Georgia’s loggerhead turtles set a new nesting record

Loggerhead sea turtles laid a record 4,292 nests along the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia in 2026, marking an encouraging milestone after decades of conservation. Tybee Island recorded 59 nests, beating its previous high of 35 in 2022.

Conservation staff link the rising numbers to long-running protections, including escape devices in shrimp fishing nets that help prevent turtles from drowning. Loggerheads generally begin nesting at about 25 to 30 years old, so the females coming ashore today reflect the benefits of measures introduced decades earlier.

Protecting those nests remains hands-on work. Georgia’s coastwide beach monitoring programme has operated since 1989. Hundreds of professionals and volunteers patrol beaches from May through August, looking for tracks left overnight, marking nests and guarding them against disturbance and predators. On Wassaw Island, teams work through the night to document nesting turtles and collect information for research.

The record season does not mean every nesting beach is secure. On erosion-hit Tybee, staff moved 23 nests to safer ground this year, including three emergency relocations after eggs became exposed. A beach replenishment project planned for winter should restore nesting space, although biologists caution that imported sand needs careful monitoring because its texture can make digging difficult for turtles.