Folly Beach Turtle Watch Program

Folly Beach Turtle Watch Program FBTW is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to sea turtle conservation on Folly Beach, SC. FBTW was founded in 1993 and consists of 50 volunteers.

All sea turtle monitoring by FBTW is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Marine Turtle Permit -520. Folly Beach Turtle Watch Program (FBTW) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose mission is to promote sea turtle conservation efforts on Folly Beach, SC. All sea turtle monitoring by FBTW is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conse

rvation Program under Marine Turtle Permit # MTP520. Our mission is to protect sea turtles by educating the public, by monitoring our 7.4 miles of beach from May 1 until October 31, and safeguarding sea turtles and their nests as directed by South Carolina Department of Natural Resources regulations. As a non profit charitable organization, we solicit donations to offset our routine operational expenses which include educational material for public and for beach front rental homes, supplies for protecting nests, and routine training expenses. We also donate to the University of Georgia Sea Turtle Research Program performing genetics studies on loggerhead eggs and to the South Carolina Aquarium.

Tuesday and Wednesday sunrises on Folly Beach… love my early morning walks… saw this fella fishing and how peaceful he w...
09/02/2026

Tuesday and Wednesday sunrises on Folly Beach… love my early morning walks… saw this fella fishing and how peaceful he was.

08/29/2026

Today’s inventory of Nest 93 has been cancelled due to weather.

Hatchlings are scampering all over Folly Beach—and in turtle towns throughout South Carolina. It is peak hatchling seas...
08/13/2026

Hatchlings are scampering all over Folly Beach—and in turtle towns throughout South Carolina. It is peak hatchling season.

About half of our nests have emerged, with roughly 70 still to go. For a turtle volunteer, there are few things more rewarding than seeing scores of tiny hatchling tracks leading straight to the ocean. It is confirmation that maybe, just maybe, we made a difference.

Unfortunately, not every hatchling is strong and healthy. Some die in the nest. During inventories, we sometimes find weak stragglers that have unsuccessfully struggled to make it out of the nest. And too many hatchlings become misoriented on their journey to the ocean. By the time they are found—if a ghost crab or bird doesn’t find them first—they may be too exhausted to swim beyond the breakers.

Throughout hatchling season, Folly Beach Turtle Watch volunteers respond again and again to reports of struggling hatchlings. Sometimes we respond to the same hatchling more than once.

We greatly appreciate these hatchling reports, and many have happy endings. But sometimes we find a hatchling so exhausted that it is difficult to imagine it surviving the daunting journey ahead—including the roughly 45-mile swim to the refuge of the Sargasso Sea. I refer to these as our “doomed hatchlings.”

And they present us with a dilemma.

Often an eager audience gathers as we release a struggling hatchling at the water’s edge. Everyone is thrilled to see it finally reach the ocean. But when the hatchling is washed back onto the beach time after time, we know how the story is likely to end. Mother Nature knows best. Repeatedly putting an exhausted hatchling back into the surf isn’t a satisfying solution. These are protected animals, and they deserve our best effort.

Until this season, we never had a solution we were completely comfortable with.

This year, FBTW created the Hatchling Emergency Response Operation Team—the HERO Team (thank you Kristen Kappel). We recruited SCDNR-permitted FBTW volunteers from across the island and trained them in our response procedures for hatchlings ranging from frisky to weakened to those we believe have little chance of survival.

After normal efforts to “launch” a hatchling have been exhausted, the HERO Team can contact one of our on-call surfer volunteers, who will transport the hatchling well beyond the breakers and give it a chance to begin its journey at sea.

We realize that many of these severely weakened hatchlings still won’t survive for long. Nature can be unforgiving, and the odds for any hatchling are daunting.

But there is something heartening about knowing that we gave that little turtle the opportunity to finally be a real sea turtle—even if only for a short time.

