By Mike McCombs
The Island News
When the number of sea turtle nests on Hunting Island surged past last year’s record of 175 in late July, Beth Glass, Director of the Friends of Hunting Island (FOHI) Sea Turtle Conservation Program, was hopeful she would see the island’s first 200-nest season since volunteers started counting more than 40 years ago.
Though the island bettered its own mark of 175 nests to set a record for the second straight year, it topped out this season at 195 nests, just shy of the 200 mark.
“We had a record year last year,” Glass said Monday, Nov. 13, the day the final Hunting Island nest of the season was inventoried. “We kind of expected a slower year this year but the turtles had other ideas. We’ll gladly take it.”
Glass said, even though they’re up now, the numbers are cyclical.
“A female will nest four to seven times in a season, then take a year or two or three off, and then come back” Glass said. “Nesting has its natural highs and lows.”
Still, Glass said she could still see Hunting Island as “a 200-nest beach the way we’re gaining every year.”
FOHI President Linda Miller ran down Hunting Island’s numbers for the season.
“We had a hatching success rate of 69% (the percentage of laid eggs that hatched) and an emergence success rate of 66.4% (the percentage of hatchlings that made it out of the nests),” Miller said. “Our nests success rate (percentage of nests that were successful) was 90%, and we had 14,469 babies make it to the water.”
All of those statistics are relayed to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR). In all, a tentative estimate of 387,608 hatchlings made it to the ocean from South Carolina beaches in 2023.
“We had a solid team this year of dedicated volunteers who were out there in all types of weather, managing 195 inventories,” Miller said. “We thank everyone on the FOHI Sea Turtle Conservation Program who volunteered hours in every kind of weather conditions to help bring the loggerhead babies home to the ocean.”
Glass said more than 200 volunteers signed up this year for the FOHI Sea Turtle Conservation Program and more than 170 participated for the entire season.
“(The number of volunteers) is increasing every year,” Glass said. “It was high this year. We had an influx of new people after a couple years of COVID.”
Sign-up to volunteer for the FOHI Sea Turtle Conservation Program for the 2024 season begins in February. FOHI membership is required. Those interested in joining FOHI should visit FOHI.org/membership.
Glass said now that the season is over, there isn’t a lot to do right now. As next season gets closer, “we’ll look at what we need,” she said.
Weather was a factor in the 2023 sea turtle nesting season, not just at Hunting Island, but across South Carolina.
According to the SCDNR, a higher-than-average year was tempered by losses from tropical storm Idalia, high tides and predators dropping the statewide total for nests from 7,968 last year to 6,628 in 2023.
“Idalia was a trifecta of water issues,” said SCDNR biologist Michelle Pate, who oversees the agency’s nest protection program. “We had a supermoon, king tide and tropical storm all at once.”
According to the SCDNR, the tide, rain and storm surge flooded many coastal beaches, washing away sea turtle nests and habitat in the process. The storm took a particularly heavy toll on Edisto Island and the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, where significant nest losses occurred. All told, SCDNR biologists estimate 600 nests drowned or washed away due to Idalia.
Locally, the jury is still out on the impact of the tropical storm.
“We lost a lot of area that we’re afraid isn’t going to be available as nesting area next year,” Glass said. “We just have to go check the beach and see what areas are holding water, etc. We just have to keep up with that kind of stuff.”
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
