Monday, April 8th Nesting season is about three weeks away

 Hi All - I would like to thank all of our volunteers who have submitted their 2024 application.  At this time, I am only missing one or two applications.  Please submit ASAP, deadline is Wednesday, April 10th.

Many of our veteran volunteers are returning, and we have about a dozen new volunteers.  Welcome to all!  Several of our veteran volunteers will be in training for being LOA/Leads.

As a memory refresh, we had 11 nests and 16 False Crawls last year,  From reviewing our nesting history we should have a busier year.  Cross your fingers, we are about 3 weeks out before our season starts.  Looking forward to seeing the Waties Island sunrise.

Monday, March 25th Example of the erosion on Waties Island

Hi all - I borrowed this Facebook post, with permission, and thought that many of you would be interested, especially our veteran members who have walked the short end of the island.  Some of you know that I belong to a kayak club, J & L Kayaking.  Justin Summerall, part owner and guide posted this information.  

I have both walked and paddled to the island, and have seen this erosion first hand.  Just think how much sand has been moved by the force of the ocean waves and water.  Just AWESOME and so powerful.

-----------------------------------------------------Facebook Post ---------------------------------------------------
THEN & NOW: Waties Island
This satellite image was taken about 4 years ago. The red line is a GPS overlay of our paddle trail on today's morning island trip (3/18/24). Look how much erosion has happened on the corner of Waties Island in only approximately 4 years. As you can see we would have been paddling dry ground.

Saturday, March 23rd 2024 Nesting Season Starts May 1st

Yeah! The 2024 sea turtle nesting season starts in a little over five weeks.   The email and the Waties Island Sea Turtle Monitoring Program Volunteer Application have been sent out to our 2023 Volunteers and to those who had expressed an interest in joining.  Many thanks to those who have already submitted their paperwork. 

For those who are interested, you may want to take a look at the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) South Carolina Marine Turtle Conservation Program website - https://dnr.sc.gov/seaturtle/index.htm   Lots and lots of information can be found on their website, such as:

   - "Loggerheadlines" a yearly publication - listed under the "Publication" label

       https://dnr.sc.gov/seaturtle/lhl.htm

   - Another excellent place to check out is under the "Volunteer" label 

       https://dnr.sc.gov/seaturtle/volres  under the "Volunteer"label, is the Volunteer Resources                         information

Every nesting season volunteers are strongly encouraged each year to record their time which assists the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program with their funding.

Looking forward to seeing our volunteers soon!

Sunday, December 24th - Happy Holidays to all

 Wishing you all a healthy, joyous holiday to those who are staying in town and safe travels to those who are traveling.  Enjoy your family and friends during this special time of the year.

Warm wishes - Leslie

Saturday, December 23 - Posting from the SC Sea Turtle Volunteer Network

 Just in case your missed the Facebook Posting, I thought to copy to our blog.  At the end of the year I am asked to write up an exciting event which happened on our on beach, I selected the Friday's Volunteers encounter with the mama turtle.  It was recently posted on the Sea Turtle Volunteer Network.

Many thanks to Kim T who wrote the original posting.  I "borrowed" much of her summary and added some information to it.

Leslie

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It's time for another season highlight! This time we are visiting the northern-most barrier island of South Carolina, Waties Island:
"On June 16th the Friday volunteers headed up the beach at the start of this brand-new day. We were full of hope that our nest drought would end today. Little did we know that hope turned into reality... and then some.
 
We received a text stating the magic word 'TURTLE' from one of our volunteers who is always 200 feet in front of the rest of us (she's a very fast walker). We hightailed it up the beach in time to see momma just finishing up, throwing sand over her nest. Then, she was heading toward the ocean. We watched and followed her in awe as she made her return trip to the water. She was big and she was beautiful.
One of our volunteers did manage to get some measurements of her carapace and we were able to note that there were no tags or tag scars. She was quite tolerant of the activities of her admirers. With one last look, she bid us adieu.
 
After the initial fun and excitement, we had some work to do. We covered the rest of the beach before we set our sights on the nest. Because the nest was just at the wrack line from last week's high tides, we decided to relocate her 147 eggs higher up on the dune.
 
A true group effort... we now had nest 2R in the books. A morning the Friday volunteers will not soon forget.
 
To complete this story, this nests emerged on August 11th on day 56. This was one of our successful nests with a 76.6% hatch success, 61.3% emergence success." - Leslie Piwowarczyk, MTP500 

November 2nd - GoFundMe information for Dr. Shamblin

 Since periodically I am asked by readers of our Waties Island Blog and Facebook page about wanting to make a donation, I am going to share this information.

The Isle of Palms/Sullivan’s Island Turtle Team has set up a Go Fund Me account to assist in the effort to raise money for Dr. Brian Shamblin and the sea turtle genetics project.  Dr Shamblin lost his federal funding after 12 years.  This program benefits loggerhead conservation but also gives sea turtle organizations really interesting info about our nesting females that we can share at inventories.

We have been asked to share this information to anyone who loves sea turtles as much as we do to help benefit his work.   If you want all of your donation to go to the turtle project, please know that the “tip” that this website encourages is not mandatory.

Many thanks for your interest

https://www.gofundme.com/f/he26te-please-help-our-sea-turtles

Saturday, October 21st WISTMP End of Year Meeting

We had a small gathering today, with good food, good weather and good company.  Leslie opened our meeting with introductions of the attending LOAs, and everyone introduced themselves and what day they monitored the beach.  The following items were addressed:
- SCDNR End of Year Volunteer Appreciation Meeting, Saturday, Nov 4th, 11:00 to 3:00 - Leslie is attending, let her know if you wish to attend
- Looking into having new shirts made using lighter material, with sun protection
- CCU Parents Weekend - October 27 - 29, Waties Island will not be included as a visitation site this year
- Summary of Nesting, False Crawls and the one Stranding we had this year
- No nests were lost this year - the island fared well from Hurricane Idalia
- Highlights
   - Friday Volunteers got to see the nesting lady, June 16th
   - Monday Volunteers discovered and worked a Green Turtle nest - June 26th
 - Reminder to enter your hours and mileage into seaturtle.org

Question - Have we gotten anymore DNA results?
Answer - No, just for Nest #1, we still have not received the DNA results for some of the 2022 nests.

 

Getting setup for our meeting

Sunday Volunteers & Guest

Steve watching over the group

Bill enjoying the sun

Wednesday Volunteers

Sharon's yummy creation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the meeting we ate some delicious snacks, mingled, and Melissa found  a shell of a Diamondback Turtle.  Some of our volunteers went for a walk on either the short end or long end.  Some were graced with a drive up the beach to the jetty to check it out.

 

 

The last vehicle on the beach, the volunteers had a grand time as we say goodbye to Waties Island for the season.