As usual, newly hatched loggerhead turtles the size of cookies are scurrying across South Carolina beaches to begin what could be a long life in the Atlantic Ocean, periodically returning to land to lay their own eggs, continuing the life cycle. But not every hatchling makes it to the nest. Raccoons, fire ants and ghost crabs will claim a few. And this summer, a deluge of rain from Tropical Storm Debby has become an additional threat to the tiny turtles, South Carolina’s state reptile.
Just Wednesday morning, volunteers on Harbor Island east of Beaufort discovered 31 dead turtle hatchlings in a nesting chamber while making their rounds patrolling turtle nests. Volunteers assumed the turtle hatchlings had drowned because water had collected in the bottom half of the nest, said Jan Grimsley, Harbor Island’s chief sea turtle permittee, who leads a team of volunteers who monitor the nests each year.
Grimsley said standing water from rainfall appears to pose a greater threat to baby turtles than storm surge, which can wash away entire nests containing up to 120 eggs.
“The standing water – the inability of the soil to drain effectively – is going to be our biggest problem,” Grimsely says.
While rainfall is a concern, no storm season means a total loss for sea turtles, Grimsley points out.
What’s also striking, she says, is that Tropical Storm Debby hasn’t wiped out a single nest yet, a concern before the storm began lashing the South Carolina coast with heavy rains.
“We’ve had really good success this season, even before the rain that Debby brought,” said Grimsley.
Although 31 chicks did not leave the nest, this means 92 survived because 123 eggs hatched, Grimsley said.
The main nesting areas for the loggerhead turtle are the undeveloped beaches of the western Atlantic Ocean, including the Lowcountry Sea Islands. Adults, which can weigh 300 pounds and live for 80 years, lay eggs in South Carolina from May to October. The eggs are incubated for several months before hatching.
That’s the same area that saw record rainfall this week.
On Harbor Island, 38 nests remain incubating out of the 55 documented this year. So far, 1,683 hatchlings have managed to burst from their underground chambers before crawling madly toward the ocean.
Now we have to wait and see how many will turn up.
The eggs can tolerate the usual rise in tide, which is irregular and draining, Grimsley said.
Turtles have even adapted nesting strategies to weather hurricanes and tropical storms, Grimsley says. For example, loggerhead turtles nest three to five times during a breeding season, laying an average of 120 eggs each time before taking a year off and starting the process over again. Turtles that nested on Harbor Island in 2024 likely won’t return until 2026.
“That’s why they lay so many nests and eggs, to keep it all in balance,” Grimsley says.
“But what we’ve had over the last few days is so much water all at once,” Grimsley added. “I would say the rain is our biggest problem. Because the water pools if it can’t drain.”
Volunteers continue to monitor the nests even during the storm. They emerge at dawn to walk the beaches looking for signs of a “boil.” That’s when the newborn turtles burst out of their underground nests in unison and flee to the sea, leaving little trails behind. Once in the water, the 2-inch-long turtles swim nonstop for 36 hours to escape predators before finding refuge, perhaps on a clump of seaweed.
It is possible that some emerged during Tropical Storm Debby and the storm washed away their tracks.
“These things are literally the size of a cookie, so their tracks aren’t huge,” Grimsley said.
