Caswell Beach Turtle Watch - our purpose is to protect the threatened and endangered sea turtles that lay their eggs on Caswell Beach

You Can Help This Program

Report turtle sightings to the Turtle Watch 278-4825. Turtle tracks look like bulldozer tracks approximately 2-4 feet across, leading to and from the ocean.

Avoid disturbing a turtle that is crawling to or from the ocean.
Do Not crowd around or ride her, shine lights, or snap flash photographs. Sit quietly in the dark, at a distance, and observe one of the wonders of nature that has been taking place on this beach for thousands of years.
Do Not disturb markers or cages that may be protecting the nests.
Lights Off during hatching season! From late July to late October we ask the cooperation of beach house renters and owners-please turn off exterior lights facing the beach. Allow hatchlings to make their way to the sea.

Keeping turtles is Illegal. Sea turtles are a threatened and endangered species, harassing these animals or disturbing their nest is a violation of State of North Carolina and Federal Law, and is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and/or a prison sentence.

Loggerhead Turtle

The Caswell Beach Turtle Watch is a private non-profit program staffed by volunteers. These volunteers are supervised by program members who hold permits from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission. The purpose of the Caswell Beach Turtle Watch is to protect the threatened and endangered sea turtles that lay their eggs on Caswell Beach. Loggerhead turtles (Careta careta) are the most common sea turtle species to visit our beach and they nest from mid-May until mid-August.

Seaturtle.org has created the Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring System as a data management network to help organizations distributed around the world to collect and store data in a standardized format for real-time comparison and monitoring of all participating nesting beaches. The system has been designed in cooperation with sea turtle coordinators in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. Caswell Beach is part of the Nest Monitoring System and by clicking here you can go the nest monitoring site for Caswell Beach.

You can also "Adopt-A-Nest". Sea turtle nest adoptions are environmentally friendly. Nothing will be sent to you in the mail. Instead you will receive your own customized adoption web page. Your $25 adoption helps support the nest monitoring program you select.

Each adoption includes:

A certificate that you can print at home.
Your own customized adoption web page.
Your name on the nesting beach web page.
Updates on the status of your adopted nest througout the nesting season.

So to Adopt-A-Nest from Caswell Beach click here.

With Hurricane Earl off shore, volunteers have been checking on their nests. We found one that was near to hatching and was being over-washed by the high tide. We helped 83 turtles into the ocean, with 10 more getting a little bit of a rest before they will be released this evening! Here they are heading out this afternoon

loggerhead hatchlings heading out to the ocean

On May 7, 2010, volunteers had a busy day watching and waiting for a Leatherback turtle to decide whether she would lay her eggs on the island. The volunteers watched all day from the first call around 9am until after 11pm and followed her from the lighthouse at Caswell Beach to the west end of Oak Island where they lost track of her in the dark.

David Weigle shared his wonderful photos of this magnificent creature.

Leatherback Turtle at Oak Island May 2010

Click here to view a slide show of all of David's pictures.