As Hurricane Erin churned off the North Carolina coast this week, its powerful waves destroyed most of the remaining sea turtle nests on Emerald Isle, dealing a blow to what had been shaping up as a successful nesting season.

NOTE: The video is from a previous report.

"Out of our 10 remaining nests, we've probably lost eight of them," Dale Baquer, president of the volunteer group Emerald Isle Sea Turtle Patrol, told ABC News.

The losses started Monday, before the Category 2 hurricane made its closest approach to the coast, Baquer said, noting that they began the nesting season with 23 nests. Thirteen had successfully hatched before the storm but only two nests now remain viable after Erin's impact.

"We knew it was coming, but the waves were a bit higher and sooner than we had hoped,"

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