Sea turtle nesting season starts strong as thousands reported across SC

(WPDE) — Sea Turtle Nesting season kicked off on May 1st, and already the numbers are higher than normal.

As of Wednesday morning, South Carolina has 3436 nests through the first six weeks of the season; last year the state had 3916 all year.

Pawleys Island has 25 nests as of June 15; last year they had a total of 20 for the entire year.

On Wednesday morning, Garden City got a relatively rare green turtle nest, the first in the state this year; there were only 15 last year statewide.

“So it’s really kind of crazy what they’re coming up earlier. We don’t know if it’s because of the water temperature or it’s just a cycle that the turtles go through. Just about the time we think we get them figured out, they throw us a curve,” said Rick Scott, head of the South Carolina United Turtle Enthusiasts (S.C.U.T.E.)

S.C.U.T.E. is a volunteer organization that walks the beach to look for crawls and find nests to help protect the eggs by relocating them if necessary.

In addition to obstacles and holes on the beach, nesting turtles face the people problem.

“There was a turtle up on the beach and people had their white lights and the turtle got scared and went back into the water without laying her nest,” Scott said.

Rick says if you see a turtle, stand back and watch her from 25 feet away.

“They are federally protected, you know, and people who find it necessary to mess with them are really breaking the law,” Scott noted.

S.C.U.T.E. reminds beachgoers to fill in your holes, pick up your trash, and always use a red light on the beach after dark to not disrupt the turtles.