A Kid-Friendly Guide to Sea Turtles on Hilton Head Island: Fun Facts, Activities, & How to Help
If you’re visiting Hilton Head Island with young ones during sea turtle nesting season (May–October), there are plenty of turtle-friendly things you can do to help them thrive. Keeping beaches dark, giving turtles space, and leaving the sand smooth and clear before you head in for the night. And that’s only the beginning.
This handy guide is a great place to start if you’re learning about sea turtles, you already love them but want to know more about their behaviors and lifestyle, or you are looking for ways to help out during your visit to Hilton Head Island this nesting season.
Here are some important things to know about sea turtles on Hilton Head Island:
- We have a species of sea turtle called loggerheads that come ashore to nest on our beaches on Hilton Head Island
- The mothers come back year after year to lay their eggs on the same or nearby beaches and then return to the ocean once again
- We have a volunteer organization here called Sea Turtle Patrol that helps protect the mother sea turtles and the baby sea turtles (called hatchlings) while they’re on land
- Nesting season (when the sea turtles come onto shore to lay their eggs) is from May through October on Hilton Head Island
- There are lots of things you can do to help during nesting season, hatching season, and throughout the rest of the year as well! Every action, no matter how small, makes a difference in the lives of this endangered species.
Frequently Asked Loggerhead Questions
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Loggerheads (and all sea turtles) are marine reptiles, which means that even though they live most of their lives in the ocean, they still have to come to the surface to breathe air.
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Sea turtles live an incredibly nomadic lifestyle, migrating thousands of miles every year between warmer and cooler waters for eating, mating, and nesting. We are now using satellites to track the patterns of sea turtles and are learning more about them every year. Some of them cross entire oceans to get between their feeding areas in cooler waters and their nesting areas in warmer waters.
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Like many marine species, loggerheads are facing a lot of threats like getting caught in fishing gear at sea, changing environmental conditions, pollution, boat strikes, and habitat loss. It’s important that we do everything we can to help them recover, like using less plastic, producing less pollution, and helping their nests to survive year after year in any way we can.
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It changes every year! Some turtles come to Hilton Head Island to nest every two years, some nest every three years, and it can also depend on the weather and other factors. During the most recent nesting season in 2025, there were 237 nests laid on our beaches. Let’s hope for even more this year! You can keep track of the nesting statistics on the Sea Turtle Patrol’s website.
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Yes! Loggerheads (and all sea turtles) lay eggs into nests in the sand, and the little babies called hatchlings emerge from the nests about 60 days later. The tiny loggerhead hatchlings are about 1.8 inches long and they usually emerge just after sunset, making their way to the ocean together under the cover of darkness.
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You can tell by the turtle tracks up and down the beach that the adult nesting turtles make coming ashore and heading back to the ocean. They almost look like giant tire tracks! You can usually also see a freshly dug nest by the little mound of freshly dug sand that they cover up the hole with after laying their eggs. Make sure you steer clear of these areas, as there are freshly laid eggs inside!
Things You Can Do to Help on Hilton Head Island
Sea turtles are amazing creatures, and they are facing many challenges due to climate change and our growing human population, which is creating more waste and fishing for more food in the ocean. We are so lucky to have loggerheads nesting on our beaches, but we also want to enjoy the beach during vacation, go swimming, and take our bikes out along the hard-packed sand. So, if you’re wondering how to have fun on Hilton Head Island while still being turtle-friendly, here are some tips!
When you’re visiting Hilton Head Island, it’s important to:
- Turn off beachfront lights at night
- Close window shades in your hotel after dark
- Fill in any holes you find on the beach at the end of the day
- Knock down any sandcastles you may have made while at the beach
- Stay clear of any nests or sea turtles you might find — the volunteer team will come help them!
- Use only red lights on any evening walks, so as not to disturb the turtles during nesting
- Use your zoom and make sure your flash is off if you want to take a photo, and stay a good distance away from the turtles so you don’t disturb their natural nesting behaviors.
Fun Fact: Did you know that sea turtles use the light of the moon to orient themselves? That’s why it’s so important not to use bright lights on the beach — it confuses their sense of direction!
How to Protect Sea Turtles Beyond Nesting Season
There are so many things you can do to protect sea turtles year-round, beyond nesting season on the Island. Whether you visit the Lowcountry every season or you’ve never been here before, you’re a part of our community, and you can make the promise to be kind to the earth no matter where you are. Living more sustainably and choosing eco-friendly products are great ways to help sea turtles and other endangered animals facing threats worldwide.
Here are some effective and easy ways to live an eco-friendly lifestyle:
- Try to choose products that are made from wood, metal, or other long-lasting materials over plastic ones. That way, they can be used over and over again, rather than thrown out after one use.
- Use reusable bags instead of plastic ones. This small action makes a big difference for sea turtles. Plastic bags floating in the ocean can often look like jellyfish to sea turtles and whales, causing them to eat them by accident. Let’s try to keep plastic bags out of the ocean and far away from the marine species we love so much.
- Pack a reusable water bottle when you leave the house or go on vacation, and fill it at water filling stations wherever you go.
- Make sure you are separating your recycling, garbage, and compost before it gets picked up from your home. That way, it gets processed properly and doesn’t end up in landfills.
- Leave no trace while outdoors on hiking trails, beaches, nature parks, and campgrounds. This means cleaning up any garbage you make, and being sure to take everything home with you that you arrived with.
- Participate in neighborhood and beach clean-ups. This is a great way to make sure the garbage stays out of the ocean, and you get to know your community at the same time. A lot of people taking small actions is better than one person trying to do everything!
If you’re feeling inspired to make a difference in your community as we do here on Hilton Head Island, you can learn more about our sustainability practices and #IslandKind promise here.
Ready to Take Action?
We hope this guide helped you learn more about nesting loggerhead sea turtles, their lifestyle, and how to protect them in your day-to-day life and while visiting us in the Lowcountry. You can learn more about sea turtle season on the Island here, or you can read about how to dedicate a sea turtle nest and help out Hilton Head Island’s Sea Turtle Patrol team here.
Want the chance to spot a sea turtle or hatchling in the wild? Plan your visit to Hilton Head Island with our digital 2026 Vacation Planner, your resource for events, experiences, accommodations, dining, and so much more.
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