Cape Lookout National Seashore sea turtle monitoring and management program: 2018 annual report
Altman J and Stephenson C. 2020. Cape Lookout National Seashore sea turtle monitoring and management program: 2018 annual report. National Park Service, Cape Lookout National Seashore. Harkers Island, NC
Cape Lookout National Seashore (Seashore), located on the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina from Ocracoke Inlet to Beaufort Inlet, contains many ecologically important habitats including those that support threatened and endangered sea turtle species. Sea turtle nesting activity is monitored annually from May through September. In 2018, 169 nests (159 loggerhead, 6 green, 3 Kemp’s ridley, and 1 leatherback) and 206 false crawls were documented at the seashore. The first nesting activity was documented on May 18 and the last nesting activity was documented on August 26. The mean clutch size was 111 eggs. Mean hatch success for all nests was 62% while mean emergence success was 60%. Mean incubation was 60 days. Erosion from significant storm and tide events, primarly Hurricane Florence, resulted in 49 nests washed away. The seashore documented 99 stranded sea turtles in 2018.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Altman, Jon; Stephenson, Chelsey
- Date of Issue
- 2020-01
- Publisher
- National Park Service, Cape Lookout National Seashore
- Units
- CALO
- Keywords
- shorebird management, shorebird monitoring, shorebirds
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Birds