A few sunrise excursions to look for surviving turtles had been discouraging.
There were many turtle nests full of water after Hurricane Dorian. None of the eggs hatched. The baby turtles did not survive.
It’s why Sea Turtle Patrol Kiawah Island would appreciate this morning even more. I was so happy to be tagging along and had no idea the incredible things that I’d soon see.
They were watching a nest higher in the dunes, the roots from dune grass had grown around it.
The dune grass protected it in some ways, but the turtles wouldn’t have been able to get out on their own.
The Turtle Patrol dug into the sand and found they’d hatched and were ready to make their way into the ocean.
They were covered in sand and squirming around, feverishly, learning to use their flippers. That motion carries them to the water.
They checked each turtle, then gently put it in a bucket with sand from the nest.
Before we knew it, the bottom of the bucket was full, but the nest was not empty yet. The volunteers with the turtle patrol would come back for the rest of the hatchlings after releasing the first bucket full.
The turtles were crawling all over each other in that bucket. We were squealing like little kids watching it.
We watched as most of them instinctively went towards the ocean, following the light of the sun, or moon when they hatch at night, not letting anything – or each other - get in their way.
It took a little longer for a few of them to adjust to life outside the nest. The turtle patrol had us form two lines to make a path – two of them headed straight for my shoe, then needed a little help.
The patrol asked us to shoo away birds who swoop in and try to eat the turtles. Crabs are predators, too.
Something about seeing the turtles make it to the water made everyone feel like kids.
We were cheering them on. Giddy.
The Turtle Patrol are highly trained. They count and mark the nests. They know when they are set to hatch.
They will not touch a nest until after it was supposed to hatch. If there is no evidence the hatchlings have left the nest, like turtle tracks or an indentation in the sand, they will open the nest.
Once they do they keep a count of the eggs that hatched and the number that did not fertilize or survive. It is how there are such specific records of the growing population of turtles.
There are already more nests this year than there were the entire season last year.
The peak is typically in June or July, with sea turtles continuing to nest into September; 2016 was the last record year with 3,300 nests counted on the Georgia coastline.
In Georgia, loggerhead sea turtles are considered an endangered species. But the good news is they've been experiencing a record nesting year.
UGA researchers say better nest protection efforts and increased use of "turtle excluder devices" in nets, are likely contributing to the successful season.
The latest numbers from seaturtle.org show nearly 3,500 loggerhead turtle nests along Georgia's coast, with the most being found on Ossabaw Island, just south of Savannah and Tybee Island.
Along with the Carolinas and Florida, there have been almost 15,000 loggerhead turtle nests recorded.
One nest can have 120 turtle eggs. This nest, found after Dorian, had 84 eggs and 84 turtles hatched – healthy.
They survived the hurricane and are part of the resurgence of loggerhead sea turtles, that were put on the list of endangered species in 1978.
They are about 4 inches long now. One day they’ll be four feet long and weigh around 75 pounds. The moms will come back to this exact spot on the beach to lay nests of their own.
It’s an experience no one on that beach will ever forget.
Saving the turtles after Hurricane Dorian
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