A slow comeback has turned into a record year for loggerhead sea turtles in Georgia.
Loggerhead nests along the state’s Atlantic coast have topped every annual count going back to 1989, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative said the nest count passed 4,110 last week, the highest total since the group began counting nests on barrier island beaches in 1989.
The previous record was 4,071 nests in 2022. In the last five summers, the record has been broken twice.
The DNR called it “a slow but steady rebound” for the species, which was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1978.
Wildlife officials said they are encouraged by the species’ restoration for a couple of reasons. Loggerheads can weigh about 300 pounds and develop slowly.
“Loggerheads are a long-lived species and don’t reproduce until they’re 30-35 years old,” said Mark Dodd, a senior wildlife biologist with DNR’s Wildlife Conservation Section and Georgia Sea Turtle Program Coordinator.
The population also fluctuates. Georgia’s count was estimated at a record low of 358 nests in 2004, 22 years ago.
Overall, the Atlantic nest count in Georgia has increased at about 4 percent annually since the early 1990s. Members of the Sea Turtle Cooperative patrol beaches each day at dawn, marking and protecting new nests.
Their work, along with the use of “turtle excluder” devices since 1990 to reduce the chances of turtles being caught in shrimp trawler nets, has been key to the resurgence of loggerhead populations.
From May through mid-August, adult females come onto Atlantic beaches at night to dig holes in sand dunes and lay clutches of about 100 eggs. The females can be more than 3 feet long, and the eggs are described as ping-pong ball-sized.
If current projections hold, loggerhead numbers will now plateau. Dodd said that if protections remain in place, nesting could then reach levels not seen in Georgia since the 1950s.
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