Joe Lamb Realty's Director of Sales, Tim Moore, took this photo of a loggerhead sea turtle track leading to a nest in South Nags Head this past week! Tim is one of about 35 N.E.S.T. (Network for Endangered Sea Turtles) ATV riders that daily ride on the oceanfront from Corolla to South Nags Head looking for these sea turtle tracks so they can identify the nest site and protect it. Once a track is discovered the N.E.S.T. volunteers gather to carefully dig to find the actual sea turtle nest, which will contain about 110-130 eggs. One egg is collected for DNA sampling and the site is then marked for its protection. In approx 60 days the eggs hatch and the hundreds of tiny turtles make their way to the ocean. Only about 1 in 1000 make it to be adults. The mother turtles don't lay their eggs until they are 30-40 years old.
Check out some footage that Tim took of some very young turtles trying to make their way to the ocean just last fall.
Fore more information, visit nestonline.org or their Facebook page.
