Beachgoers Ride, Harass A Sea Turtle Just Trying To Lay Her Eggs

GARDEN CITY, SC — A green sea turtle recently trying to lay eggs on a South Carolina beach ran into one of the greatest threats to her species’ survival: human interference.

Horry County police were notified shortly before 11 p.m. July 12 that some beachgoers were harassing, photographing and riding a sea turtle after she crawled out of the sea to lay her eggs on the beach off the Garden City Pier.

“I wish these turtles would bite,” an administrator for the South Carolina United Turtle Enthusiasts wrote on Facebook, “as they’re capable of doing.”

To make matters worse, the sea turtle harassed in Garden City was met with similar treatment the night before when she attempted to nest at Myrtle Beach State Park, park ranger Ann Wilson told news station WBTW.

“The story I got from beachgoers is around 2:30 she was up and actively digging her chamber with her back flippers, and she got to be about this deep and then I think there were too many people on the beach at 2:30 — I think they were taking pictures — getting too close and they scared her off and she left,” Wilson said. “She false crawled twice in this park, which means she did not lay eggs.”

What the beach revelers reportedly did in both cases is illegal. Harming or interfering with sea turtles violates federal law and is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and a year in prison.

By the time police arrived the Garden City pier, “the drunks and delinquents” who attempted to ride the nesting sea turtle had moved on, SCUTE wrote. Once they left, the turtle returned to the beach to nest, according to the post.

The incident was an inauspicious start to the green sea turtle nesting season in South Carolina, according to the Garden City Surfside Sea Turtle Guardians, which like SCUTE is made up of volunteers dedicated to sea turtle conservation.

“After a very disheartening night of people harassing, even riding her and scaring her back to the sea, this green mama was able to quietly come back ashore to lay her nest,” the first reported in South Carolina this year, the Garden City group wrote on its Facebook page.

The green sea turtle nest, which contained 77 eggs, was believed to be the first in South Carolina this year. The turtle eggs were relocated — a fairly common occurrence. If turtles nest too close to the water, their eggs are unlikely to hatch. They also lay eggs in areas with high foot traffic, where people walking along the beach may crush them.

Wilson, the ranger at Myrtle Beach State Park, told WBTW that people are naturally interested in the sea turtle nesting season and want to get photographs. What they don’t always appreciate is that “they are dealing with a wild animal who is terrified of them,” she said.

“It’s frustrating and sad because it is not proper behavior for anybody.”

Four species of the endangered sea turtles — greens, the largest in hard-shelled sea turtle family; loggerheads; Kemp’s ridleys and leatherbacks — nest on South Carolina beaches. All are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Sea turtles are remarkable long-distance travelers, crossing an entire ocean basin between their feeding and nesting beaches, and using “the earth’s magnetic field like an invisible map to navigate through their migrations,” according to Oceana.org, a group dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans.

Sea turtles are creatures of habit, returning to the same beach where they were hatched to lay their eggs. They lay about 100 eggs at a time and return to the nesting area several times.

If green sea turtles are on the beach, they’re nesting, according to Oceana — although a population in Maui, Hawaii, “are known to climb on beaches during the day, to rest in the sun.”

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources says it’s important to keep as much artificial light off the beaches during nesting season, including lights on beachfront properties and flash photography, which can disturb nesting mothers and hatchlings.

It’s also important to keep a distance and avoid single-use plastics the turtles can mistake for food.

The top six threats to sea turtle survival are, according to the ecotourism and conservation group SEEturtles.com:

• Sea turtles can become entangled in long lines and shrimp nets used by the commercial fishing industry, or be injured in bomb fishing.
• Although it’s illegal in most countries, turtle eggs are prized for their unverified aphrodisiacal properties, and turtle meat is still consumed.
• Development is encroaching along coastal nesting beaches, mangroves and other areas used by turtles for nesting.
• Turtles not only eat, get caught in and have to wade through an estimated 8 million tons of plastic in the world’s oceans, the microplastics also can affect the integrity of their nests.
• Climate change is increasing sand temperatures, which can cause only females to be born, and rising sea levels can erode at their nesting beaches.
• The turtleshell trade puts certain turtles — particularly hawksbill turtles — at risk because their shells are used as decorations and turned into jewelry and other crafts.