Nesting numbers are rising, and residents and sea turtle enthusiasts alike are anxious to know which of South Carolina's barrier islands will be in the lead this year. A new online database will now make this friendly competition simpler to follow. Nearly 2,000 cooperators monitor 71 beaches in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia for sea turtle nests from May to September each year. "The Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring System represents a revolution in sea turtle conservation and management by coordinating sea turtle nesting data in real-time for four species of sea turtles, from thousands of cooperators, along 710 miles of coastline for about 4,800 nests each year," said Michael Coyne, founder of SeaTurtle.Org. Data can now be reported by each beach in real-time through an online nest monitoring system. The system, developed by SeaTurtle.Org in collaboration with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, is an effort to standardize sea turtle nest data collection and provide resource managers with real-time feedback from their sea turtle nesting beaches.

To view the new sea turtle nest monitoring system, visit www.seaturtle.org/nestdb/index