Irene Delivers Blow to Turtle Nests

This was set to be a banner year for sea turtle nesting, but Hurricane Irene changed that.

Volunteers were watching 23 nests on Isle of Palms and two nests on Sullivan’s Island. Friday’s storm surge from Hurricane Irene may have destroyed 14 of those nests, volunteers report.

“The eggs are porous, and they can survive for a brief while under water, but just like humans, they need to breathe,” said Mary Pringle, project leader for the Island Turtle Team for Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms.

One turtle nest hatched Saturday, which was a small victory, but Pringle and her volunteers are expecting a grim outcome for the other nests. Prior to the storm, nests had been hatching at an impressive 85 percent rate. In all, turtles laid 44 nests this summer.

“Our volunteers are sad, and I am trying to help them look at the bright side,” Pringle said. “Some might hatch, some might not, but it was still a good year.”

Island Turtle Team volunteers work under South Carolina Department of Natural Resources guidelines. They can’t move eggs, even if they know an impending storm might kill the baby turtles, Pringle said.

“We have very strict rules,” she said. “The losses are disappointing to volunteers who work so hard and care so much about the turtles.”

Turtle nests took hits all across the South. The Savannah Morning News reported that 50 nests were claimed along the Georgia Coast, but like South Carolina, the state had a banner year with nearly 2,000 nests reported along the Peach State coast.

Researchers from Jacksonville, Fla., to North Carolina reported sea turtle losses associated with high water and erosion caused by Irene.

“It was such a big year,” Pringle said. “But this was Mother Nature. The turtles have survived for 180 million years, and they’ll survive Hurricane Irene.”