Rare nesting leatherback turtle visits Holden Beach

Four college students on a midnight walk on Holden Beach Tuesday almost literally stumbled on a rare find—a nesting leatherback turtle.

John Lytvinenko, Holden Beach Turtle Patrol

Four college students found this endangered leatherback turtle nesting on Holden Beach Tuesday morning.

John Lytvinenko, Holden Beach Turtle Patrol

Holden Beach Turtle Patrol members think this is the first leatherback turtle that has nested on Holden Beach.

John Lytvinenko, Holden Beach Turtle Patrol

An hour into the dig at 7:30 Tuesday morning, the volunteers found four decoy eggs the leatherback laid to fool foxes, raccoons or any other predators. Volunteers, now covered from head to toe in sand, kept digging for the cylinder with the real eggs.

John Lytvinenko, Holden Beach Turtle Patrol

Nan Rex said the eggs, first found 34 inches below the surface, were each the size of a big tangerine. They found 106 eggs, and 70 are fertile.

John Lytvinenko, Holden Beach Turtle Patrol

Volunteers relocated the eggs, in the exact order, into a safer nest on the beach. Steve Rex said of the night, 'To me, it was a lifetime experience.'

The leatherback is the largest sea turtle in the world, with Holden Beach Turtle Patrol officials estimating this one was 6 feet long and weighed 850 pounds. Officials believe this is the first live leatherback ever to nest on Holden Beach.

Leatherbacks are on the critically endangered species list. They have been on the endangered species list since 1970.

The four college students from Chicago were walking the beach at 12:20 a.m. when lunar light—it was just a couple of days after a full moon—showed them something big in their path.

“We thought it was some kind of sand castle,” said Ariel Parks.

“All of a sudden, its head raised up,” said Jessie Foster.

They turned a flashlight on and were astounded.

Brendan Parks, Ariel’s older brother, had seen the little green sign on the beach access walkway about the turtle patrol. So these college kids ran to it to get the phone number off the sign, then raced to their vacation home “Carpe Diem” to get a cell phone and called turtle patrol.

Turtle patrol volunteers showed up to find the leatherback was still in front of the beach house “Mullet Over” at 761 Ocean Boulevard West.

Instead of leatherbacks, loggerheads are usually the kind of turtles the Holden Beach volunteers help hatch and make it to the ocean, Once she covers up her nest, a female loggerhead usually heads back to the ocean in five or six minutes, said Holden Beach Turtle Patrol permit coordinator Mary Kay Marwitz.

This female leatherback, by contrast, spent more than 30 minutes camouflaging her nest, Marwitz said.

That allowed Skip Hager, turtle patrol project coordinator, other patrol volunteers and the college students to take a picture of the leatherback.

A huge loggerhead turtle usually leaves flipper tracks about 40 inches wide, but the volunteers measured the leatherback’s flipper tracks 64 inches to 75 inches wide in places, said turtle patrol volunteer John Lytvinenko.

A regular loggerhead weighs 200-250 pounds, or a fourth the size of this leatherback. Full-grown leatherbacks can weigh up to 2,000 pounds, according to sea turtle websites.

Some of the volunteers who arrived at 1 a.m. Tuesday were back at the nest before daybreak to begin digging for the eggs.

Wearing latex gloves to prevent transferring anything to and from the turtle, the volunteers repeatedly scooped out sand and tossed it aside.

The diggers included Steve and Nan Rex, Barbara McMullin, Cheryl Washburn, Alice Cusack and turtle patrol trainee Norman Yeo. This was his Yeo’s first nest.

“This is the first leatherback we’ve had on Holden Beach,” Lytvinenko said.

Mary Kay and Tony Marwitz didn’t mind being awakened to come see the giant turtle.

“She was more than 6 feet long,” Tony said. “She made a loggerhead look little.”

“I was in awe,” Mary Kay said. “It was just amazing.”

Steve Rex and Nan Rex received a phone call to come at 12:34 a.m. and stayed all night to protect the nest.

An hour into the dig at 7:30 Tuesday morning, the volunteers found four decoy eggs the leatherback laid to fool foxes, raccoons or any other predators. Volunteers, now covered from head to toe in sand, kept digging for the cylinder with the real eggs.

While they dug, project coordinator Hager jumped on an all-terrain vehicle and headed down the beach looking for a better location for the nest so there wouldn’t be overwash and the eggs would have a better chance of survival.

This was nest No. 2 this season for the Holden Beach Turtle Patrol. They found one loggerhead nest last week and another one (with 121 eggs) Tuesday morning after they found the leatherback nest.

Orange tape—like crime-scene tape—roped off the nesting area.

The college students said the back of the turtle was as high as the orange tape strewn on stakes.

Brendan Parks’ and Ariel Parks’ family usually stay at Hatteras, but their mom found Holden Beach on the Internet and decided to give it a try.

“We watched the turtle go back in the ocean,” Brendan said with a smile.

The fourth college student, Brian Parker, said, “I would definitely come back to Holden Beach.”

Loggerheads move one flipper at a time, whereas the leatherback pushes back both flippers at the same time—as if she were doing the breaststroke, both the college students and the volunteers said.

The six volunteers dug for almost three hours before they found the eggs at 9:20 a.m. Tuesday.

“I’ve got ’em!” shouted Alice Cusack at last.

More than 25 beachcombers at a time stood outside the taped-off area to watch the digging. Cawl Cochran, 10, whose family from Pickens County, Georgia, is staying at the beach house “Mullet Over,” was thrilled to see the wide turtle tracks from the nest to the ocean.

Volunteers dug a hole 3 feet deep and more than 10 feet wide.

Nan Rex said the eggs, first found 34 inches below the surface, were each the size of a big tangerine. They found 106 eggs, and 70 are fertile.

“The others didn’t have yolks in them,” she said.

Volunteers relocated the eggs, in the exact order, into a safer nest on the beach.

Steve Rex said of the night, “To me, it was a lifetime experience.”

Nan Rex said as wonderful as it was to find the eggs, it didn’t compare with seeing the turtle.

“She was so big I could not catch my breath,” Nan said. “While she was camouflaging her nest, she threw sand so high I had sand thrown on me. I was crying I was so happy. It’s something majestic to see.”

Brendan Parks was the one who talked the other college students into the midnight walk, and they said it took some convincing.

“I still had some energy and didn’t want to go to bed yet,” he said.

For being so responsible and alerting the proper authorities, the college students were given Holden Beach turtle T-shirts.

The attire will remind them of their rare discovery.

Ariel Parks said, “It was an awesome thing to happen on vacation.”