And who knows? Maybe one of those little turtles everyone thought was doomed will reach the sargassum, survive the years ahead, and someday become that remarkable 1 in 1,000 that makes it to adulthood.

That’s a chance worth giving. 🐢🌊

FBTW is permitted by SCDNR and performs all sea turtle nesting activities under SCDNR Permit # MTP520

08/02/2026

Due to the storm overhead and current thunder, our 7:45pm inventory at County Park is being expedited - commencing immediately. We apologize for any inconvenience.

🐢🐢🐢

07/31/2026

A sea turtle “boil” is the incredible moment when an entire nest of hatchlings emerges at once and begins its journey to the ocean. This synchronized emergence is an evolutionary survival strategy—by all leaving the nest together, the hatchlings overwhelm predators with sheer numbers, increasing the odds that more of them will make it safely to the water.

Before they ever reach the surface, the hatchlings also work together to escape the nest. Sea turtle nests can be more than a foot deep, and as the hatchlings become active, they climb over one another and collectively loosen the sand, creating a living “ladder” that helps the entire group make its way up the long nest cavity. A single hatchling would have a much harder time making the climb alone.

While it’s amazing to witness, these babies are incredibly vulnerable. The best way to help is to leave the beach to them—keep it dark, quiet, and flat, and avoid beaches at night during hatching season. Giving hatchlings a clear, undisturbed path to the water gives them the best possible chance of survival. 🐢🌊

If you do happen upon an adult or hatchling sea turtle at any time, please stay well away and give them plenty of space. If you’d like to take photos, use your zoom feature rather than approaching, and never use flash photography. And always call FB Public Safety (843-588-7003) immediately so they can help ensure the beach is safe for their incredible journey.

*Our FBTW volunteers are permitted under SC DMR MP520 to perform nesting and monitoring activities.

Meet Gulliver, our latest hatchling star to launch to the Sargasso Sea. We were overwhelmed—and encouraged—by the many r...
07/20/2026

Meet Gulliver, our latest hatchling star to launch to the Sargasso Sea.

We were overwhelmed—and encouraged—by the many responses to our recent post about Pip and Scout. Clearly, there are a lot of like-minded sea turtle conservationists out there!

We received many helpful and encouraging comments, along with some that expressed frustration and placed blame. We’d like to follow up with a few insights about Folly Beach that likely apply to many of our sister turtle teams and coastal communities.

Most sea turtle communities have ordinances requiring lights out during nesting season. We all work diligently with homeowners, residents, visitors, and rental companies to make sure people know about these ordinances. And we all have visitors—and residents—who, for one reason or another, don’t comply.

But here’s what we’ve learned: When we follow up on lighting violations, the vast majority of offenders simply didn’t know. Nobody is intentionally trying to harm a sea turtle. EVERYBODY loves sea turtles—especially the hatchlings.

So it behooves all of us to build a better mousetrap.

Over the past five years, Folly Beach has made extraordinary progress in reducing artificial light on our beachfront. Before 2021, much of our strategy relied on placing “Lights Out” reminders in the information binders found in rental homes.

Well, that didn’t work very well. Who arrives for a beach vacation, reads the information binder cover to cover, and remembers everything in it?

So, over the next several years, the City of Folly Beach began making incremental—but significant—improvements. The City partnered with homeowners and rental companies to implement more reliable engineering controls, including window tinting, turtle-friendly lighting, and timers on indoor and outdoor lights. At the same time, a more robust process was established for identifying violations, educating and warning property owners, and, when necessary, issuing fines.

The results have been remarkable.

The lighting profile you see from the beach today—at 10 p.m., 2 a.m., or 5 a.m.—is dramatically darker than it was just a few years ago.

Is it perfect? No. We still have work to do. But the transformation has been amazing. We are now focusing more attention on the commercial downtown area, and the results there are similarly encouraging.

A special shout-out to Eric Lutz and his team with the City of Folly Beach, Michael Bradley and Charleston County Parks and Recreation, and Dominion Energy for their efforts and cooperation.

