A turtle disaster
FRISCO, N.C. — The discovery of a dead 250-pound sea turtle on an Outer Banks beach earlier this week has sparked sort of a homicide investigation.
Who crushed the female loggerhead?
The turtle crawled onto the beach in Frisco between 9 p.m. Sunday and dawn Memorial Day. She deposited 131 eggs into a 2-foot deep hole she dug before attempting a return to the sea.
Rangers found her not far from the nest, pushed into the sand with her shell badly crushed, said Boone Vandzura, chief ranger for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
It looked like she had been run over while the beach was closed to vehicles.
“There were fresh tire tracks on either side,” he said.
Loggerhead sea turtles are threatened and fall under the Endangered Species Act. Anyone convicted of illegally killing one could face up to one year in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Rangers immediately began collecting clues. They took photographs of the tire tracks in hopes of matching the width and tread pattern with a vehicle. The turtle measured about 3 feet long. Striking a turtle that size would damage the vehicle’s undercarriage — another clue, he said.
The Frisco beach closes to traffic from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. during nesting season. The driver was on the beach illegally after curfew. Rangers are patrolling later at night in case they spot the same driver.
Investigators have interviewed dozens of people, starting with those who regularly fish or hike on the beach after dark or at dawn. A witness might have seen a vehicle driving erratically or staying past the curfew.
Tips are coming in and the case is coming together in “bits and pieces,” he said.
“Someone has bragged about this or talked about it to someone,” he said. “They want to tell the story.”
The Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance has offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to a suspect. The organization is made up of groups that fish and drive on the beach.
Most beach drivers obey the rules and avoid nests, said Bill Smith, president of the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association.
“We want to see this person arrested,” he said.
Sea turtle deaths from humans are rare at the park, but cases in 2016 and 2010 both went unsolved. Arrests and convictions are tough to get, said Heather Clarkson, southeastern program outreach representative for the Defenders of Wildlife. It might require an eyewitness or video.
Sea turtles are thriving at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Last year, a record 473 nested there. During the summer nesting season, females crawl ashore at night, dig a hole about and deposit their eggs before returning to the ocean.
The eggs incubate deep in the sand and hatch after about two months. The 131 eggs from the dead mother were relocated.
Rangers patrol the 67 miles of the park’s ocean beaches every morning looking for turtle tracks that look like a small tank has come and gone, indicating a new nest. They mark the site with a barrier.
Clarkson would also like to see the use of drones with heat sensors to watch the beaches at night, a technique used in other places, she said.
Anyone with information can report information at the Dare County Community Crime Line website or the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch at 888-653-0009 or online at www.nps.gov/isb.
OBX rangers working murder-mystery involving loggerhead
“We want to see this person arrested.”
— Bill Smith, president of the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association