Sea Turtle Season on the Grand Strand Runs Until Halloween

Posted Monday, September 28, 2026 10:04 am

David Hucks (via MyrtleBeachSC)

The crowds are gone, but thousands of eggs are still in the sand. Why the final weeks of a record nesting year may matter most, and what Horry County residents can do about it.

Labor Day is behind us. The beach towns have gone quiet, and for many Horry County residents summer is over. For loggerhead sea turtles, it isn’t. South Carolina’s nesting season, known as Sea Turtle Season, officially runs from May 1 through October 31 [Live 5 News, 2026], and the state’s Marine Turtle Conservation Program says nests keep hatching from July until the end of October [SCDNR]. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

This year the final stretch carries more weight than usual. As of September 7, Rick Scott of South Carolina United Turtle Enthusiasts (SCUTE) counted 8,053 nests statewide [WPDE, 2026]. Last year’s final total was 3,902 [ABC News 4, 2026]. More than twice as many nests means more clutches still in the sand as the calendar turns to October.

The significance of this year’s nesting highlights the importance of Sea Turtle Season and the need for community involvement in protecting these nests.

The late weeks are also when protection is most likely to slip. Volunteers are tired, storms are more frequent, beach maintenance picks back up, and residents reasonably assume the season ended with summer. The rest of this article looks at why that assumption is wrong and what it could cost.

Understanding Sea Turtle Season

The math behind an October hatchling

The timeline is simple arithmetic. A loggerhead clutch averages about 120 eggs and usually hatches after roughly 60 days [Post and Courier, 2026]. According to NOAA, northern-hemisphere females lay from late April into early September, typically producing three to five nests spaced about two weeks apart [NOAA Fisheries]. A clutch laid in the first week of September, incubating at the typical pace, would not be due until about October 31. NOAA Fisheries

Cooler weather can push that date later. Sand temperature controls how fast embryos develop, so warmer nests hatch sooner [Olive Ridley Project, 2025]. As autumn cools the beach, late clutches can take longer than summer ones. Volunteer groups elsewhere on the South Carolina coast say nests laid late in the season can still produce emerging hatchlings in October [Island Turtle Team]. Olive Ridley Project My Site

Late nests aren’t limited to loggerheads either. In 2025, Georgetown County reported that late-season nesting was still underway after the June and July peak, including a green sea turtle nest, a rare find in South Carolina, where loggerheads lay most nests [Georgetown County, 2025]. Georgetown County

That timing matters for more than the calendar, because the temperature of the sand decides what kind of turtle hatches.

Late nests and the males the population needs

Sea turtles have no sex chromosomes. The temperature of the sand determines a hatchling’s sex: cooler nests produce males and warmer nests produce females [NOAA Fisheries]. The margin is narrow. Sand around 84°F tends to yield a roughly even split, and a nest only a degree or two warmer can produce almost all females [Loggerhead Marinelife Center, 2025]. NOAA Fisheries Marinelife

Researchers have long known this creates a seasonal pattern. On the U.S. East Coast, loggerhead males come mostly from the beginning and end of the nesting season, with females dominating the middle [Journal of Thermal Biology, 2014]. ScienceDirect

Analysis: This is where October hatchlings earn their importance. As summers run hotter, the middle of the season leans further toward females. The cooler shoulders of the season, late May and late September into October, become a larger share of the males the population depends on. A nest hatching quietly in mid-October is not a leftover from summer. It may be one of the more valuable nests of the year. No one has published hatchling sex ratios specific to Horry County beaches, so the point shouldn’t be overstated, but the direction is clear.

Development adds pressure. Buildings, roads and other structures absorb and reflect heat, raising nearby sand temperatures [Loggerhead Marinelife Center, 2025]. On a shoreline lined with high-rises, the cool nests that produce males are harder to come by. Marinelife

Those late nests also face a set of hazards that summer nests largely avoided.

