Year End Summary for 2026

The Isle of Palms had 41 nests and Sullivan’s had 17. This year the state of South Carolina has had an outstanding nesting season with 8,066 nests recorded at this time. Sullivan’s has never had more than 15 nests, and we broke that record with 17 even though there is erosion in some parts of the beach. The renourishment project in areas of the IOP did not affect our nesting because it did not begin until nesting was in its final phase with only one laid on July 22, and that one was not in Wild Dunes.

     Our Hatch Success average on IOP was affected by three nests where the eggs failed to develop at all. We do not know the reason for this, but it is unusual. We look forward to seeing the results of the maternal genetics samples that we took from all 58 of our 2026 nests.

     We are glad to say that once again we had no known coyote predation this year even though they are seen frequently. Ghost crabs were about the only predator, and they do minimal damage to eggs and hatchlings. Our records show that 4,824 new hatchlings made it to the ocean from the Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s before the season ended.

        ISLE OF PALMS

·       Total Nests  -  41

·       False Crawls  -  47

·       Incubation Average  -  53.4 days

·       Mean Clutch Count  -  108.9 eggs

·       Total Eggs Laid  -  4,495

·       Average Hatch Success  -  79.1%

·        

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND

·       Total Nests  -  17

·       False Crawls  -  31

·       Incubation Average  -  53.2 days

·       Mean Clutch Count  -  113 eggs

·       Total Eggs Laid  - 1,945

·       Average Hatch Success  -  81.5%