Eco Trips & Trails

Sea Turtles in NC

In May, while flocks of tropical birds are migrating to the North Carolina mountains to propagate their species, some much bigger, slower-moving creatures  are arriving on our beaches to reproduce theirs: The ever-fascinating sea turtles.

Five species of them can be found in North Carolina’s waters this time of year from Okracoke Inlet southward: the loggerhead, the green, the leatherback, the Ridley and the hawksbill.

"Although five of the eight marine turtles make use of these waters," writes John Rucker in his Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year, "almost all the nesting effort is made by the most common sea turtle in the region, the loggerhead, which weighs from 170 to 500 pounds and is the largest of the hardbacked sea turtles…[Also] at this time a flight down North Carolina’s 26-mile-long Topsail Island can reveal as many as a dozen feeding leatherback turtles, even though it is thought that there are fewer than 1,000 females worldwide."

How the loggerheads in particular find their way here every year from places as far away as the Azores and the Canary Islands has always been one of nature’s most intriguing mysteries. But a study by a University of North Carolina team of scientists sheds fascinating light on the subject.

Professor Kenneth J. Lohmann and his colleagues studied hatchling loggerheads to see if they could track changes in the earth’s magnetic field. They discovered that the turtles’ migration routes and navigational skills seem to be hard-wired into their brains from birth. In fact, tests showed that the hatchlings have the ability to sense the direction and strength of the earth’s magnetic field with a kind of internal compass.

For example, when they were exposed to a magnetic field similar to one that occurs near Portugal, all the hatchlings paddled south (which in that area would serve to keep them in warm, nutrient-rich water). They did this, remarkably, without having ever been to sea.
"Our results provide direct evidence that young sea turtles can in effect exploit regional magnetic fields as open-ocean navigational markers," wrote Lohmann and his colleagues in the journal Science.

Given the enormous odds against them – including being preyed upon by foxes, raccoons, ghost crabs and even dogs when they’re in the egg stage; and sea birds, crabs, sharks and other carnivorous fish when they’re young – how do these sweet, tranquil creatures continue to survive?

One important reason is the "turtle friendliness" of North Carolina’s beach communities.

Writes Rucker, "All along the coastline of the Carolinas is a network of turtle projects in which volunteers are assigned sections of beach to walk. Devoted, serious-minded volunteers working under licensed leaders, locate their nest sites, ‘adopt’ nests and then stand guard over them as the incubation period nears its end in approximately 60 days. When the two-inch-long baby turtles emerge from a nest and head pell-mell down the beach, the proud and excited ‘nest parents’ are there to clear a path, making sure no tire tracks will entrap them, no predator will eat them before they reach the water and no floodlights from beachfront homes will confuse them."

The hatchlings begin to appear in July, with the peak hatching period being September.

Turtle patrols can use volunteers, but remember, working within the existing turtle project network is important. As Rucker says, "Untrained volunteers working on their own can actually frighten off turtles attempting to nest."

Here are links to some of the turtle projects on our coast:
Caswell Beach Sea Turtle Watch

Holden Beach Turtle Project

Ocean Isle Turtle Project

Pea Island

Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project

Sunset Beach Turtle Project

Wrightsville Beach Turtle Watchers

Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center

You can also learn a lot about sea turtles at North Carolina’s magnificent Aquariums.

added: July 24, 2009

updated: May 25, 2010