Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring System

North Carolina WRC Sea Turtle Project

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Nests
1-5
6-10
11-20
21-40
40+

Beach Description

Cape Lookout NS
North Carolina WRC Sea Turtle Project

Cape Lookout National Seashore includes roughly 56 miles of sandy beach along the Outerbanks of North Carolina. The earliest records of sea turtle nesting in North Carolina come from Cape Lookout in the early 1970s. National Park Service staff have been monitoring and protecting sea turtle nests and hatchlings for over thirty years.


Year

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Summary What does this mean Activity

DNA Samples Assigned: 37 (11.3%)
Unique Females: 37 (analysis incomplete)
Nests: 328
  In Situ: 311
  Relocated: 17 (5.1%)
  Incubating: 20
  Inventoried: 284 (86.5%)
  Lost: 20 (6%)
  Unknown: 4
False Crawls: 421

Estimated Eggs to Date: 33915
  Eggs Lost: 501 (1.4%)
  Hatched Eggs: 22794
  Emerged Hatchlings: 22160
  Mean Incubation Duration (all): 57 days
  Mean Clutch Count: 111.7 eggs (Relocated Only)

Mean Hatch Success: 63.2%
Mean Emergence Success: 61.4%
Nest Success: 72.5%
Beach Success: 43.7%

Last Updated: 2026-09-30 12:37:14 (24.6 hours ago)

Hover mouse over each chart for a description.

Significant Nest Losses
Egg Status Egg Losses
SpeciesNestsFalse Crawls
Loggerhead311379
Green Turtle1641
Leatherback11