Waties Island Sea Turtles

Waties Island, the northernmost barrier island in South Carolina is roughly 4.0 km in length. It is a private undeveloped barrier island at the border of North/South Carolina. All sea turtle monitoring by this group is authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Permit MTP500. We strive to help protect the sea turtle, and we are at it again this season! The site will be updated often during the nesting season - May 1st through October.

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

A Possible Nest??

The weather today was a little "iffy" - thunderstorms were predicted but fortunately did not happen. But the WIND was very evident! And some spotty rain too.

The Tuesday team walked with the wind at our backs on the way up the beach; we knew coming back into the wind was going to be a lot harder. All quiet until just a few yards past Marker 7.

A 32 inch wide loggerhead crawl and potentially our Nest 5: Unfortunately the wind had blown away any evidence of a nest site. The tracks were pretty clear in the damp sand but mostly gone above that. We did probe a little bit but didn't find anything. The site has been marked as PN #1 (possible nest). Maybe those ghost crabs will do our work for us and find the nest tonight.

The was our new volunteer Rachel's first crawl! See those smiles?

Luckily Steve was able to arrive on the scene and transport us back, saving us an arduous trek back.