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The Holden Beach Turtle Patrol is a conservation group involved with most aspects of the sea turtle species native to Holden Beach. Our Project Coordinator and State Permit holder is Linda Purcell. Ms. Purcell, along with a volunteer group of full time residents, volunteer countless hours in the name of sea turtle preservation. Learn more.. |
Baby Loggerhead Turtle
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Our volunteers patrol the length of the beach on ATVs searching for turtle crawls. If a turtle crawl is found with a possible nest, a team is called to locate the actual nest and move the nest to a new site if necessary. Fifty days later, nest parents begin monitoring the nest and prepare the area for the hatchlings and their walk to the ocean.
Call our 24 hour pager: 754-0766
We also maintain a Stranding Team, which aids and assists deceased and injured turtles. Call our 24 hour pager at the number below (a toll free call from the Holden Beach area) to report mother turtles laying their nests, stranded turtles, or unattended hatchlings. Leave your numeric message (phone number) and stand by for a return call. 754-0766
 Beach Home Refrigerator Magnet
This refrigerator magnet should be in every beach front home. If not contact your rental agent or any turtle patrol member you see on the beach.
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Special thanks go to the Holden Beach Chapel for allowing us to use the chapel hall for Turtle Talk this past year. Our 'crowds' were overwhelming.
We would like to send a special thanks to the boys at the Trumbull County Children’s Services in Warren county Ohio for making and sending us red cloth covers for the flashlights of vacationers on the beach. We very much appreciate this yearly gift from the boys. So thank you William, Burkley, Zachariah, Aron, Najier, Michael, Edward, Jon and Shannen. |
NEW! Turtle fun for the kids.
Online Turtle Coloring page, click here
this page allows children to color a Loggerhead Sea Turtle online. (Flash Plugin Required)
Print the Turtle Coloring Page, click here
print this page and color a Loggerhead Sea Turtle with your own crayons or paint.
Sea Turtle Word Scramble, click here
unscramble words that are related to sea turtles
Last year Miss Kayak was rescued and taken to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. A patrol member and three vacationers went out in Kayaks and managed to get her to shore. She has continued to do well over the winter months and should be released this spring. We added a video of her rescue to this site last fall along with additional pictures in the photo gallery. The proceeds from T-shirt sales and donations at the last two turtle talk programs have been donated to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center to help with the care of Miss Kayak.
 Click here to watch a video of "Kayak's" rescue.
Miss Kayak was released from the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. Watch the video of Miss Kayak being released here
We have designed our shirt for 2008 which is completed, printed and is available at the Lighthouse Gift Shop Visit our support page.
Let me take a moment to thank the Holden Beach town staff for all their assistance. Thanks to the Holden Beach Chapel for letting us use the church fellowship hall as the location for Turtle Talk and thank you all for coming to turtle talk and letting us share our love of sea turtles with you.
Thank you for buying our t-shirts at turtle talk and at the Light House Gift Shop. This is how we make money to finance the Holden Beach Turtle Watch Program (like buying a new 4 wheel drive ATV). And lastly let me thank all of you who let us use your walkways and visited with us on the beach night after night. You will never know how much your support and friendship on the beach means to all of us.
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The Town of Holden Beach is located midway between Wilmington, North Carolina and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina -- about 40 minutes driving from each. The Town is situated on an Atlantic coastal barrier island, facing south onto the Long Bay region of Brunswick County. I-95 from the north and south, I-40 from the west and US-17 south from Wilmington or north from Myrtle Beach leads to Holden Beach -- approximately 3 hours from Raleigh, or 4 hours from Charlotte or Greensboro, or 7 hours from Asheville.
For more map detail of Brunswick County, go to Brunswick Islands, and then click on "Maps".
Visit the Holden Beach Town Hall Web Site
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The Latest Statistics For 2008
Current Nest Count |
False Crawls |
Strandings |
37 |
31 |
6 |
| Total Known Eggs |
Known Average Eggs Per Nest
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4,026 |
111.8
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| Total Baby Turtles |
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2,566 |
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News and Updates
September 3, 2008
We now have the first 23 nests closed out and we have released over 2500 babies! Nest 23 was a perfect nest with a 100% hatch rate 145 babies!
Conjoined Twin Turtle
In a note we received from the State, we believe it is the first conjoined twin turtle (Siamese) in NC. There have been other instances of this occurring elsewhere in sea turtles and also freshwater turtles, but we have never heard of this before in NC.
We know of a pair of conjoined twin green turtles at a sea turtle education center in Mexico more than ten years old and still going strong!
In the future, when we have such an unusual birth, we have been instructed to contact our director who will in turn contact the state before we release the unusual turtle. A decision will be made as to whether it may be kept at the sea turtle hospital or the aquarium for an undetermined amount of time to allow it to grow before releasing it; hopefully, giving it a better chance of survival due to its rare condition.
For now, all we can do is hope that it swims on and grows along with the other hatchlings from nest #1 and pray that we will see our rare find back on Holden Beach in twenty or so years!
A Message From Linda Purcell
 On behalf of the Holden Beach Turtle Watch Program, I welcome you to another year of sea turtle monitoring on Holden Beach. As we enter our 19th season, I would like to extend a warm thank you to everyone who continues to support our cause. As most of you know, we are an all volunteer program consisting of approximately 50 members who dedicate their summer mornings and evenings in the name of sea turtle preservation. Each year our “turtle family” continues to grow in numbers with new trainees joining each season.
Often I am asked what people can do to help our sea turtles, so here are a few things to keep in mind the next time you visit our beautiful island:
- Please keep off the dunes at all times.
- Please remove all umbrellas, cabanas, beach chairs, etc. at the end of the day so our nesting mothers have a clear path to the dunes..and insuring our early morning ATV riders a safe ride!
- Fill in any large holes that are dug in the sand during the day – very dangerous to people and turtles!
- Use a red cover on flashlights when walking the beach at night (these covers are available at island real estate offices).
- Dial 911 and report anyone harassing a turtle or its nest.
- Please help to pick up all plastics, balloons and other trash to provide all of us with a clean and green environment.
Together we can and will make a difference in whether sea turtles continue to call Holden Beach their home!
Happy turtling!
Linda Purcell, Director
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We are excited to provide video footage of a turtle nest hatching. There are 6 six new video clips now available for your viewing. We hope you enjoy...
Click here to visit 'The Turtle Patrol Cinema'.
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The year 2008 marks our nineteenth season as an organization. You will note many changes to our program over the years, but our goal remains the same: to aid and assist the sea turtles of Holden Beach and the education of our public audience. Our educational program will be on Wednesday nights from June 18th thru August 13th at 7:00 PM in the Holden Beach Chapel Fellowship Hall lasting about an hour Hall. Learn more about turtles as well as our Turtle Talk educational program...
See more photos of Lucky Mr. 7 |
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