Simmons wears her turtle passion as a small loggerhead tattoo. That's according to section manager Randy Wilson of the Raleigh-based N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, the overseeing state agency. Summer poses a challenge to both turtles and the volunteers who help them. In some locations, time and tides may not be on their side. Storms cut a cliff into the Ocean Isle dunes, and its steep edge is a formidable barrier to nesting turtles.
Turtles dig nests in soft sand above the high-tide line.
Concentrating nests would literally place all the eggs in one basket, and make them ripe for opportunistic predators such as foxes and raccoons. Hatchlings are also bite-size meals for other creatures, and successive hatchings from the same general location can create a virtual cafeteria line for gulls and fish. Hillenburg and the Ocean Isle turtles need more beachfront land. She begs oceanfront property owners to cooperate. Some will not.