SC Sea Turtle wrap up stats 2024

Under special wildlife permits, Capt. Nike has volunteered out at Cape Romain and has helped release stragglers! 

It is almost the end of September which means we are wrapping up the nesting and hatching season for sea turtles in South Carolina! The sea turtle nesting season for SC is typically May-October. This year, the first sea turtle nest was laid April 29th in Garden City Beach. Lining SC’s  coast is about 300 kilometers of beach facing the ocean—aka sea turtle nesting habitat. Four species of sea turtles have been documented nesting in South Carolina which are Kemp’s ridleys, leatherbacks, greens, and loggerhead sea turtles. Loggerheads (Caretta caretta)are the most common nesters in SC and are the state reptile! 

*SPECIAL NOTE*: We are including some statistics from the 2024 nesting season, however, if you check out the stats and they are different it could be because more data was entered in the database by the time this blog post was published.

The state total of nests is 4805 nests!! 4790 of those were loggerhead nests, 2 were greens, 3 were leatherbacks, 2 were Kemp’s ridleys, and 8 were unknown nests. After the nests were laid, incubation could take anywhere from 50-60 days for the eggs to hatch. The average  days it has taken the eggs to hatch in SC was 54 days. The average clutch size ( average amount of eggs in each nest) was 114.2 eggs and the average hatch success rate statewide was 60.4%!  The total nests we had on Capers this year was *drumroll please* ….5 nests! Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge, a group of barrier islands slightly north of Capers, had over 2,000 nests! The refuge typically has the most sea turtle nests in the state of South Carolina. If you want to check out where we got these statistics from please check out Sea Turtle Org for data reporting!

South Carolina has been monitoring sea turtle nests since the 1970’s. All 7 species of sea turtles are considered endangered with the Kemp’s ridleys being the most endangered. Due to conservation practices, sea turtle populations are increasing and scientists are collecting some valuable genetic information with conservation! For more information on South Carolina’s sea turtle nesting programs, here’s a link to Cape Romain’s program and their facebook page—keep in mind they always need volunteers in the summer!!!