Loggerhead sea turtles are facing real challenges when trying to nest this season on the Isle of Palms. It seems that their favored areas near Breach Inlet, Beachwood East and Dunecrest Lane have lost so much sand that finding a spot to leave eggs has become even more difficult.
By June 5, they had laid five nests south of 6th Avenue and five nests in Wild Dunes, either at or near Beachwood East or Dunecrest Lane, comprising 71% of the total nests.
The last day of May was quite interesting for our Turtle Team. At the south end of the island is a steep wall where the tide eats away at the artificial berm of sand that the city of Isle of Palms maintains to protect the houses while we wait for the major sand renourishment project this summer. Karen Thomas-Burbee, who was visiting the island from the Rock Hill area, discovered several loggerhead eggs at 3rd Avenue exposed on the pedestrian path and several more broken eggs down on the beach. Karen contacted us by using the QR code on that path’s turtle sign. The tide often comes up to the steep 10-foot escarpment, erasing the telltale 2-foot-wide tracks that loggerheads leave behind, alerting those on patrol that a nest has been laid. But somehow, the mother turtle had managed to scale that very steep path to get up on the tall berm.
We knew there was a nest somewhere nearby because of the presence of exposed eggs and broken shells. When we responded to Karen’s call, we concentrated on probing any disturbed spots down on the flat beach up against the steep escarpment of sand where the broken shells were found. We had all but given up when Jessica Strahan, who has a house at 3rd Avenue and Charleston Boulevard, walked up the path where we had probed the downward slope and felt something underneath the sand with her bare foot. The eggs were at the very top of the path, very close to the surface. This path had been closed and recently opened, so people walking down the steep incline were pushing sand downhill, uncovering the eggs. What an extraordinary find! This nest would have been destroyed by heavy equipment during the major sand pumping project later in June and buried under many feet of sand if the eggs had not been discovered.
It was such a good feeling to take the 121 surviving whole eggs up to a safe place near 31st Avenue and mark the nest in a new spot for incubation. From the condition of the rescued eggs, it appeared that they had been laid sometime in the previous week or two. A few of them were discolored and collapsed, but most looked viable. There were six broken shells from being walked on. One of the broken ones was used for our DNA sample in the genetics research project. The nest was protected from coyotes by a staked-down heavy screen.
