South Carolina’s first sea turtle nest of the year found in Garden City, state agency says

Adam Benson
·1 min read

GARDEN CITY, S.C. (WBTW) — The first sea turtle nest of 2024 has been discovered in Garden City just a few days before the season’s traditional start.

The state Department of Natural Resources said on Monday that volunteers with the Garden City Surfside Sea Turtle Guardians located the nest earlier in the morning.

May 1 typically kicks off sea turtle season, but recent activity indicated that nesting was likely to begin a bit early. Last week, North Myrtle Beach volunteers happened across the year’s first recorded “false crawl.”

Sea turtle nests break records on US beaches, but global warming threatens their survival

That’s what scientists call trails left by loggerhead females who came ashore but returned to sea without nesting. Other early years include Folly Beach on April 29, 2002 and Kiawah Island on April 26, 2019.

“With warmer winter conditions and observations of mating loggerheads, there was some expectation that nesting would begin sooner than May, especially after the initial false crawl,” Michelle Pate, who oversees SCDNR’s sea turtle nesting program, said in a news release.

Overall, sea turtle nest numbers across the southeastern United States have trended up over the past decade, from 2,766 in 2018 to 6,618 last year.

Four sea turtle species nest on South Carolina beaches: loggerheads, greens, Kemp’s ridleys, and leatherbacks. All four species are classified as endangered or threatened and are protected under the Endangered Species Act in addition to state law. Loggerhead nests comprise the majority of the state’s total number each year.

Beachgoers can help the state’s sea turtles by keeping beaches clean, turning beachfront lights out to avoid disorienting turtles, and giving all sea turtles and nests a wide and respectful berth when encountered on the beach.

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Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here.

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