06/24/2025
💚🐢Friends: PLEASE stay away from sea turtles if you come across them while visiting the island. They are trying to nest currently. By disrupting them, no matter how innocent your intentions, you cease their ability to continue. Oak Island is the proud home to a large nesting site for several species. Please help us keep it that way and continue the survival of this magnificent creature!🐢💚
**We share this screenshot of a video that was posted on one of our local pages last night with a heavy heart. Not to hurt the people in the picture (we covered faces) but to educate everyone. The post was ... "Sea turtle just came to shore and because of all the flashlights it went right back out to shore. is there not a flashlight rule or something of that sort on Oak Island?" There is no flashlight rule, but we would hope most people would be respectful of all of our marine and wildlife. Flashlights can be a necessary tool to help walk on the beach at night. Unfortunately, people dig large holes and do not fill them in before leaving, and this can be a hazard for humans and nesting sea turtles or hatchlings. The amount of trash we are finding on the beach can be detrimental to our environment and our wildlife. This past week, we have found 3 nests where people have walked in the nest area. This was purposeful because they had to step over string that we placed around the nest area to caution everyone. We have also had numerous false crawls where the nesting turtle was trying to avoid humans. Footprints all around the crawls, and the poor turtle zigzagging, trying her best to get back to the ocean. This morning, our patrol team found a crawl where the nesting turtle made several loops, crawled to the top of the dune, and almost over it, trying to get away from the many footprints that surround the crawl. Harrassing, disturbing, (this includes shining lights on them) any sea turtles or their nest area is a federal offense.
We as humans can do better.
PLEASE DO NOT SHINE LIGHTS (White or Red) on Sea Turtles! PLEASE stay behind the nesting turtle a minimum of 20-30 feet, PLEASE do not scream, run around her, follow her up the beach, etc, PLEASE stop, stay quiet, and enjoy the experience, and PLEASE ask people that you see doing this not to.
PLEASE CALL US IMMEDIATELY if you see any sea turtle activity on the beach 24/7 at 9109458888. If you see any sea turtle being harassed or disturbed, please call 911. Our wonderful Oak Island Police Department takes this very seriously and supports our turtles and program!
Education is key, and we appreciate all of you who love sea turtles and support our program for your help in protecting and caring for our sea turtles! Thank You!
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**This conservation work for protected sea turtles on Oak Island is authorized by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (ES Permit 25ST01).**