Illegal Outer Banks beach driver crushes sea turtle while she was laying eggs, park says

A motorist driving illegally on a dark Outer Banks beach is suspected of killing a loggerhead sea turtle as she was laying her eggs, according to the National Park Service.

The incident happened sometime before dawn Monday in the Frisco area, Cape Hatteras National Seashore said in a release.

Loggerheads are a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, officials noted. The National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch and Dare County officials are looking for the driver, the park said.

“She had begun to lay eggs into a nest dug in the beach when it is believed, based on evidence found at the scene, that a motor vehicle struck and ran over the turtle,” the park said in the release.

“Observations suggest the time of the apparent collision was one or more hours prior to 5:30 a.m., during a time where the route was closed to off-road vehicle use.”

“Viable” eggs were found near the dead sea turtle, officials said.

The recreational driving of off-road vehicles is controversial but legal on some Outer Banks beaches. However, tougher restrictions are put in place for drivers during turtle nesting season.

“At this time of year, ocean-facing off-road vehicle ramps are closed between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. ... to protect nesting sea turtles,” Superintendent David Hallac said in the release.

“It is very unfortunate that a vehicle appears to have disregarded the Seashore’s regulations, which has resulted in this turtle death,” he said.

Night driving restrictions on the park’s beaches went into effect May 1 and will continue until July 31, according to NPS.gov.

Driving off-road vehicles — both two wheel and four wheel — on the beaches requires a permit, and vehicles must stay at 15 mph or less within the national park.

Investigators believe the driver entered the beach via Ramp 48 or 49 in Frisco, between 9 p.m. and 5:30 a.m., the release said.

The Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance announced Wednesday that it is offering a $2,500 reward for information that leads to identifying the suspect.

NOAA Fisheries reports all loggerhead turtle populations are listed as endangered or threatened, due mostly to deadly vessel strikes or being accidentally entangled in fishing gear.

Female loggerheads are known to return to the same beaches where they were born to lay eggs, reports NCWildlife.org.

“Sea turtles generally emerge from the ocean at night to lay their eggs as a way to avoid daytime predators and the drying effect of the hot sun,” the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission reports.

“The female may take an hour or more to carefully dig her nest 18 inches deep in the sand. She will lay about 120 leathery eggs in this vase-shaped cavity, cover them with sand and then return to the ocean, leaving the eggs to incubate,” he commission says.

This story was originally published May 25, 2020 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Illegal Outer Banks beach driver crushes sea turtle while she was laying eggs, park says."