ONLY ON 3: Stragglers found in BHI’s first turtle nests to hatch this year

BALD HEAD ISLAND, NC (WWAY) — It was an exciting night for sea turtle lovers on Bald Head Island.

Staff from the Bald Head Island Conservancy found a straggler in each of two nests that hatched Monday night. Crews found the loggerhead hatchlings tonight during excavations of the nests on the island’s South Beach three days after their siblings began their life journey. Staff then released both of the baby sea turtles into the ocean.

Workers also found some unhatched eggs as well as some unfertilized eggs in the nests.

The conservancy says Monday’s hatchings near beach accesses #13 and #18 were the first two of the season.

In all the group has found 91 nests laid on the island this year. A conservancy biologist says if the pace keeps up, the island could set “all sorts of records.”