The Holden Beach Turtle Patrol is a conservation group involved with most aspects of the sea turtle species native to Holden Beach. Our Project Coordinator and State Permit holder is Linda Purcell. Ms. Purcell, along with a volunteer group of full time residents, volunteer countless hours in the name of sea turtle preservation. Learn more..

Baby Loggerhead Turtle

Our volunteers patrol the length of the beach on ATVs searching for turtle crawls. If a turtle crawl is found with a possible nest, a team is called to locate the actual nest and move the nest to a new site if necessary. Fifty days later, nest parents begin monitoring the nest and prepare the area for the hatchlings and their walk to the ocean.

Call our 24 hour pager: 754-0766

We also maintain a Stranding Team, which aids and assists deceased and injured turtles. Call our 24 hour pager at the number below (a toll free call from the Holden Beach area) to report mother turtles laying their nests, stranded turtles, or unattended hatchlings. Leave your numeric message (phone number) and stand by for a return call. 754-0766

magnet Beach Home Refrigerator Magnet

This refrigerator magnet should be in every beach front home. If not contact your rental agent or any turtle patrol member you see on the beach.

kids fun pages

NEW! Turtle fun for the kids.

Online Turtle Coloring page, click here
this page allows children to color a Loggerhead Sea Turtle online. (Flash Plugin Required)

Print the Turtle Coloring Page, click here
print this page and color a Loggerhead Sea Turtle with your own crayons or paint.

Sea Turtle Word Scramble, click here
unscramble words that are related to sea turtles

2007 - Miss Kayak was rescued and taken to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. A patrol member and three vacationers went out in Kayaks and managed to get her to shore. She has continued to do well over the winter months and should be released this spring. We added a video of her rescue to this site last fall along with additional pictures in the photo gallery. The proceeds from T-shirt sales and donations at the last two turtle talk programs have been donated to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center to help with the care of Miss Kayak.

"Kayak" - click here to watch a video of my rescue Click here to watch a video of "Kayak's" rescue.

Miss Kayak was released from the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. Watch the video of Miss Kayak being released here

We have designed our shirt for 2009 which is completed, printed and is available at the Lighthouse Gift Shop Visit our support page.

Thank you for buying our t-shirts at turtle talk and at the Light House Gift Shop. This is how we make money to finance the Holden Beach Turtle Watch Program (like buying a new 4 wheel drive ATV). And lastly let me thank all of you who let us use your walkways and visited with us on the beach night after night. You will never know how much your support and friendship on the beach means to all of us.

The Town of Holden Beach is located midway between Wilmington, North Carolina and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina -- about 40 minutes driving from each. The Town is situated on an Atlantic coastal barrier island, facing south onto the Long Bay region of Brunswick County. I-95 from the north and south, I-40 from the west and US-17 south from Wilmington or north from Myrtle Beach leads to Holden Beach -- approximately 3 hours from Raleigh, or 4 hours from Charlotte or Greensboro, or 7 hours from Asheville. For more map detail of Brunswick County, go to Brunswick Islands, and then click on "Maps".

Visit the Holden Beach Town Hall Web Site

**The Latest Statistics For 2009**
Current Nest Count	False Crawls	Strandings
23	9	7
Total Known Eggs	Total Baby Turtles to Ocean
2749	2456

The Latest News

October 31 , 2009

Well the 2009 turtle season is over here at Holden Beach. We had 9 false crawls this year with 23 nests. We had a total of 2749 eggs laid which gave us an average of 119.5 eggs per nest. We helped 2456 baby Loggerhead Sea Turtles get to the water giving us an 89.3% hatch rate. The number of nests is still down but all in all we had a pretty good year. We did not loose any nests to storms although we came real close with Tropical Storm Bob having to sandbag 11 nests during the storm surge. Volunteers worked for hours protecting the nests, some of whom were not on the turtle patrol but were vacationers that time their vacation with turtle hatchings. Seeing us out there they came out with what ever they could find to help move sand to protect the nests. We want to give a special thanks to those helpers because with their help all the nests were saved. We enjoyed having so many people coming out to the nests at night and sitting with us while we waited for the eggs to hatch. Many new friends were made and we hope to see you all again next year.

This year we will be holding our Turtle Talk Educational Program in the meeting room of the new town hall. Turtle talk will be every Wednesday at 7PM starting the 17th of June thru August 12th. So please come join us either there or on the beach at a nest.

Our 2009 20th anniversary shirts will be available at turtle talk or as always at the Light House Gift Shop on the causeway. Since it is our 20th anniversary, we thought it would be fitting to go back to the very first shirt that was sold and designed by our founder, Judy Bryan. The only change in the last 20 years has been the addition of the turtle excluder device which is reflected on the shirt replacing a netted turtle on the old shirt! For those collectors, barely noticeable! We are eager for the turtles to start nesting and for all of you to arrive and visit us.

Conjoined Twin Turtle

In a note we received from the State, we believe it is the first conjoined twin turtle (Siamese) in NC. There have been other instances of this occurring elsewhere in sea turtles and also freshwater turtles, but we have never heard of this before in NC.

We know of a pair of conjoined twin green turtles at a sea turtle education center in Mexico more than ten years old and still going strong!

In the future, when we have such an unusual birth, we have been instructed to contact our director who will in turn contact the state before we release the unusual turtle. A decision will be made as to whether it may be kept at the sea turtle hospital or the aquarium for an undetermined amount of time to allow it to grow before releasing it; hopefully, giving it a better chance of survival due to its rare condition.

For now, all we can do is hope that it swims on and grows along with the other hatchlings from nest #1 and pray that we will see our rare find back on Holden Beach in twenty or so years!

A Message From Linda Purcell

On behalf of the Holden Beach Turtle Watch Program, I welcome you to another year of sea turtle monitoring on Holden Beach. As we enter our 20th season, I would like to extend a warm thank you to everyone who continues to support our cause. As most of you know, we are an all volunteer program consisting of approximately 50 members who dedicate their summer mornings and evenings in the name of sea turtle preservation. Each year our “turtle family” continues to grow in numbers with new trainees joining each season.

Often I am asked what people can do to help our sea turtles, so here are a few things to keep in mind the next time you visit our beautiful island:

Please keep off the dunes at all times.
Please remove all umbrellas, cabanas, beach chairs, etc. at the end of the day so our nesting mothers have a clear path to the dunes..and insuring our early morning ATV riders a safe ride!
Fill in any large holes that are dug in the sand during the day – very dangerous to people and turtles!
Use a red cover on flashlights when walking the beach at night (these covers are available at island real estate offices).
Dial 911 and report anyone harassing a turtle or its nest.
Please help to pick up all plastics, balloons and other trash to provide all of us with a clean and green environment.

Together we can and will make a difference in whether sea turtles continue to call Holden Beach their home!

Happy turtling!
Linda Purcell, Director

You can view Holden Beach Turtle Watch Program Historical Data here.

We are excited to provide video footage of a turtle nest hatching. There are 6 six new video clips now available for your viewing. We hope you enjoy...
Click here to visit 'The Turtle Patrol Cinema'.