We are glad our post about Pip and Scout received so much attention. And we’re encouraged that so many of you are riled up about artificial lighting and its impact on sea turtle hatchlings.

Our hope is that we can turn that frustration into something productive.

Educate others about artificial lighting. Help your neighbors understand why darkness matters. Support better lighting practices in your community. Encourage property owners and businesses to make changes that don’t depend solely on someone remembering to flip a switch.

Because we’ve seen firsthand that progress is possible.

Folly Beach is considerably darker today than it was five years ago. We still have a ways to go—but we’re heading in the right direction.

And that’s something worth celebrating. 🎉

We have had eight sea turtle nests emerge so far this season—and four of them have experienced hatchlings misoriented by...
07/18/2026

We have had eight sea turtle nests emerge so far this season—and four of them have experienced hatchlings misoriented by artificial light and led away from the ocean. It is impossible to know exactly how many hatchlings have been lost, but the number is certainly in the dozens.

But today, we can report a happy ending for two little wayward hatchlings we named Pip and Scout.

Last night, a nest on the east side of Folly Beach emerged. Instead of heading toward the ocean, many of the hatchlings meandered in the wrong direction, confused by artificial light from nearby homes. When we investigated this morning, we found dead hatchlings as far as a block away. We believe a few made it to the ocean, but sadly, most probably did not survive.

Then we received a call from a resident across the street. Their dog, Heidi, had discovered two live hatchlings in the backyard!

Meet Pip and Scout.

These two tiny but spunky loggerheads had traveled away from their nest, crossed the beachfront property, made it across East Ashley Avenue, and continued into the backyard of a home on the other side of the street. There, Heidi, the dachshund, found them huddled beneath some palm fronds and reported her find to her owner.

We took possession of Pip and Scout, who had been pampered by their rescuers and were resting on a dampened bedsheet. They were alive but barely moving. We suspected they would not survive. We let them rest for a few hours while we took the opportunity to snap a few photos.

Then it was time to try again.

We released Pip and Scout on the beach near the water. Almost immediately, they perked up, scampered across the sand, and disappeared into the Atlantic.

Launch successfully completed.

Pip and Scout were lucky. Far too many misoriented hatchlings are not.

Please help give every hatchling the same chance. Keep beachfront lights off from sunset to sunrise.

Just wanted to share this photo of our first emergence, the Mothers Day Nest that we inventoried this morning. We alway...
07/16/2026

Just wanted to share this photo of our first emergence, the Mothers Day Nest that we inventoried this morning. We always love to see the hatchling tracks heading directly to the ocean. We had a great turnout. Hatch success was 76% with 94 hatchlings successfully emerging. We had lots of great questions and conservation talks. Stay tuned for future inventories.

FBTW is permitted by SCDNR and performs all sea turtle nesting activities under SCDNR Permit # MTP520

It’s been a busy turtle season across all of SC, as well as our little 7 mile island of Folly Beach. We have 113 nests o...
07/14/2026

It’s been a busy turtle season across all of SC, as well as our little 7 mile island of Folly Beach.

We have 113 nests on Folly (and a few “possible nests”), as well as 76 false crawls. This season, Folly is on trend with the second highest nesting year since we started monitoring in 1993! In 2023, we had 130 nests. 2026 current 113 nests means we have a total of (average) 13,560 eggs (average nest has 120 eggs x 113 nests). By comparison, SC has a total of 6,783 nests.

We’ve had 2 nests emerge so far- first public inventory is this Wednesday (7/15) at 7:30am.

Our amazing volunteer team has had a lot of long, hot, sandy, sweaty, buggy mornings this season, but we LOVE what we do. ❤️

Check out a “day with the FBTW team” pics below. We appreciate your support and interest in our efforts.

FBTW is permitted by SCDNR Permit MTP520.

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Folly Beach, SC
29439

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