TOPSAIL TURTLE PROJECT NESTING PROGRAM
|
Topsail Island has 26 miles of coastline. Each mile is surveyed every morning to identify sea turtle tracks and nests from May through August.
The Loggerhead Sea Turtle comes ashore to nest 3 to 5 times during a nesting year. She deposits an average of 120 eggs per nest. The eggs will incubate in the sand for about 60 days. After all the hatchlings have pipped out of their eggs, they emerge from the nest together and race to the sea. Weighing in at about two ounces, their first challenge on our beach is escaping the deadly grasp of the ghost crabs. Once in the water they must hide from both bird and fish predators, and the swim to sea weed rafts and the Sargasso Sea begins. It is a long swim to maturity. It is estimated that 1 in 1,000 survives the first year, and as few as 1 in 5,000 – 10,000 survive to adulthood. No one has the answer to this. In 20 to 30 years the surviving hatchlings will reach adulthood. The females will return to their natal beaches to lay their eggs and the cycle begins again. Want to help conserve and protect nesting sea turtles, their nests, and their hatchlings? You can symbolically adopt a sea turtle nest with our Nest Adoption Program! Click here for info and to adopt. |
2024 Nests
|
2024 Nesting and Hatching Information
TB = Topsail Beach SC = Surf City (north/south of bridge) NTB = North Topsail Beach (north/south of bridge)
Lowest year to date: 2014, with 53 nests (all loggerheads)
|
 The highest year was 1999 with 187 nests.
|
Maps prepared by Hannah P. and Kim H., UNCW interns, Spring, 2022
using Topsail Turtle Project data as reported to SeaTurtle.org. Maps created on Google Earth.
using Topsail Turtle Project data as reported to SeaTurtle.org. Maps created on Google Earth.
