Caswell Beach Turtle Watch’s Turtle Season is off to a great start with a Mother’s Day surprise from our Southport Sea Turtle Mama. Since has been the only of our sea turtle mamas who seems to prefer Pebble Beach, we named her “Mama Pebbles”.
Our historical DNA has shown this to be the same turtle, and we had been worried when we had not seen in in recent years. We are hoping and assuming it is indeed her, but our end-of-season DNA will tell us for sure.
Since nests on any of Southport’s beaches are not viable, these nests are moved to safer locations to ensure success.
Mama Pebbles made two first attempts at nesting yesterday, and had she been successful, Caswell Beach would have had the first Loggerhead sea turtle nest for North Carolina’s southern coast.
We are delighted to have Ms. Pebbles back to kick of our 2026 season!
**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Caswell Beach is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 26ST03).