Eggs safe after sea turtle nest disturbed at Kure Beach
KURE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — A sunrise walk along the beach to check on sea turtle nests led to a disturbing discovery for the Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project.
“We came here to discover a large hole. It was obviously dug by a human being who was in there looking for the turtle eggs,” Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project President Nancy Busovne said.
Officials are searching for someone who dug up one of their nests, nest number eight. The attempted poacher left behind evidence, a couple footprints.
“There were footprints leading up to the nest and then away from it and the tracks leading away from the nest actually appeared that the person might be running. That kind of leads us to believe that perhaps the person got interrupted doing what he was doing and fled the scene,” Busovne said.
Busovne says the eggs were safe. The culprit had dug deep, but not deep enough. They were only a couple of inches away from the eggs. The egss are safe and a police report has been filed.
“These animals are on the endangered species list. So this is a loggerhead nest and loggerheads are threatened, which is they are subject to the same protection as endangered species. So it becomes a federal issue at that point and it carries some pretty hefty fines and jail time,” Busovne said.
Even though posted signs says $50,000, police say fines can go up to $100,000 and a year in jail.
She thinks something or someone scared the attempted poacher off.
“The tracks look like he was running,” Busovne said, when describing the footprints left in the sand by the nest.
Many people in the area are furious someone did this and are keeping their eyes out if the culprit comes back.
“Everyone in Eastern North Carolina should know about how important the sea turtles are to our beaches and how important our beaches are to the sea turtles. They shouldn’t- I can’t really fathom why somebody would make an effort to destroy that,” John Odell said.
Busovne hopes someone saw something on Thursday night and will come forward to help identify the person who did this.
