Volunteers keep watch over sea turtle nests on NC coast

EMERALD ISLE, N.C. (WNCT) — Female sea turtles come to the North Carolina coast to lay their eggs each year. There’s one group that ensures the protection of all the sea turtle nests they find during the season.

The season starts on May 1 and continues through August 31. Emerald Isle Sea Turtle Patrol has around 80 volunteers who walk each day to check on the nesting sites. They discovered eight sites this year.

“We are a beach monitoring program, so we look for sea turtle nests and set them up, protect them. And then When it’s time for them to hatch, we make sure they all get to the ocean and then we’ll do an excavation roughly 72 hours after the hatch,” said Dale Baquer, Emerald Isle Sea Turtle Patrol program coordinator.

She said each season is different. During some years, there have been up to 52 nests along the Emerald Isle coast. It takes around 50-70 days for a sea turtle nest to hatch.

View the video above for more information about sea turtle activity in Emerald Isle.

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