Beaufort County’s favorite visitors are only days away from arriving.

And if Amber Kuehn, a marine biologist and director of Hilton Head Island’s Sea Turtle Patrol, has her prediction right, May 8 is when the first nest will be laid.

For the sea turtle mamas to their teeny babies, the journey from nesting to hatchling isn’t straightforward. Lessening the human footprint on the beaches is vital for the nesting season, which begins May 1 and officially ends Oct. 31.

For the baby turtles that hatch on South Carolina beaches and make it to the ocean, they have a three-day, 70-mile swim in front of them to reach the Gulf stream. About one in 100 will live to be 3 days old. And only one in 1,000 will make it to adulthood. They are low odds, but even before the hatchlings attempt their journey, mama sea turtles need ideal conditions to nest.

Artificial lights shining onto the beach at night, loud noises, people who come too close and beach furniture that’s left out all can contribute to false crawls (where a mother comes ashore and doesn’t lay). When a mother is successful, she will walk the shore at night, lay about 120 eggs in a nest, cover it and head back to the ocean.

Based on the sand’s temperature, the eggs will incubate between 45 and 60 days. The newborn sea turtles then take two to three days to wiggle from their shell and dig up to the surface.

From there, the hatchlings face many threats before they even reach the water — many of which can be deterred.

On Hilton Head, a town ordinance adopted in November 2019 says holes on the beach cannot be deeper than a foot. The hole can neither be dug with a metal shovel, nor can it be bigger than 30 inches. Before the beachgoer leaves, they must fill in the hole, which is important so hatchlings do not get trapped. The ordinance also bars leaving personal property on the beach overnight and requires people to dismantle sandcastles 30 minutes before sunset.

A separate ordinance requires exterior lights on the beachfront homes be shielded or pointed downward to lessen the number of nesting adult females and hatchlings becoming disoriented by artificial light. Recently, the town tripled the number of code enforcers.

“We hope people can do their part to pack it in, pack it out, not leave anything behind and just maintain the beauty of our beaches,” Kuehn said.

Nurturing and protecting sea turtles on Beaufort County’s beaches means following these rules”

Source: South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - A Myrtle Beach ministry for middle school and high school students kicked off its annual Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday.

WMBF News got an inside look at how the event is helping youth across the Grand Strand.

“It’s a lot of teamwork,” said Micah Dozler, a paddler at the event. “You know, it isn’t about who’s the strongest or even the fastest.”

Dozler was one of twenty paddlers on the Thunder Rockets at the 15th annual event hosted by Ground Zero, which happens to be a local ministry for youth and teenagers.

Collectively, Dozier and his team were on a mission for one thing: claiming first place.

“You can have a bunch of strong people all paddling and doing their own thing, but if you aren’t working together as a team doesn’t do you any good, you know, you got to come together and be a team, be a unit,” he said.

This year’s festival brought thousands to the Grand Strand as friends and family cheered on teams aiming to have the fastest time on the water.

Aside from the hard work of the steering and the paddling, each paddler paid $250 to paddle. That money raised is going towards Ground Zero’s overall mission.

“We are out here in our community today raising funds and having a great time with the people that matter the most, our community,” said Stephanie Sebring, the Advance Director for Ground Zero. “So, whether you have a teenager, whether you just run into teenagers, everything that Ground Zero does affects everyone in our community.”

Lori Caplan, another paddler at the event, shared she recently lost her father who enjoyed raising money for organizations like Ground Zero, and entered the competition to honor him.

“This is my second year,” said Caplan. “Last year I was just a participant, this year we have a whole group of friends raising money and supporting the cause for Ground Zero and representing my dad.”

Other contestants shared similar sentiments for participating in the festival.

“Giving back to the community in any way shape or form is really what makes us great. So I want to do it in any way we can,” said Tom Walsh, a paddler at the festival.

Copyright 2023 WMBF. All rights reserved.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WPDE) — The greater Myrtle Beach area saw fewer visitors during Easter weekend than last year, but the experts point to evidence that's part of a unique trend this year, and to still expect a comparable summer to the last two record-breaking ones.

