2024 Sea Turtle Nesting Season, So Far…

By Paul Hillbrand, Sea Turtle Biologist

FFX426, a neophyte loggerhead (Caretta caretta), was the first nesting mother observed by the Conservancy’s Sea Turtle Protection Team (STPT) in 2024. Illuminated by the night’s moon, she laid BHI’s third nest on May 5, just north of the terminal groin along West Beach. Not only was FFX426 the first nesting mother observed by the STPT, but she was also the first mom that the entire 2024 summer intern cohort had the privilege of watching lay a nest! The term neophyte refers to a nesting mother that has not been observed nesting before, or so we think. The 2024 nesting season brought at least 34 unique nesting moms to the beaches of Bald Head Island, 18 of which are thought to be new to BHI and the Conservancy’s database! We saw the return of 16 remigrants – more specifically, we observed the return of five Legacy Turtles: Claire, Emily and MMA971, as well as two newly assigned Legacies, Mamo and Kai. The around 34 identified nesting mothers laid 72 nests and false crawled 65 times. A false crawl is when a nesting mother crawls out of the ocean onto the beach in search of the ideal location to create her nest, but is unsuccessful and returns to the water without nesting. This is a common behavior observed on all sea turtle nesting beaches, and we often see the mom return the same night or the following evening. Although the season is not yet over, 59 nests have hatched, leaving 13 nests remaining on the beaches of BHI as of September 14. The 59 hatched nests contained a total of 6,485 eggs that produced in 5,481 hatchlings. The last nest of the season, #72, was laid the morning of August 1 by neophyte FFX493. This means the 2024 nesting season will wrap up mid October. We are excited to provide a full season recap at the end of October!