Folly Beach Turtle Watch Program

05/27/2026

FBTW is thrilled to have the opportunity to visit schools, share the joy we experience working with sea turtles, and educate students about sea turtle conservation. Yesterday, we visited Ashley Hall Elementary and spent time with about 40 attentive junior conservationists. They had obviously been studying sea turtles — they knew the average clutch size and incubation period.

But the highlight came when one student vigorously raised her hand and declared, “It’s very important — it’s most, most, MOST important that people in houses on the beach turn off their lights at night!” She was so emphatic and passionate that I had to give her a high five.

The school had conducted a bake sale, and we were overwhelmed when the students donated $1,250 to FBTW. What an incredible act of generosity.

But perhaps the best moment came as we were preparing to leave, when several students asked for hugs and thanked us for taking care of the turtles. We left knowing the next generation of sea turtle conservationists is already well on its way.

Thank you, Ms Smith, and your wonderful kindergartners.

05/27/2026

The Folly Beach Turtle Watch uses a Smugmug link to provide updates to the public about our sea turtle season. Our goal is to update this link every day, but realistically - we update it every few days. But save the link and check in during the season. We think it will be a busy season.

This gallery hosted by SmugMug; your photos look better here.

05/24/2026

Another 3-nest day for Folly Beach — Our second 3-nest day in three days. And squeezed between these was a 2-nest day. So 8 nests in 3 days 😃 We are thrilled, and are cautiously anticipating an above average year.

Our morning patrol began with the inspiring vision of a fatigued momma turtle returning to the ocean after successfully completing her nesting mission on the Far East end of the island near Lighthouse Inlet. This would have been Nest 11, but before her nest was verified by our Far East FBTW volunteers, the West FBTW team verified a nest on the west side of the island and scooped the Nest 11 accolade. It’s all good - the Far East nest became Nest 12.

And finally, after spending an hour investigating what was determined to be a false crawl, another West FBTW team located and relocated another crawl which became Nest 13: containing 109 eggs. Pinch Us - we are so blessed to live here and so honored to perform our Nest Protection Activities under our SCDNR Permit number MTP520.

05/22/2026

Another good turtle day at Folly Beach. Pam, Lisa, and Vanessa found another 2 nests! But the highlight of our day was an action packed fun filled morning with 20 junior conservationists from Seaside Kids Collective. We consider educating the public, and especially the kids, to be one of our most important missions. We “talked turtle” with the kids and then spent time on the beach where the kids could meet Jay, our life size loggerhead turtle, and also could examine a mock crawl and nest. The junior conservationists interpreted the body pit (well, sort of), then probed and found the soft sand, and everyone had a chance to dig and find an egg. We all learned that plastic is bad and that Mr. Dave said - if you break an egg you go to Turtle Jail. Fortunately, nobody went to turtle jail. We normally discourage riding turtles, but we made an exception for one, especially cute future conservationist. But the highlight of the morning was when Toby Turtle arrived and was presented with a check for $252.01 from the recent lemonade stand fundraiser they conducted. ❤️❤️❤️

Seaside Kids Collective is a nature-based homeschool community located in the Charleston, SC area, specifically designed for children ages 2–8. Led by certified teachers, the program operates 100% outdoors and blends open-ended nature play with enrichment subjects like art, yoga, and Spanish.

05/20/2026

Turtle action on Folly Beach is heating up. This morning, May 20, we had not one, not two, but three nests. That gives us a total of 8 nests so far. In 2023 we had our 8th nest on May 22 and we ended up with 130 nests, our second highest ever. But full disclosure requires reporting that in 2025 we had our 8th nest on May 18 and ended up with only 59 nests. You know what they say about statistics 🤪. Nonetheless, we will remain optimistic.

05/13/2026

Our morning patrol team was lucky enough to have an incredible encounter this morning. Beautiful loggerhead sea turtle mama! This is why we are passionate about conservation- Mother Nature doing her thing. She successfully nested- each nest averages about 100-120 (or more) eggs.

It’s a beautiful reminder that we can all do our part when you hit the beach this summer:

- Lights out on the beach!!!! NO house lights visible from the beach or bright flashlights. Lights can misorient adults and hatchlings.

- Leave No Trace- remove chairs, tents, trash, everything when you leave the beach. Every bit of it is an obstacle the females and their hatchlings have to navigate at night, which can be dangerous or deadly.

- Fill holes and leave the sand level.

-If you encounter a turtle, stay at least 25ft away and call public safety. (Use camera zoom like we did here for our pictures). Folly Beach Public Safety: (843) 588-7003

* FBTW works under the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under the Marine Turtle Permit -520

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day to all Human and Turtle Mommas

05/07/2026

The water temperature at Folly is a cozy 70F and on 5/7 our 2026 season had its first nest. No, it wasn’t the first nest in South Carolina like last season, but it is among South Carolina’s first 7 nests. Our FBTW team just recently completed its training and will be operating again this season under SCDNR Permit MTP520. You can follow our season using the QR code shown.

04/22/2026

Happy Earth Day

04/12/2026

Pretty remarkable experience for some of us nature lovers yesterday (4/11/26). We received a report of a possible leatherback sea turtle sighting near the end of the Folly Beach pier, and a small group of us headed out with binoculars and cameras to investigate. The report proved accurate—we observed TWO leatherback sea turtles for approximately an hour. An exceptional and memorable encounter!!

For context, SC coastal waters are most commonly visited by loggerhead sea turtle, with occasional appearances by green sea turtle, etc. Sightings of leatherback sea turtle in this region are comparatively rare, making this observation particularly noteworthy.

Leatherbacks are the largest turtle species, with adults typically ranging from ~500 to over 1,500 pounds and reaching lengths of up to ~6 feet. Unlike other sea turtles, they lack a rigid, scuted shell; instead, they possess a flexible, cartilaginous carapace with a dark, leathery texture. They are also the deepest-diving of all sea turtles, capable of descending thousands of feet and remaining submerged for extended periods (often exceeding an hour) due to specialized physiological adaptations.

If you encounter a leatherback in South Carolina waters, please report the sighting to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources using their online reporting system (link below). If the sighting occurs on Folly Beach, you can also contact local public safety dispatch (843-588-7003), who will notify the sea turtle response team.

Notably, another leatherback was reported near the Garden City pier this same weekend. While nesting by this species in SC remains extremely uncommon, increased observations like these leave open the possibility, however slight.

Link to report sightings:

https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/a7c87e03d4b541c38667c0e80193f02c

FBTW Permit -520