“There isn’t the overwhelming demand that we’ve seen, so we have to be a little smarter about how we attract people that are actively looking for a beach vacation," Visit Myrtle Beach's Chief Marketing Officer, Stuart Butler said.

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He noted it's a checks-and-balances situation this year, as demand to travel is through the roof, but consumers are penny-pinching.

“We’re seeing a couple of different trends, one of which is the booking window is shorter, meaning that people will wait to the last minute to book," Butler said, pointing to some watching the weather, to get more sunshine for their buck.

He said that's why Easter was lower than last year since it rained.

"Overall, we’re seeing there are other forces that are creating some challenges like cruise lines are back up and running international travel,” he said.

Still though, while a Myrtle Beach vacation is a little more expensive from restaurants and rental places facing higher wages and insurance costs, that's the case around the country, and Myrtle Beach is still more affordable than competitors.

My message to the accommodations in town, is we’ve just got to be a little more aggressive in our advertising approach this year. The demand is there, we just may have to hunt for it a little more than we have in previous years.

He said one thing giving the Grand Strand the upper hand, is the spread of rental options here.

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“We run the gambit, right?" Butler said. "We have these large-scale resorts, we have traditional chain hotels, a lot of our condo hotels have kitchens there, which is especially when people are pinching their pennies that’s a great opportunity for them to skip a meal out and save a little bit.

While airline tickets are increasing, gas prices are still going down, and Butler said half of the country can travel to Myrtle Beach within one day, which is a tank or two less than it would take some to get to competitors, like Florida.

Because of the situation, Butler said they're expecting more visitors than in 2019, and comparable numbers to last year, which is a great thing considering the situation consumers are facing.

My late grandfather served overseas in the army in World War II, three of my uncles served in the Vietnam War, and my younger brother currently serves in the U.S. Coast Guard. Thankfully, Grandpa Byers lived a long life after his service until he passed away in 2013, and my uncles and brother are alive and well today.

The upcoming Memorial Day federal holiday is all about looking back. Looking back to remember and honor those men and women who did die while serving in the U.S. armed forces to defend the freedom of our country and protect lives around the world.

It’s been a tradition since 1868. This year, Memorial Day falls on Monday, May 29. And the City of Myrtle Beach is in the midst of strengthening its tribute to the city’s reputable history that is grounded at the former U.S. Air Force Base at Warbird Park.

Warbird Park proudly stands on the outskirts of The Market Common and the Myrtle Beach International Airport just west of Business 17 on land that was once an army airfield where soldiers trained. Just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, City Council agreed to sell the town’s new airport to the U.S. War Department for $3,500 to serve as the Myrtle Beach Aerial Gunnery and Bombing Range.

The Myrtle Beach Army Air Field was deactivated after the war, and the airport was returned to the City of Myrtle Beach in 1947. But, as the Cold War heated up in the mid-1950s, the city again gave the airport to the federal government, and the property became the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base. Its mission: to act as an essential defense line for our country, as threats to our national security have evolved over its 50-plus-year tenure, including as home to the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing.

I can only imagine Myrtle Beach back in that day, crawling with airmen in uniform from the base to the beach to the shag and dive bars along the boulevard. The Air Force base operated until March 1993, when it was turned back over to Myrtle Beach.

Today, the memorial Warbird Park is site of several old fighter planes: the A-10 Thunderbolt II, nicknamed “The Warthog,” providing air support for troops during Operation Desert Storm; the F-100 Super Sabre, which was tasked with locating and destroying North Vietnamese enemy air defenses in the Vietnam War; and the LTV A-7 Corsair II, initially in service with the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and later adopted, with some modifications, by the U.S. Air Force.

Warbird Park is also home to a 9/11 Memorial, a beam from the North Tower of The World Trade Center, as well as a Wall of Service and Circle of Heroes, and will soon showcase a new World War II Memorial.

