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.

Monday, June 26, 2023

Monday, June 26th - False Crawl #10 Green Sea Turtle

Nice cool breezy morning little trash and no animal tracks to be found.

Got a call from Jean saying Donna found something really weird. She then FaceTimed me to show this huge crater they found with an abandoned egg cavity. So I flew up there to discover a 7’11” body pit with abandoned egg cavity.

As soon as I saw it, I didn’t think this was a loggerhead. Then checking the crawl I found some differences in the crawls we usually find No V, crawl measured 47” on outgoing crawl and about 42” ingoing. Most of ingoing crawl wind blown away. Third there were parallel flipper marks, and no comma shape.

In the next picture you can see how deep the abandoned egg cavity was. It measured 16” deep and very wet down there. May have been why she changed her mind. We probed in and all around, but very hard sand.

Below a

bucket was placed inside so you can see how deep the pit was.

Here are a few more pictures that were take by Jewel.

We left a pole to mark it, since we are leaving it up to SCDNR to determine if Green or a Leatherback.

Michelle left it up to us to make the decision basically because there is not a good picture of crawl going directly down the beach, this is due to the wind blowing the dried incoming crawl away. Being out there and seeing the crawl we do feel that the flipper marks were parallel. Plus Greens can move large volumes of sand around and make a deep nest, which is what we found, so we have determined it was a Green. Before this, there was only one Green sea turtle who nested on Waties.

Text by Sharon

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number: MTP500.

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Saturday, June 24th - Nest #3

This morning, we found nest #3 and false crawl #9. The false crawl could have potentially been the same turtle that ended up nesting in another location the same night. She came up at low tide and crawled under a large washed-up tree to get to where she wanted to nest.

Nest #3

Turtle crawled under washed-up tree.

Probing for nest chamber

Nest had a lovely view

False crawl #9

This anemone found its home in a washed-up metal tub.

We also noticed this parchment worm sticking out of the sand. I had only ever seen them washed up, dead. It was neat to see one still (seemingly) alive.

Such an exciting morning!

Photos by Cherie and Kaela. Text by Kaela.

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number: MTP500.

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Thursday, June 22 - No nesting action, stranding of a Kemp's Ridley

The Thursday volunteers did not find any nesting activity on Waties today, but they spotted a sea turtle carcass in the surf. Leslie was called to handle this stranding. It was a Kemp's Ridley, and looked like a boat strike wound, and it was in a severely decomposed state.

Many thanks to Bill, Lorna, Kim, Janice, Sandy and Ayana for assisting in this stranding.

After noting the information required by SCDNR, the poor thing was buried and put to rest. It was really smelly, so hoping the island predators do not dig it up.

The following pictures are a little gruesome, and is a downside of our volunteer work.

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

Pictures and text by Leslie & Bill

We spray paint the carcass and have laid the poor thing to rest

Sunday, June 18, 2023

Sunday, June 18th False Crawl #08

It started as a cloudy and hazy morning when Erin, Dani and Allie began patrol this morning. Erin and Allie walked the short end and Dani walked the long end. Allie and Erin were walking to meet Dani, when Erin got a call from Dani stating that she found tracks.

Erin and Allie quickly met her at what may have been nest #03. Erin starting probing and quickly found soft sand. She let Allie and Dani probe also to feel the difference between the soft and hard sand while probing. Next Dani and Allie dug where the soft sand was in hopes of finding a nest. After digging for about 20 minutes and digging a hole about 2 1/2 feet deep, Erin decided to call the nest a false crawl.

There have been multiple false crawls in the same area, so it is definitely an area to keep an eye on. It quickly turned into a humid and warm morning but overall was a great start to the day.

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

Photos and Text by Erin

Friday, June 16, 2023

Friday, June 16 - Nest #2R and an encounter with momma

As we headed up the beach at the start of this brand new beautiful day, we were full of hope that our nest drought would end today. That hope turned into reality and then some.

We were observing the large amount of wrack left by last night’s tide…

when we got a text from Jingle (who is always 200 feet in front of us😉) consisting of one word - “TURTLE.” We hightailed it up the beach in time to see momma just finishing completing throwing sand over her nest and heading for the ocean. We watched/followed her in awe as she made her return trip to the water. She was big and she was beautiful.

- Melissa demonstrating how big she is -

Jingle managed to get some measurements of her carapace for reporting purposes, and we were able to note 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. Fingers crossed she will come back again this season.

Oh yes, after all that fun and excitement, we had some work to do. The rest of the beach was covered, then we set our sights on the nest.

What an advantage to know exactly where the nest would be found! A few probes and we had our nest chamber. It was shallow. We may have rushed her covering up somewhat by our arrival on the beach. Because the nest was just at the wrack line from last week’s high tides, we decided to relocate it nearby, but further up toward the dunes. 150 eggs were laid! With three found broken in the nest, 147 were relocated.

A true group effort…

- Linda and Kim fill the bucket -

-Arlene collects the eggshell for genetics testing-

-Melissa dug their new home-

-Jingle and Melissa rebury the eggs as Arlene recounts

-while Linda and Kim set up the triangulating poles-

Nest #2R is in the books. Great job by all. We greatly missed the rest of the Friday Turtle Tribe, Keela and Jan who were with us in spirit and in our hearts.

Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number MTP500.

Photos by Melissa, Jingle and Kim

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Wednesday, June 14th, False Crawl #07

Another beautiful morning on Waties Island, along with the volunteers, we had three guests. Leslie covered the short end of the island, and all others headed to the jetty.

Sunrise over the marsh

The volunteers and guests heading to the jetty

Ghost Crabs holes

Sunrise over the lower dunes


Sunglasses found on top of the sand

The volunteers and guests walked the long end to the jetty, and found another crawl at the jetty rocks. She crawled in right along the rocks, actually hitting up on some of the rocks. She followed the rocks along the base of the dune, turned and headed back to the ocean. Her crawl was shaped like the letter "U". She did not even attempt to nest, no digging, no body pit. False Crawl #07. Her crawl was 31 inches wide. There were no drag marks on the bottom of her shell.