Fall brings its own dangers

Storms. For the Grand Strand, hurricane activity statistically peaks around September 10, and late August through mid-October is the highest-risk period [North Myrtle Beach Vacations, 2026]. The window overlaps almost exactly with the last month of hatching. The risk isn’t theoretical: the National Weather Service put Myrtle Beach under a coastal flood advisory on the morning of September 25 [National Weather Service, 2026]. State biologists have seen the damage before. In 2020, Hurricane Isaias affected hundreds of nests north of Charleston in early August [SCDNR, 2020]. A late-season storm does the same to whatever is still incubating. Hurricane Season in North Myrtle Beach: What Visitors Need to Know Before, During, and After a Storm | +2

Beach raking. This hazard is specific to Horry County. According to the monitoring profile for Surfside Beach, Horry County Public Works rakes the beach five days a week, which often makes it unsuitable for incubation, so nests there are frequently moved to Garden City Beach [SEATURTLE.ORG]. SCUTE’s Terry Graham has explained the reasoning: a raker operator can’t see hatchlings on the sand, so volunteers relocate nests from any raked beach [WPDE, 2025]. Relocation works only if a nest is found. A nest that slips past patrols on a raked beach late in the season is at real risk. Seaturtle

Lights. Hatchlings find the ocean by its natural glow, and artificial light pulls them the wrong way. SCDNR calls this a disorientation event and notes that harming a threatened species this way can bring a federal fine of up to $25,000 [SCDNR]. Separately, local reporting notes that interfering with a nesting turtle or an active nest can bring a $50,000 federal fine and jail time [WBTW, 2026]. As this outlet has reported, Georgetown County has a lighting ordinance banning floodlights and requiring shielding during nesting season, while Horry County has no equivalent code, though property owners can still face liability under the Endangered Species Act [MyrtleBeachSC News, 2026]. SCDNR – Marine Turtle Conservation Program +2

Analysis: The absence of a county ordinance matters most in the fall. In summer, volunteers are on the beach at dawn and neighbors are paying attention. In October, a porch light left on at an off-season rental may go unnoticed for weeks, and so may the hatchlings it draws inland.

A record year with a modest local share

Local beaches have taken part in the statewide surge. In May alone, SCUTE recorded 70 nests on the 13 Horry and Georgetown County beaches it monitors, compared with 41 the previous May [WMBF, 2026]. Scott told reporters that Pawleys Island had a record 50 nests, South Litchfield had 13, and Litchfield by the Sea had four or five [WPDE, 2026].

Local management clearly works. Myrtle Beach State Park ranger Ann Wilson said statewide nest success was a little over 60 percent last year, while managed nests in Horry and Georgetown counties often reach 80 to 90 percent [WMBF, 2026].

Analysis: That gap between 60 and 90 percent is the value of volunteers walking the beach, moving nests out of harm’s way and watching them through hatching. It lasts only as long as the watching does. A nest laid in September deserves the same attention as one laid in June, and it will need that attention later in the year, when fewer people are around to give it.

The payoff is long-term. Scott credits the surge to conservation work SCUTE’s founders began 30 years ago, noting that turtles take about 25 years to mature and use geomagnetic imprinting to return to their birth beach [WPDE, 2026]. A hatchling that reaches the surf this October could return to lay her own nests around 2050.

What the final month asks of residents

Almost none of this requires money. It takes attention for a few more weeks:

Keep lights low. SCUTE volunteer Hali Goldfine said residents can help most by turning off lights, filling holes, and taking chairs and umbrellas home so adult and baby turtles don’t get trapped [WPDE, 2026].
Smooth the sand. Even without digging, a chair dragged across the beach leaves a groove that can trap a hatchling on its way to the water [WPDE, 2026].
Give nests space. If you find an unmarked nest, SCUTE asks that you stay at least 25 feet away and call SCDNR [WMBF, 2026].
Anglers, don’t reel in a turtle. Rangers say that if you hook one, contact a ranger instead so a trained responder can evaluate it [WMBF, 2026], and don’t try to remove the line yourself [WBTW, 2026].
Report problems. SCDNR’s hotline for turtles in trouble is 1-800-922-5431 [WBTW, 2026]. In North Myrtle Beach, you can reach the city’s Sea Turtle Patrol at 843-213-9074 any time, day or night [Explore North Myrtle Beach, 2026]. North Myrtle Beach
Watch an inventory. Volunteers hold public inventories about three days after a nest hatches, counting shells, checking unhatched eggs and sometimes helping stragglers reach the water. Announcements are posted on SCUTE’s Facebook page [Georgetown County]. Gtcountysc Gtcountysc

Conclusion

October 31 is a date on a regulatory calendar. The turtles don’t observe it, and the risks don’t end with summer. In a year with more than twice last season’s nests, the Grand Strand’s final weeks of hatching will likely be busier than residents are used to. They will also come during peak storm season, on a county shoreline without a lighting ordinance, when fewer people are watching.

The biggest crowds of the season are gone, but the most consequential stretch may be this quiet one. For residents, the task is small: leave the porch light off a few more weeks, fill in the hole, and take the chair home.