The city’s design plans for the new memorial include a 1,000-square-foot monument that’s tall enough to see from Business 17, featuring a plaza with the world’s seven continents engraved into the concrete, markers showing where all the world war battles took place, and a star marking Myrtle Beach to signify how our little town played a role in the war. The city also plans to have a black granite wall showcasing photos of the city’s contribution to the war, markers of the different battle groups that trained here in Myrtle Beach, a sculpture, and poems.

Light columns surrounding the plaza will represent each branch of the military.

At press time, construction was expected to begin on the World War II Memorial in March 2023, with plans to reveal it to the public on Veterans Day 2023. Warbird Park’s expansion plans also include adding more parking spaces and a trail system.

I look forward to exploring the park’s newest memorial when it opens and being reminded of how the Myrtle Beach name is forever inserted in the history of World War II. All three of my sons have visited Warbird Park with me in the past, pointing in awe up at the massive fighter planes mounted on cement and over at the planes taking off and landing next door at the active airport.

When you visit, there is no charge for admission to the park, and there are picnic tables placed under pleasant tree shade. For more info and updates, visit warbirdpark.com.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WPDE) — This weekend Myrtle Beach State Park visitors shared a video with WPDE showing what looked like a small eruption taking place not far off of the coast.

While many followers gave their own assumptions of what the bubbling activity was. Some thought it was potentially related to the offshore earthquake from last week, the mythical creature known as the Kraken, a submarine, and the infamous Red Jeep making its return from the deep (even though it was pulled out of Dorian floodwaters in 2019). All good guesses, but not in fact the case.

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The cluster of bubbles fizzing off the coast was captured by Aaron McAleese.

He said his kids were playing in the water when the bubbles abruptly began- that's when he grabbed his phone and started recording.

“A buddy of mine who was with me, he used to be a diver and that was where he identifies the boat and he said ‘That’s a dive flag on the back of the boat,’ And then the boat moved closer to the bubbling and they threw a buoy into the bubbles and it bubbles for about five minutes, and then it just stopped," he said.

Other witnesses commented that with the bubbling, they noticed another vessel and some diver flags nearby.

One witness told WPDE'S Ed Piotrowski that it was related to, "A directional boring machine is literally sitting in the parking lot up by the shelters. They’re blowing air through the drill head and it’s coming to the surface. You can hear it running from a mile away. My money is on that and probably not submarines, aliens, or any of the other things."

What the viewer is talking about is simply a drilling operation. According to officials with the SC Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism, the bubbling was due to work to install the Firmina cable. At least, that is the 'best assumption' that they can provide us.

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"The footage was captured as horizontal drilling related to the Firmina cable project wrapped up," said Sam Queen the department's Director of Corporate Communications. "We aren't positive it was associated with horizontal drilling, but that's our best assumption."

So, what exactly is this conundrum that's gained the attention of so many of you?

The Vice President of Marketing for DC Blox explains.

“Most recently we've been laying the board pipes that go out under the beach and into the ocean. That's what you're experiencing as part of the bubbling," Bill Thomson, said.

Thomson confirmed DC Blox's sub-sea cable project is correlated to the bubbling, and you can expect to see this happening more often as they continue the project.

“Our responsibility is up to the board pipe which is basically the conduit that the sub-sea cables get pulled. Google would be responsible for laying the sub-sea cables and they’ll come in with ships that come off the coast, lay the cable, and they’ll locate the entry point into the conduit of the board pipes and then pull them through to the connection in the parking lot," he said.

Thomsan said most sub-sea cables on the Eastern seaboard are located in the North.

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He explains why this project is such a big deal.

“These sub-sea cables carry international data traffic and there’s a significantly growing amount of traffic going internationally. So, this provides all local traffic, anywhere in the Southeast to get to international destinations and vice versa," he said.

Google officials chose the Grand Strand as their US location for a one-of-a-kind cable. The Firmina Cable will run from Myrtle Beach State Park and will connect to Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.

Thomsan said so far they've laid down around 1,000 miles of board pipe.

DC Blox's $31.5 million cable landing is set to be finished in the fall.