Shirts are now available at The Lighthouse Gifts Inc. on the Holden Beach causeway, at Turtle Talk and Turtle Time this summer and by mail - order shirts and other merchandise; shop here
Found a mother turtle laying a nest? A stranded or injured sea turtle and/or unattended hatchlings?
Call the HBTWP Stranding Team:
910-754-0766 | 24/7/365
Nesting turtles are frightened by lights and won't lay their eggs on a brightly lighted beach. Hatchlings will go to the lights rather than the ocean! Please help us preserve our marine life by keeping beachfront lighting off from May 1st until October 31st. learn more turtle facts
As recommended by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, it is the policy of the HBTWP to NOT disclose the locations or potential hatch dates of active turtle nests on our beach.
A list of nest locations will NOT be published in newspapers, on this website or on other social media. Please do NOT call the emergency number or contact the Project Coordinator to ask about nests. This is for the safety of the turtles! learn more about turtle nesting
Current Nest Count |
False Crawls |
35 |
32 |
Total Known Eggs |
Hatchlings to Ocean |
2145 |
1761 |
posted: August 25, 2025, 3:18 PM
Hurricane Erin was not nice to our turtle nests. Many nests were washed over, and the tides left 6-8 inches or more of sand on top of the nests. Our teams have been out on the beach finding nests that were lost in the high water produced by Erin. Using a metal detector, they were able to find this one, but sadly it is still very wet. We are hopeful that some remaining nests may still be viable. We had a nice surprise on nest 16, the babies had made it out before they were covered in sand and water....read more of this article.
posted: August 20, 2025, 5:33 PM
Hurricane Erin is causing high waves and most of our nests have been washed over by both sand and water. Teams last night dug up to 12" of sand off the top of nests. But it was worth it, one of these over washed nests boiled later in the evening. So you just never know! Right now, we still have 16 unhatched nests on the beach. Turtle nests can handle some over washing, but we don't want water setting on the nests. Teams will be on the beach in the evening checking nests. Thanks to all the vacationers on the...read more of this article.
posted: August 10, 2025, 10:57 AM
This past week has been fairly quiet on the beach. We had two teams out and two nests hatched. Yeah! The babies do seem to be incubating a little faster this summer, this is probably due to the extremely hot weather we've been having. We have not had any signs of a mother turtle (either a new nest or a false crawl) in 13 days. We usually consider two weeks without any signs of a mother turtle the end of nesting in the turtle season. A total of 34 nests has been laid on the beach this summer and 12...read more of this article.
posted: August 4, 2025, 3:26 PM
Sea turtle activity on our beach has slowed...for a while. Our last nest was laid on July 26. The last false crawl was on July 28. We have 34 nests so far on the beach. The nesting season is nearing the end, but there is still a chance of a few more new nests. So far 10 nests have hatched with an estimated 994 baby turtles into the ocean. This is week is quiet with only one nest being "watched" in the evenings. Due to the very warm weather, we've been having, nests have been hatching earlier than their 55...read more of this article.