Second day on Waties

It was a beautiful day on Waties for the first walking of the Thursday Turtle patrol-cool with not too many mosquitoes! Our four Coastal students were in the car eating their breakfasts when we arrived at 5:55.  These girls are committed and fun!  Angelos also walked with us and he is also committed and fun.  They all know lots about marine life. They tried hard to make me hold a jellyfish but my first no-nos seem to be deeply ingrained!
We too saw some things we have not seen much in other years.  Three dead puffer fish were a puzzle to us.  Lots of shells. 27 pairs of sunglasses (that's an after July 4th number!). Quite a few different tracks-some very large and some very small.  The most disturbing were all the tar balls (as identified by Angelos) at the north end.  It was high tide and along the water line there were lots of them.

This one was small medium.

Google definition of a tar ball:  dark-colored, sticky blobs of oil that occur when crude oil floats on the ocean surface, changing its physical composition in a process called weathering according to NOAA. 

Perhaps we might try to pick up some of the tar balls.  If we fill bags with them they may be too heavy to carry.  The bags could be left at the dune line and we could pick them up on Tuesday in the car.  Even if we only carry a few in each bag back to the shed to dispose of we would be removing something alien from the beach.  

Some beautiful pictures of the day.

Kinsey Thompson forwarded this picture to me today.  Since she will be trying to walk 5 days a week I thought you might all enjoy this photo.

It is her first turtle in Cozumel, Mexico at age 4.

Here's to a wonderful 2019 season!