CAPE HATTERAS, N.C. (WITN) – The discovery of two turtle nests on the Outer Banks has a lot of people talking.
That’s because they are leatherback turtles, something that hasn’t happened in 20 years at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
The first leatherback this season was found in Avon on June 19th, and the second was on Ocracoke on Wednesday.
The National Seashore says female leatherbacks typically lay between 4-8 clutches in a season, nesting approximately every 10 days.
Experts say given this pattern, both nests could belong to the same female.
The leatherback sea turtle is the largest species living today, weighing up to 2,000 pounds, and they are endangered on both the state and federal level.
Leatherbacks migrate great distances, often navigating entire ocean basins several times a year in search of their preferred food, jellyfish.
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