Sea Turtle
Nesting Season Updates

Every year during sea turtle nesting our Tybee Island Sea Turtle Project volunteers walk the beach each morning looking for turtle tracks. Once tracks are found, the nest is located and blocked off with caution tape.

Volunteers occasionally need to relocate the entire nest if the nest was laid within a certain number of feet of the historic high tide line. Nests that get inundated with water during a tidal surge have a very low success rate, but relocated nests have a very high success rate! Volunteers are trained by DNR to relocate the nest very carefully.

50 days after the nest is found, volunteers start sitting with the nest at night, awaiting the 100 or so babies that will emerge any night. When the nest hatches, or “boils” (so many small bodies moving makes the sand look like it’s boiling), volunteers supervise and protect babies as they make their way to the water. Following the boil, volunteers wait an additional five days before performing an excavation to allow any late hatchlings to emerge naturally.

Finally, an excavation is performed, where volunteers carefully dig into the nest and extract all hatched and unhatched eggs as well as any turtles left in the nest. At that time, any live stragglers are released, or if we are ready for a new hatchling, we keep one to be our marine debris ambassador for a few years.

Here are some things YOU can do to keep our beaches clean, dark, and safe for our precious moms-to-be

Tybee Island Marine Science Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) commited to cultivating a responsible stewardship of coastal Georgia’s natural resources through education, conservation, and research.