Storm Destroys Sea Turtle Nests

The empty sea turtle egg shells shown in one of the photos in this blog posting were found on the beach among the left-over sea weed and "garbage" that was blown up on the beach - up to the dune line. We've now lost half as many sea turtle nests on our beaches as we have found hatched. A sad commentary for the sea turtle nesting season this year, but something that is unavoidable. Mother Nature has an impact on all creatures, but sometimes she's quite destructive, as seen in another photo included in this post.

Mother Nature's fury was evidenced during a "drive-by" this week by Hurricane Earl. While the storm's winds never reached our shores, the waves created by the storm hundreds of miles out to sea eventually reached our beaches. In virtually one night, at least 6 nests that we had identified in our records were destroyed. One photo included in this posting shows that the crashing waves came up to the sea oats (dune line) - reaching virtually from the jetty south to the stretch of beach where we stop recording nests. The dune line that you see in the photo used to have anywhere from 20 to 30 yards of sandy beach between the dunes and the ocean's high tide. Now, the high tide line is up to the sea oats! We will probably find many more nests on our beach walk tomorrow that have also been destroyed, but we hold out hope that the remaining storms of the year are not so destructive of our beaches - and sea turtle nests.