On the beaches of Alabama Sea turtle patrols begin annually on 1 May and end on 31 August. Our Coastal beaches are home to thousands of migrating sea turtles. Their mission when they arrive in Alabama, is to find a nesting home and lay their eggs. The turtles lay an average of 110 eggs per nest with an incubation period of 55 to 70 days.
Share the Beach volunteers monitor several areas of Alabama’s coastline, devoting their time to searching for new nests, marking them and protecting the nests and hatchlings from natural and human-related dangers. Between 2010 and 2019, an estimated 66,915 hatchlings have made it to the water from Alabama’s beaches.
During the 2019 nesting season, 114 nests were documented on Alabama beaches. One of the 114 total nests was laid by a green turtle on June 22 on Orange Beach, with the remaining 113 nests those of loggerhead sea turtles. An estimated 7,037 eggs were laid on our beaches in 2019, and approximately 3,597 hatchlings successfully made it to the water.