Provided
Loggerhead nesting season has ended for our two islands. The Isle of Palms had 41 nests, and Sullivan’s Island had 17.
The most nests IOP has ever recorded was 57 in 2019, with Sullivan’s Island recording 15 that year, giving the Island Turtle Team a record 72 nests in 2019.
This year, the state of South Carolina has had an outstanding nesting season, with 8,066 nests recorded at this time. Compare that with 3,916 South Carolina nests in 2025. Islands such as Kiawah and Hilton Head, with long shorelines and normally around 200 nests, have more than doubled their usual numbers.
Sullivan’s Island had never recorded more than 15 nests, and we broke that record with 17, even though there is erosion in some parts of the beach.
The renourishment project in areas of IOP did not affect our nesting because it did not begin until nesting was in its final phase, with only one nest laid in late July, and that one was not in Wild Dunes. Night work, which could have affected nesting, did not begin until after the last nest was laid in Wild Dunes on July 22.
The Turtle Team worked well with Marinex Construction when daytime staging began at the north end of the Isle of Palms shortly after the Fourth of July. Night work, which could have affected nesting, did not begin until after the last nest was laid in Wild Dunes and safely relocated away from that area.
We monitored the beach for turtle activity each morning at dawn until our patrol ended Aug. 15. Then, a paid worker watched all night for turtles and will continue to do so until the season officially ends Oct. 31.
Our hatch success average on IOP was affected by three nests where the eggs failed to develop at all. We do not know the reason for this, but it is unusual. We suspect that at least two, and maybe all three, were from the same female turtle because of the timing of when they were laid and their locations.
Every loggerhead mother will mate in the spring and then lay eggs throughout the season at two-week intervals. Perhaps there was a medical problem involved. It is rare that one fails to find a mate to fertilize any of her eggs.
We look forward to seeing the results of the maternal genetics samples that we took from all 58 of our 2026 nests. We hope this will give us more information about what happened. We collected maternal DNA samples when the nests were laid and then 23 more samples when they hatched for paternity identification. These samples were sent to the Shamblin Lab at the University of Georgia for analysis.
We are glad to say that, once again, we had no known coyote predation this year, even though coyotes are seen frequently. Ghost crabs were about the only predator, and they do minimal damage to eggs and hatchlings.
Our records show that 4,824 new hatchlings made it to the ocean from the Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island before the season ended.
As always, we owe a big thank you to the almost 200 team members who rose at dawn all summer to patrol the beach; the vacation rental companies that helped keep our beaches dark by educating renters; and the police, fire and city administrators and other workers on both islands who assist us in multiple ways to allow our hatchlings to make it to the ocean safely.
Isle of Palms
- Total nests: 41
- False crawls: 47
- Average incubation: 53.4 days
- Mean clutch count: 108.9 eggs
- Total eggs laid: 4,495
- Average hatch success: 79.1%
Sullivan’s Island
- Total nests: 17
- False crawls: 31
- Average incubation: 53.2 days
- Mean clutch count: 113 eggs
- Total eggs laid: 1,945
- Average hatch success: 81.5%