
Loggerheads are the most common in the area, making up the majority of this year’s nests. Seven of the 56 are green sea turtles. Kemp’s ridleys, considered the world’s smallest and most endangered sea turtle species, sometimes nest here as well.
This year, the Northern Outer Banks got a rare visit from a giant leatherback, which laid its eggs north of Corolla.
Lisa Jackson, a volunteer lead responder with NEST, said there’s a chance it could be the same turtle that recently nested at the Dam Neck naval station in Virginia Beach, the first recorded leatherback nest in Virginia.
Each turtle lays up to five nests per season, meaning the 56 nests could be the product of a much smaller number of individuals.
Jennifer Claflin, a director with NEST, said once ATV riders spot a potential nest, volunteers respond, verify it’s a nest, mark it off and watch it for the next two months.
“From there, once we get close to the hatching date, we're going to start sitting and watching and monitoring and making sure all of the hatchlings get safely out to the ocean,” Claflin said.
The first major sign of hatching is a depression in the sand, indicating eggs are on the move.
“It's called a boil because the sand, when you're looking at it, it'll start to bubble almost like lava,” Claflin said. “You can see it moving, and then they'll come out.”
Often they emerge in a large group, but there are also “a few stragglers afterwards,” she said.
Hatchlings move in the dark, when it’s cooler and easier to evade predators. But sometimes, volunteers are lucky and glimpse the mini-stampede.
“They look like little Oreos, and it’s like, ‘There's one, there's one,’” Jackson said. It's just a big black mob going to the beach; that’s all you see.”
At the Southern Shores site, Rea pointed to the path between the nest and the ocean, which they call a “runway.”
“You can see that they kind of all stay in the same direction. They kind of veer off, they fan out a little bit, but head straight to where they're supposed to go.”
Most hatchlings make it to the ocean, where they “swim as fast as they can” to try to get to the Sargasso Sea, the nexus of four major ocean currents in the Atlantic, before returning as juveniles a few years later.
The greatest danger happens after they’re in the water, facing threats from humans, volatile temperatures and hungry predators such as sharks.
“Anything that’s bigger than them," Claflin said, "it’s fair game.”
Only about one in 1,000 hatchlings is estimated to reach adulthood.
Half of this year’s nests on the Northern Outer Banks were in Nags Head, which happened to be undergoing beach nourishment.
That required the group to relocate 28 nests, “which is a huge undertaking,” Rea said. It involves taking precise measurements, carefully excavating eggs and recreating the nest elsewhere.
At the end of the season, officials will test DNA samples from eggs when they were first laid. Scientists along the East Coast use the information to track turtles and determine the sex of the babies.
Rea said the best way for beachgoers to help turtles is to keep the sand “clean, dark and flat.” That means taking home all beach gear, filling in any holes and turning off lights at night, such as from nearby homes or fishing piers.
The nonprofit also operates a 24-hour hotline to report turtles and nests. Sometimes, calls come in about turtles in need of medical help.
Turtle treatment
NEST transports stranded turtles to the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.
The aquarium started doing turtle rehabilitation on a small scale in 1998, said deputy director Christian Legner.
In 2015, officials launched the Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation, or STAR, Center.
Since then, the facility has seen 2,725 sea turtles and released 1,922 of them into the wild. Some of the remaining turtles died, but many were transferred elsewhere if deemed non-releasable or the space was overcrowded, Legner said.
The Roanoke Island aquarium has one permanent sea turtle resident, an adult female Kemp’s ridley named Fin. Because of past boat strike injuries, “she doesn’t always orient herself in the water column properly,” Legner said.
This week, the STAR Center was home to just two patients, juvenile green sea turtles.
Rogue and Mystique came in earlier this summer embedded with barnacles, and one needed antibiotics to clear an infection. But they’re expected to be released soon.
When stranded turtles arrive, the aquarium often gives them supportive fluids and runs bloodwork. When needed, officials can take the turtles to the human hospital in Elizabeth City for CT scans, Legner said.
The center’s patients have included turtles hooked by fishing gear and struck by boats. But the busiest season comes in winter, which causes cold-stunning.
“When it gets below 50 degrees, the turtles kind of float to the surface, kind of like hypothermia,” Legner said.
Some years bring in as many as 600 cold-stunned sea turtles, she said. After they are warmed and monitored, the aquarium releases many of them farther out in the ocean near the Gulf Stream, where waters are warmer.
Sea turtles are very resilient, Legner said. They can be released with only three flippers or one eye.
They just have to pass the aquarium’s test, which includes ensuring they are eating and moving properly. Turtles do a swim test.
"So we have lifeguards, and we try the turtles out in some water to make sure they aren't tiring too quickly,” Legner said.
Doing all the treatment in the public eye has another benefit, she said.
“People can come and see a sea turtle in front of them. They can understand some of the threats and maybe make a change in their life.”
She’s seen all sorts of plastic end up in turtles’ digestive tracts, such as balloon strings and plastic forks.
Avoiding single-use plastics could stop turtles from having to come here in the first place – and allow them to make more nests on the beach.
If you observe a sea turtle on the Northern Outer Banks, you can call NEST’s 24-hour hotline at 252-441-8622.
