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 Hatteras NS
North Carolina WRC Sea Turtle Project

Sea turtle nests laid by loggerheads, green turtles, Kemp's Ridleys, and leatherbacks have been monitored in Cape Hatteras NS since the 1970s. Between May and August, staff from NPS regularly patrol the beaches of Cape Hatteras to locate, mark and protect nests, and resultant hatchlings are also protected until the end of the hatching season, in mid November.


Year

The data presented here should be considered preliminary in nature. All data, figures and maps on this website remain copyright of the project coordinators and may not be used or referenced without the explicit written consent of the data owners.

Summary What does this mean Activity

DNA Samples Assigned: 29 (7.1%)
Unique Females: 27 (analysis incomplete)
Nests: 409
  In Situ: 251
  Relocated: 158 (38.6%)
  Incubating: 167
  Inventoried: 234 (57.2%)
  Lost: 8 (1.9%)
False Crawls: 518

Estimated Eggs to Date: 36412
  Eggs Lost: 1306 (3.5%)
  Hatched Eggs: 21104
  Emerged Hatchlings: 20142
  Mean Incubation Duration (all): 58.6 days
  Mean Clutch Count: 117.4 eggs (Relocated Only)

Mean Hatch Success: 71.4%
Mean Emergence Success: 68.2%
Nest Success: 52.2%
Beach Success: 44.1%

Last Updated: 2026-09-03 12:53:42 (17.6 hours ago)

Hover mouse over each chart for a description.

Significant Nest Losses
Egg Status Egg Losses
SpeciesNestsFalse Crawls
Loggerhead390499
Green Turtle1518
Leatherback41