How YOU Can Help

During Nesting Season

  1. Minimize beachfront lighting during the sea turtle nesting season by turning off, shielding, or redirecting lights away from the beach.
  2. Close blinds and draperies in oceanfront rooms at night to keep indoor lighting from reaching the beach.
  3. Fill in holes, moats or any crevice that could trap a nesting female or hatchling.
  4. Remove recreational equipment, such as lounge chairs, umbrellas, kayaks, surfboards and boats, from the beach at night. These items can deter nesting attempts and prevent hatchlings from reaching the ocean.
  5. Do not construct beach campfires during the nesting season. Nesting sea turtles and hatchlings are attracted to the light and may crawl into fires and death can occur.
  6. Use your natural vision and moonlight when walking on the beach at night.
  7. If you encounter a turtle on the beach at night, remain quiet, still, and at a distance. Please do not disturb. Lights, flash photography, and human disturbances may prevent her from nesting successfully.  Please contact the program immediately, 24 hours at 910.945.8888.  We gather data and information to help protect this endangered species and the quicker we can get there, the better!
  8. Leave the tracks left by turtles undisturbed. The Patrol Team use the tracks to identify the species of turtle that nested and to find and mark the nests for protection. 

All Year Long

  1. Properly dispose of your garbage. Turtles may mistake plastic bags, styrofoam, and trash floating in the water as a food source and death can occur when this trash blocks their intestines.
  2. Celebrate events without the use of helium balloon releases. Balloons end up in the ocean, especially when released near the coast. Sea turtles can mistake the balloons as a food source which can harm them or even cause death.  
  3. Avoid trampling beach vegetation. Use beach accesses and please stay off of the dunes.  Natural vegetation stabilizes sand and reduces beach erosion.
  4. When boating, stay alert and avoid sea turtles. Propeller and collision impacts from boats and ships can result in injury and death of sea turtles. Also, stay in channels and avoid running in seagrass beds to protect this important habitat from prop scarring and damage.
  5. Avoid anchoring boats in seagrass beds and coral reefs which serve as important feeding and resting habitats for sea turtles.
Help Protect Sea Turtles