Summing up Sea Turtle Season – Georgia Wildlife Blog

Sea turtles nesting in Georgia this year had an above-average season with 1,911 nests. However, it also was an underwhelming summer considering that computer modeling predicted about 4,000 nests.

Video of a sea turtle boil on Little Cumberland Island (Michele Parker Hunter/Special to DNR)

With hatching done, the hatch success rate was just over 50 percent. Jekyll Island led with 74 percent while Ossabaw Island, ravaged by feral hogs raiding nests and 15-plus inches of rain in August that drowned scores more nests, had a state-low hatching rate of about 30 percent.

Nevertheless, the population of loggerhead sea turtles nesting on the state’s coast continues to grow at about 4 percent a year. To sum up 2025, things are still trending in the right direction.

Two people measure nesting loggerhead, scene illuminated by red-tint (turtle safe) lights

Measuring a nesting loggerhead at night via turtle-friendly lights (Special to DNR)

Meanwhile, the Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative meeting in September caps the season for members who have spent months monitoring nests on island beaches. As part of the wrap-up, DNR Sea Turtle Program Coordinator Mark Dodd asks cooperators to contribute a line that, Walt Whitman-like, described their experiences.

The submissions offer insights and smiles. This year’s entries varied from “Finding a live hatchling in the nest is the best” to “I love fieldwork, but labwork has AC” and “I enjoyed the wonders of life as they swirled around.”