Tybee Island Beach Fine for Sea Turtle Nesting

It seems the federally protected loggerhead sea turtles will find plenty of nesting habitat on Tybee Island’s freshly re-nourished beach after all.

The federal government spent $11 million pumping fresh sand onto Georgia's largest public beach last fall.

And late last month researchers were concerned the sand was too compact for the finicky sea turtles to lay their eggs. But now, the Department of Natural Resources turtle expert Mark Dodd says he’s reinterpreted the data to find the compact sand is mostly on the tide-line where the turtles don’t nest anyway. And where they do dig… 85-90 percent of that shore is nest-friendly.

Their nesting season begins early May and ends in October.