Sea Turtle Season on Hilton Head Island
May through October is nesting season on America’s Favorite Island®
Humans are not the only ones who love the 12 miles of the wide-open, pristine beaches of Hilton Head Island. This beautiful, sensitive coastal environment also plays an important role in the conservation of endangered sea turtles. Every year, between May and October, we welcome loggerhead turtles to our beaches where they build hundreds of nests and lay eggs. During the nesting season in 2023, sea turtles laid 353 nests here. In true Lowcountry fashion, our community works together to help these visitors nest in safety and make sure the hatchlings can safely make the trek from our warm beaches to their new ocean home.
Sea Turtle Patrol Hilton Head Island plays an important role in helping turtles during nesting season. On average, a sea turtle lays 120 eggs in a nest two to eight times over a nesting season, and Sea Turtle Patrol HHI marks and monitors these nests on morning patrols.
Keeping turtles safe is a proud tradition on our island and you can join in on your next visit to Hilton Head Island during nesting season. Sea turtle hatchlings use the light of the moon to get to the ocean, so artificial lighting visible from the beaches can be confusing and make it impossible to get to their sea home.
That’s why it’s important to:
- Turn off lights at night
- Close window shades
- Fill in holes on the beach
- Do not disturb any nests you might find
SEA TURTLE PATROL HILTON HEAD ISLAND
This volunteer organization patrols the beach every morning from May 1st until the end of hatching season. Sea Turtle Patrol searches for nesting loggerhead tracks, identifies nests, and marks them with poles. After 45 days of incubation, the nests are monitored for hatching. Once these baby sea turtle hatchlings emerge from the nest, Sea Turtle Patrol records the date and waits for three days to pass before taking inventory, counting and categorizing the contents of the nest. These volunteers work under the direction of Amber Kuehn, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources permit holder for Hilton Head Island. This organization also plays a big role in promoting awareness of how visitors can help preserve, conserve, and protect these endangered species.
Sea Turtle Talk
Join Amber Kuehn for a 45-minute presentation at the Lowcountry Celebration Park every Monday in June, July, and August this summer to learn more about sea turtle biology and what Sea Turtle Patrol HHI does on a daily basis to ensure the safety and growth of our sea turtle population. For more information visit us at SeaTurtlePatrolHHI.org
Nest Dedications
Support the Sea Turtle Patrol by honoring a special person with a nest dedication. This person will receive a personalized card with a nest number and your sincere message.
Myrtle The Turtle
It’s hard to miss the vibrant turtle sculpture, Myrtle the Turtle, at Coligny Beach Park, Hilton Head Airport, and The Sandbox Children's Museum. Painted by local artist Mira Scott, the sculpture is based off a real sea turtle that has been nesting on Hilton Head Island since 2011. But unlike most sea turtles, Myrtle doesn’t take the typical two year break between nesting seasons meaning she’s nested here every other year. This prolific turtle laid eight nests in 2017, which is the highest documented number laid by an individual sea turtle in a single nesting season on Hilton Head Island. She’s at least 60 years old and we’ll know Myrtle is 90 when her granddaughters start nesting as well.
Yearly Turtle Nests on Hilton Head Island
A number of factors contribute to how many nests sea turtles make on Hilton Head Island each year. The start date of nesting season can change depending on the water temperature, with warmer water temperatures meaning an earlier start time. Along with environmental factors, the conservation efforts by volunteers on Hilton Head Island can help determine how many nests are made every year.
