The first sea turtle nest of the 2023 season was found on Ocracoke Island on Friday morning, May 12, per an update from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS).
National Park Service biologists found the Ocracoke turtle tracks while on a routine patrol, and after carefully digging into the sand, a nest with eggs was confirmed.
CHNS biologists determined that the nest came from a Loggerhead sea turtle, and the nest has been marked off to protect it until the sea turtle eggs hatch in approximately two months.
Last year, the first sea turtle nest of the season was also found on Ocracoke Island on May 20, 2022. This timeframe is also similar to 2021 and 2020, when the first sea turtle nests were discovered in Ocracoke on May 14, 2021, and in Buxton on May 17, 2020. All of the first nests in the past four years came from Loggerhead sea turtles.
The Outer Banks serves as seasonal breeding grounds for endangered sea turtles, and the National Seashore has had several record-breaking years in the past decade when it comes to the annual number of recorded sea turtle nests.
Sea turtle nests have been monitored at CHNS since the 1970s. In 2019, a new record of 473 nests was set, but 2022 boasted the second-highest number of nests reported since data collection began, with 379 total nests reported within the National Seashore.
The high number of sea turtle nests in recent years appears to be a multiple-year trend all along the Eastern Seaboard, according to data from seaturtle.org, which actively monitors sea turtle nests all around the globe.
Due to the recent highly-active nesting seasons, visitors are advised to be aware of sea turtle nesting activity or hatchlings while visiting the local beaches on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. If you see turtle tracks, nesting activity, or hatchlings, please notify park biologists by calling 252-216-6892.
In the meantime, visitors can keep tabs on nesting activity at shorelines all around the world at http://www.seaturtle.org.
