North Carolina Long-Term Sea Turtle Monitoring Project

A project of Seaturtle.org/NCWRC/DUML.

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click map for full-size version This female loggerhead has moved from the island of Bogue Banks, where she nested, around Cape Lookout and headed northeast, into deeper ocean. She subsequently turned around and headed due west towards the Delmarva Peninsula, then south and back into NC waters. On the night of 13/14 July, she nested around 2:00 am on the beach in Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, south of Oregon Inlet. Subsequently, she moved back to central/southern NC until the end of July, when she moved further south into waters off of South Carolina

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Species: Loggerhead
Life Stage: Adult
Gender: Female
Release Date: 2010-06-26 00:00:00
Release Location: Atlantic Beach, North Carolina
Last Location: 2010-09-08 00:48:07

Adoptive Parents:
Sindee Greenberg
W. Roberts
Mrs. Humphrey's Class

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Background

The town of Atlantic Beach, NC, is located on the eastern end of Bogue Banks, a barrier island in Carteret County. Since 2002, volunteers and the town's Public Works department have collaborated in monitoring and protecting nests laid on the beach, and protecting hatchlings produced on the beach. Because Atlantic Beach is a popular destination with beach tourists, nesting females are fairly frequently reported to local volunteers. On the night of 25/26 June, a beach visitor called the local police department and reported a nesting female loggerhead near the public access point where the Triple S Pier used to be. The police responded and found the turtle, at which point they called Wendy Cluse of the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, who subsequently called several other volunteers. The animal had just finished covering her nest and was headed back to sea when the satellite tag and tagging equipment arrived, so the team was able to start immediately preparing her carapace for tag attachment. The team used to broom-handles, placed in the sand at the turtles shoulders, to keep the animal from moving down the beach. With the help of volunteers, tourists and even a pet dog (on a leash), the tag was attached and the turtle sent on her way in 90 minutes or so. The date of tagging is considered the middle of nesting season for loggerheads in NC, so we expect her to lay a few more clutches before departing on her post-nesting migration.

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