Current Nest Count
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Marine Turtle Conservation Program is responsible for managing and protecting sea turtles in the state of South Carolina, USA. This program has several all encompassing components: management, monitoring, research, and education. More specifically this program provides technical expertise on anthropogenic activities that have the potential to impact sea turtles (i.e., nourishment, dredging), locates and protects sea turtle nests (~300 km of coastline), documents strandings, performs necropsies on fresh dead strandings, works with the SC Aquarium to provide rehabilitation for live strandings, monitors nearshore waters for leatherbacks, and provides as much education, outreach and exchange of scientific information as time allows.
The SCDNR began monitoring sea turtle nesting activities and strandings in the late 1970s. Information gained from this program contributes to ongoing sea turtle nest management and protection projects on all of the state's beaches.There are approximately 330 kilometers of ocean-facing sandy beaches in South Carolina that provide suitable nesting habitat for sea turtles. To date, loggerheads, green turtles, leatherbacks and rarely Kemp’s ridleys sea turtle nests have been recorded on South Carolina beaches. By far the most common nesting species is the loggerhead. In South Carolina, nesting surveys and nest protection measures are carried out by a variety of public agencies such as the SCDNR, USFWS, South Carolina Department of Parks and Recreation and Coastal Carolina University. Several private organizations and numerous volunteers are also actively involved with sea turtle protection work.Altogether, more than 800 individuals participate in nest monitoring activities in South Carolina each year. Results from all South Carolina sea turtle nesting beach projects are submitted to the SCDNR and compiled for the State and made available to federal agencies. These data are crucial in monitoring populations, formulating protective regulations, making management decisions, and maximizing reproduction for recovery.
Beginning in 1980, approximately 12 aerial surveys were flown each year for three years followed by two non-survey years. Estimates for the non-survey years were extrapolated from ground data based on six index beaches. These six beaches represent a mean of 40% of the nesting effort over a 15 year period. Therefore, on the non-survey years, ground data was used to estimate the remaining 60% of the nesting effort.
The data presented here should be considered preliminary in nature. All data, figures and maps on this website remain copyright of the project coordinators and may not be used or referenced without the explicit written consent of the data owners.