The sea turtles are coming ashore nightly and nesting on the area beaches including Bald Head Island. Area turtle watch organizations are keeping an eye out for mother turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. The Bald Head Island Conservancy Sea Turtle Protection Program is constantly patrolling the beach. Later in this article is a list of things you can do to help protect sea turtles coming to Bald Head Island.
The Winds Resort Beach Club, an oceanfront resort hotel on nearby Ocean Isle Beach has “adopted” a sea turtle nest and they want your help naming their Turtle!
Be sure to submit your names for consideration by Friday June 26 and come back to this site to vote on the name on Saturday June 27th with the winning name to be chosen by online votes placed by visitors to this site!
Email your Turtle Name suggestions to: [email protected] by Friday June 26th for consideration. The list of proposed names will be posted here on this website on Saturday June 27th with the winning name to be chosen by online votes placed by visitors to this site!
Be sure to submit your names for consideration by Friday June 26th for and come back to this site to vote on the name on Saturday 27th!
Gloria Hillenburg – Coordinator of the Ocean Isle Beach Turtle Patrol says “Mother turtles continue to come in and lay their eggs just about nightly and new nests are discovered constantly. We are there to protect them and get their babies out to sea to make their long journey, only to return to our Island and start the process all over again.”
You can help the turtles when you visit Bald Head Island by following a few simple guidelines:
Do Not Disturb: If you see an adult sea turtle coming on shore, stay quiet and keep your distance! Otherwise she may get scared and go back into the ocean without nesting. They are an endangered species and it is a federal offense to harass them.
Turn Off All Flashlights! Lights may scare or confuse the adult female and cause her to leave without nesting.
Lights Cause Hatchlings To Go In the Wrong Direction: Please turn off all outside lights each night. Also if there are curtains or blinds use them so your indoor lights do not lead the hatchlings away from the ocean.
Never Pick Up A Hatchling. It is critical that they crawl on their own.
Do Not Disturb The Nest Area. Watch for the nest markers.
Stay Off Sand Dunes & Do Not Pick Sea Oats. Sand dunes provide critical habitat for sea turtles and help prevent flooding during times of extreme tides and storms. Foot traffic kills plants and severely damages the sand dunes. The penalty for failure to adhere to this requirement is a $100 fine.
Help Us Keep Our Beaches Clean -Sea turtles may mistake a plastic bag or other forms of litter for a jellyfish (they eat them). All personal items and equipment must be removed from the beach each day- these items may trap a sea turtle.
Please Fill In All Holes On The Beach When Done Playing.- Holes can trap sea turtles and are a safety hazard to humans.
Keep Dogs On Leashes At All Times!– No dogs shall be permitted on the beach strand between the hours of 9:00am and 6:00pm during period of Memorial Day through Labor Day regardless of whether they are leashed or not.
Fireworks can scare off nesting sea turtles and leave behind trash that may be mistaken for food by marine wildlife.- Discharge of fireworks is not permitted per North Carolina state laws.
Please Report all sightings of nesting turtles, dead turtles, unmarked nests or crawls (looks like a bulldozer came out of the water).
Call the Bald Head Island Conservancy at 910-457-0089.
Keep up with the Sea Turtle Protection Program at: https://www.bhic.org/STPP.shtml
