Beach Access Issues
October 7, 2008
Record number of nests on seashore take a beating from September storms

By JORDAN TOMBERLIN




“It’s been a crazy season,” says Michelle Bogardus, lead sea turtle biologist with the National Park Service, of the 2008 turtle nesting season on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

With 112 nests and one dig, the 2008 season, which closed at the end of August, ended not only with a record number of nests on the seashore, but also with a high success rate among those that had hatched.

Then came the September storms.

In terms of turtle management, the two biggest concerns with any storm are overwash and beach erosion.  The sustained winds and high tide that accompany coastal storms put the fragile nests and hatchlings in danger of drowning, especially those nests that are in the latter stages of incubation, and in some cases, the severe weather causes entire sections of the beach to erode away, taking with them any nests that have been laid there.

“They’re tricky,” says Bogardus.  “We do everything we can to protect the nests, but obviously, we can’t control the storms.”

Tropical Storm Hanna was the first to roll in, hitting the southern coast of North Carolina, near the Wilmington area, on Sept. 6, bringing several days of high tides and dumping buckets of rain on the Outer Banks. 

“It doesn’t have to be a big storm by our standards to affect the turtles,” says Bogardus.  The already fragile nests become even more vulnerable in the latter stages of incubation. Essentially, after the first two weeks or so, nests cannot withstand any inundation.

So even though Tropical Storm Hanna seemed mild at best to the human residents of the seashore, it was pretty rough on our reptilian friends. Bogardus estimates that as many as 10 of the remaining nests were lost in the storm, but she noted happily that none of the nests seashore personnel excavated after Hanna contained drowned hatchlings.  

Following closely behind Hanna was an extra-tropical cyclone, better known as a nor’easter, which threatened to be even more detrimental to the remaining nests. 

When Hanna hit the seashore, a lot of the nests were early enough in their incubation period to withstand the moderate overwash that it brought, including two nests that had been laid recently enough that the Park Service was able to move them closer to the dunes for further protection.

But when the nor’easter rolled into town some two weeks after Hanna, bringing gale force wind, intermittent downpours, and promising even higher tides than the tropical storm, many of those nests had reached their hatch window and were in real danger of drowning, including eight nests that had hatched by just a single day.

Knowing that any live hatchlings left in those nests would drown, Bogardus and crew were forced to excavate the nests three days early, rescuing nearly 130 baby turtles from the rising tide.

They were also forced to remove all the filter fencing surrounding the remaining nests.  The fencing, which is essential to protecting the turtles from light pollution, becomes a hazard during storms because it can effectively trap any turtles emerging from a nest. 

Because removal of the fencing gives the turtles little chance of making it to the water, it is left in place until the last possible minute. Once the fencing is gone, the turtles have it twice as hard—not only are they battling the ever-rising tide, they’re also completely susceptible to lights that could lead them astray.

Citing an example of just how important the fencing is, Bogardus relayed the story of a nest in Buxton Village, located in front of the Buxton Motel, that was almost lost to light pollution.
The Park Service had pulled the fencing in preparation for Hanna’s arrival.

“The nest decided to hatch that night,” she said, “just as Hanna hit.” 

The hatchlings, emerging from the unprotected nest and disoriented by the lights, headed straight for the parking lot of a Buxton Motel.

Luckily, some guests who were out watching the storm saw the turtles meandering toward the pavement and called the appropriate authorities.

The Park Service, with the help of about 10 volunteers, managed to get all 58 turtles back to the water.

“One lady had an empty Kleenex box with five turtles in it,” Bogardus recalled.

If there is a silver lining to the storm situation, it’s that things could have been much worse.

“We lost more nests than I had hoped,” says Bogardus, “but less than I expected.”

Losses from Hanna could have been much higher had it been a stronger storm, while losses from the nor’easter could have been greater had there been more unhatched and unexcavated nests in the ground at the time. 

Excavations are not complete yet, but Bogardus estimates the storms took about 10 nests each, adding happily that, in the nests they have excavated, there have been few drowned hatchlings.  All the losses were due to overwash, with the exception of two nests on the northern beaches that were lost to erosion.

With eight confirmed nests and one dig remaining, Cape Hatteras is the only seashore in North Carolina with nests left to hatch. There are seven nests left on Hatteras Island, all located south of Cape Point, and two nests left on Ocracoke, and only two of the remaining nests will affect ORV access—one near Ramp 45 in Buxton and one by Ramp 49 in Frisco. 




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