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 (7.2%)
Unique Females: 27 (analysis incomplete)
Nests: 400
  In Situ: 245
  Relocated: 155 (38.7%)
  Incubating: 339
  Inventoried: 53 (13.2%)
  Lost: 8 (2%)
False Crawls: 509

Estimated Eggs to Date: 23126
  Eggs Lost: 1185 (5.1%)
  Hatched Eggs: 4772
  Emerged Hatchlings: 4537
  Mean Incubation Duration (all): 63.3 days
  Mean Clutch Count: 118.1 eggs (Relocated Only)

Mean Hatch Success: 60.3%
Mean Emergence Success: 57.3%
Nest Success: 11.5%
Beach Success: 44%

Last Updated: 2026-08-11 15:31:59 (17.8 hours ago)

Hover mouse over each chart for a description.

Significant Nest Losses
Egg Status Egg Losses
SpeciesNestsFalse Crawls
Loggerhead383494
Green Turtle1314
Leatherback41