A single flashlight beam guides a baby sea turtle to the ocean Sunday night after an arduous walk from the nest several yards up the beach. Holding that light is Kristin Brown, her last act as “nest mother” of the loggerhead sea turtle nest she originally found nearly two months before.
After the nest boiled and released its hatchlings Thursday night, on Sunday volunteers for the Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project dug up the nest to count the eggshells and find any unhatched turtles. Crowds gathered as the volunteers uncovered the remnants of 59 eggs and watched as Brown and the other volunteers led the last hatchling down to the beach.
For Brown, getting that last turtle into the water completes her role as the nest mother, an honor she earned July 10 when she found the nest in the early morning hours near Public Beach Access No. 5 at North Ridge Lane. It took five years of weekly patrols of the north end of Wrightsville Beach for Brown to finally make the discovery.
“For me, it was emotional,” said Brown, who monitored the nest for 11 nights to witness its hatching on Thursday. “Anytime you can see life emerge, it’s a gift.”
Brown discovered the nest at 6:30 a.m. while on her weekly Friday early morning walk, noticing the tracks the mother turtle made when it came upon the beach the prior night to lay its eggs.
“They were as big as tire tracks,” she said.
Due to the nest’s placement close to the tide line and in an area of major foot traffic, volunteers moved the nest further away from the beach, Brown said.
“We move the eggs one at a time and put them in the same order they were laid,” she said.
One remaining loggerhead nest on Wrightsville Beach is expected to hatch in October.
