74 John B. Andre and Larry West 



commercial fishing. Raccoons, Procyon lotor, are major egg predators 

 (Stancyk et al. 1980; Hopkins et al. 1979; Davis and Whiting 1977; and 

 Gallagher et al. 1972) and, if not controlled, can reduce loggerhead pro- 

 ductivity to zero. Erosion and inundation are responsible for the loss of 

 many egg clutches on Cape Island. Shrimp trawling also reduces log- 

 gerhead productivity by drowning turtles caught in trawls (Ulrich 1978). 

 This paper documents and describes loggerhead nesting activity at 

 Cape Island in 1979 and management practices initiated at CRNWR to 

 increase loggerhead productivity, i.e. the number of hatchlings entering 

 the ocean. Management practices include the operation of a hatchery 

 and a predator control program. 



The Study Area 



Cape Island is approximately 8 km long and 2.4 to 0.1 km wide. 

 The barrier island is a part of the Santee River Delta complex (Price 

 1955). Cape Island owes some of its origin to sediments supplied by the 

 Santee River (Brown 1977), and diversion of a large part of the Santee's 

 flow into the Cooper River in 1941 decreased its sediment load. This 

 factor was responsible for the shift from a stable or depositional phase 

 to a destructive, erosional phase at Cape Island (Aburawi 1972). Since 

 1941 the island has eroded over 215 m at several points (Stephen et al. 

 1975), and erosion continues to move the steep, narrow front" beach 

 landward at a rate of about 10 m/yr (Christopher H. Ruby, pers. 

 comm.). This erosion, combined with the wind and high tides that 

 accompanied Hurricane David on 4 September 1979, breached the 

 island at two locations. The hurricane also removed some of the remain- 

 ing dune system, thus reducing loggerhead nesting habitat. 



The front beach and primary dune system are used by nesting log- 

 gerheads. Landward of the steep, narrow beach are dunes and tidal 

 wash-over areas (see Caldwell 1959 for a complete description of Cape 

 Island beach types). Large elongate dunes lie parallel to the beach and 

 grade (abruptly to gradually) into small, isolated clumps of dunes. 



MATERIALS AND METHODS 



Surveys of the Cape Island beach were conducted from 18 May to 

 28 August to document loggerhead nesting activity. Each survey began 

 about one hour after dark and ended at dawn. Data recorded during 

 each survey included the numbers of freshly laid nests, false crawls, and 

 nests destroyed by predators. An average of 4.2 (range 1-7) surveys was 

 conducted each week during the 15 week nesting season. Estimates of 

 total weekly nesting activity (Table 1) were obtained by summing the 

 numbers of nests and false crawls observed on surveys during that week, 

 dividing the sums by the number of surveys conducted, and multiplying 

 these means by seven. Data reported from 1978 were extracted from 



