Summer Vacation

Summer is around the corner. Sea turtles are already coming ashore to lay nests. You can keep track of how many nests are laid in your area using Seaturtle.org’s nesting data base.

Here are links to current nests near the Aquarium:
Carolina Beach: 1 nest
Kure Beach: 2 nests
Fort Fisher: 8 nests
Bald Head: 12 nests

Nest in Fort Fisher

Hopefully this year’s season will be better than last year’s. Unfortunately, 2014 had some of the lowest nest numbers since scientist began collecting data. One reason the numbers may appear so low is because 2013 nest numbers were high. You can compare 2014 and 2015 by looking at last year’s data.

We look forward to new nests on our beaches because it means new hatchlings this fall. Our sea turtle hatchlings have really grown this year. I will be including their chart at the end of this post. We will keep the chart updated until we release the hatchlings in the fall.

Turtle B in October 2014

I hope you have enjoyed learning about our turtles this year. We have had quite an interesting collection of posts about everything from cold stunned turtles to careers involving turtles to ways you can protect the ocean. We also have hosted several teacher workshops. If you didn’t get a chance to participate, join us for one scheduled for July 18. You can register here.

Thank you to the 35 classes from across the United States and Canada who participated in our Adopt a Turtle program. We loved hearing what you named your turtles and how you helped shell-ebrate their hatch day! Next year promises to be even better. Enjoy your summer and we’ll see you in September!

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If you are unsure of what to do with these numbers, please visit our lesson plan Hatchling to Yearling. If you have questions about the turtles before September, don’t hesitate to email us using the email button on the left side of the page. We are always happy to answer questions!