Our Turtle Comes In!

Last night our Sea Turtle came into shore and laid her eggs and we are so excited! She came in last night and laid a nest full of 86 eggs!!!! Someone on the Ocean Isle Turtle Patrol got a photo of her that we will be posting hopefully by tomorrow.

The Winds signed up to sponsor a nest a while back and we have been on the waiting list for next nest. While we waited for notification of our nest we have had a contest running to “Name Our Turtle”.

We’ve had a big response with lots of great names suggested.  We started the voting process at the first of the week with a cut of date of 5:00pm tonight (Wed, June 30th) in hopes to have a name for our Sea Turtle before she came in.

Nature doesn’t always work around man’s schedules but this is pretty darn close with our turtle showing up last night! We will tally the votes and declare a name for our turtle this evening so get any last minute votes to us before 5pm tonight. Click here to see the list of names.

Anyway back to our for the moment nameless Sea Turtle…

Gloria Hillenburg – Coordinator of the Ocean Isle Beach Turtle Patrol says  that 50 days from now the watch for a ‘boil over’ or mass hatching will begin and usually they hatch around the 55th day. However if the hot weather continues they could hatch as early as 49 – 50 days from now.

Anyone who would like to adopt a nest please get in touch with Gloria at (910)754-9513.

This year the Turtle Patrol’s BIG TURTLE DAY will be held on JULY 8TH it is a Wednesday, from 10 a.m. until 2:30 P.M.  The Turtle Patrol Sea Turtle will arrive at 11 a.m. with Jean Beasley and her fine crew bringing it down from the Sea Turtle Hospital at Topsail Beach.  We will have a silent auction and 2 Children activities.  This will give visitors a chance to come in on Sat. see the parade on Sunday enjoy the beach on Monday, come to the Turtle Presentation on Tuesday, then come to see a live turtle on Wednesday, what a great way to start a week.

You can help the turtles when you visit Ocean Isle By following a few simple guidelines:

Do Not Disturb: If you see an adult sea turtle coming on shore, stay quiet and keep your distance! Otherwise she may get scared and go back into the ocean without nesting. They are an endangered species and it is a federal offense to harass them.

Turn Off All Flashlights! Lights may scare or confuse the adult female and cause her to leave without nesting.

Lights Cause Hatchlings To Go In the Wrong Direction: Please turn off all outside lights each night. Also if there are curtains or blinds use them so your indoor lights do not lead the hatchlings away from the ocean.

Never Pick Up  A Hatchling. It is critical that they crawl on their own.
Do Not Disturb The Nest Area. Watch for the nest markers.

Stay Off Sand Dunes & Do Not Pick Sea Oats. Sand dunes provide critical habitat for sea turtles and help prevent flooding during times of extreme tides and storms. Foot traffic kills plants and severely  damages the sand dunes. The penalty for failure to adhere to this requirement is a $100 fine.

Help Us Keep Our Beaches Clean -Sea turtles may mistake a plastic bag or other forms of litter for a jellyfish (they eat them). All personal items and equipment must be removed from the beach each day- these items may trap a sea turtle.

Please Fill In All Holes On The Beach When Done Playing.-  Holes can trap sea turtles and are a safety hazard to humans.

Keep Dogs On Leashes At All Times!- No dogs shall be permitted on the beach strand between the hours of 9:00am and 6:00pm during period of Memorial Day through Labor Day regardless of whether they are leashed or not.
Fireworks can scare off nesting sea turtles and leave behind trash that may be mistaken for food by marine wildlife.- Discharge of fireworks is not permitted per North Carolina state laws.

Please Report all sightings of nesting turtles, dead trutles, unmarked nests or crawls (looks like a bulldozer came out of the water).

Call the Ocean Isle Beach Turtle Patrol at 910-754-9513 or 910-232-7232

You can send donations to: OIB Turtle Watch, PO Box 5172, Ocean Isle Beach, NC 28469.  Please include your name, the name of your nest and your mailing address. Keep up wtih the Turtle Patrol at: http://www.oibturtlepatrol.com