Thursday, May 6th - Exciting morning on Waties - Nest #1 and possible seal sighting

The Thursday Team (Bill and Leslie) had an exciting morning.  The beach was very quiet, no wind like yesterday, and the ocean was flat.  Bill took the short end, and I headed toward the Jetty.

Right after M6, I spotted the crawl, and we have nest #1. She crawled in during high tide, she started her nest pit right at the base of the dune, changed her mind, crawled a little, did a loop-d-loop, and finally nested.  Classic nesting signs, thrown sand, disturbed wrack, and the crescent shaped sand.  Bill probed and found the nest chamber, it was a little on the shallow side 13 inches deep.  Her crawl was 34 inches wide.  Barb D has stated this is the earliest nest ever on Waties.

After calling Bill about the crawl, I continued up to the jetty.  In the distance I could see this shape and at first I thought it was an injured Pelican, but the closer I got it looked like it was moving like a seal, and it was scrambling to get to the water, and entered the water.  I was still too far away to get a picture, but after it entered the water I could see this head pop up from the ocean.  I took pictures of its crawl, and a measurement. I have forward pictures to SCDNR to see if they can confirm.

Lovely morning

    

We have a crawl - first of the year
She came in high tide, tracks on the left,
left after high tide - tracks to the right

She started to nest at the base of the dune,
changed her mind

Crawled away and did a loop-d-loop

She decided she liked this spot better

Headed back to the ocean

Classic Nest - disturbed wrack,
thrown sand,
and crescent shaped sand mound

Getting ready to work the nest

Egg in the nest chamber

Sea Turtle Egg, and DNA Vial 

Nest #1

The other exciting news was spotting a possible seal on the island.  These are pictures of the tracks left, from claw to craw, it's 10 inches wide.  We could see that it came in at high tide, rest on the sand, and the tracks going back to the ocean.

Pictures by Bill and Leslie

Wednesday, May 5th South Carolina marks first sea turtle nest of the year

 A sea turtle 'crawl' was found on Seabrook Island today, south of Charlestown making this crawl on Seabrook Island the state's first nest of the season.

News Article Posted by SCDNR 

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (May 5, 2021) — While sea turtle volunteers have been walking South Carolina’s beaches in search of nests since May 1, the official start of the season, it wasn’t until this morning that they found something to count.

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) biologists and volunteers are excited to announce that a mother loggerhead laid the first nest of the season sometime last night on Seabrook Island. Volunteers Sandy MacCoss and Lucy Hoover spotted a crawl and located the nest on the island 20 miles south of Charleston.

"Our staff and nest protection volunteers have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the season’s first nest marking the return of these ancient reptiles," said SCDNR biologist Michelle Pate, who oversees the agency's sea turtle nesting program. "We're hopeful for a great season under the watchful eyes of our dedicated volunteer network members."

Despite the complications of the 2020 season, which ranged from beach closures to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, it was a successful nesting year for South Carolina’s sea turtle population, with 5,560 nests laid. Because nesting exacts a high energy toll on the large reptiles, female sea turtles do not come ashore to lay eggs every year. This pattern results in nesting fluctuations from year to year – 2019 broke all records with 8,795 nests, but 2018 saw just 2,767 nests.

Overall, sea turtle nest numbers across the Southeast have trended up over the past decade, making biologists across the region optimistic that these threatened reptiles are beginning to recover after several decades of conservation efforts.  

Four sea turtle species nest on South Carolina beaches: loggerheads, greens, Kemp’s ridleys, and leatherbacks. All four species are classified as endangered or threatened and are protected under the Endangered Species Act in addition to local and state ordinances. Loggerhead nests comprise the vast majority of the state’s total number each year, but 2020 saw at least one nest from each species and even five nests from a loggerhead-hawksbill hybrid.

Sea turtle season officially runs from May 1 through October 31, with hatching beginning around the start of July.

Sea turtle clutches average 120 eggs and hatch after approximately 60 days. Nesting females may remain in South Carolina waters and continue to nest every two weeks, laying up to six nests per season. Throughout this stressful time, the turtles also abstain from eating.

South Carolina beachgoers can help the state’s sea turtles by keeping beaches clean, turning beachfront lights out to avoid disorienting turtles, and giving all sea turtles and nests a wide and respectful berth when encountered on the beach.

**Sea Turtle Nesting Season Reminders**

- Report all sick/injured/dead sea turtles and nest disturbances to the SCDNR at 1-800-922-5431 so that staff/volunteers can respond as soon as possible.

- Respect boating laws and boat cautiously, especially in small tidal creeks where sea turtles like to feed. Boat strikes have emerged as the leading cause of death for sea turtles in South Carolina.

- Keep artificial lights off the beach at night during nesting season – this includes beachfront property lights and flash photography, which can disorient nesting mothers and hatchlings.

- Always respect sea turtles by observing them from a distance on the beach. Individuals that violate federal law by harming or interfering with sea turtles or their nests can be subject to civil penalties of up to $25,000 and up to a year’s imprisonment.

- Keep our beaches and ocean clean by avoiding single-use plastics. Plastic bags and balloons are among the most common trash items found on South Carolina beaches and can cause injury or death when sea turtles mistake them for food.

- Promote and support our program for continued conservation of sea turtles in South Carolina.

For additional information, contact:

Erin Weeks at (843) 729-3531

WeeksE@dnr.sc.gov

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources - Rembert C. Dennis Building

1000 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC 29201

Wednesday, May 5th Windy Day on the Beach

 The Wednesday Team, Leslie and Barb had a windy walk this morning.  Nothing to report, no sea turtle activity, little trash, many more jellies on the beach - Cannonball, Moon, and a few Lion Manes.  Leslie walked the lower end, and Barb the longer end, so we have pictures from our walks.  Remember, the sea turtles follow the food - jellies.

Pictures compliments of Leslie and Barb

Sunrise - beach was a little misty

Trees on the beach, lower end

Lower end continues to erode

More trees and brush coming down

Our scuttled sailboat, you
can only see the bow railing

Jelly one of many

Spider Crab guarding
the Cannonball Jelly

What's left of the Spanish
Mackerel - Day 2 

Monday, May 3rd Uneventful gray day

 Hi All - the Monday Team (Leslie and Sharon) had an uneventful morning, started out gray skies, no rain, but humid out on the beach.  Lucky morning for spotting deer, one on our way to the beach and another white tail disappeared as we got to the beach parking area.

 No sea turtle action, got a good bit of trash today,  the normal fare - plastic bags, lunch bags, food wrappers, lighters, beach toys, bait containers and lids, no sun glasses today, but a can of Paint Thinner was found.  The metal boat shell is visible again, last time I was out it was covered up with sand.  I did see evidence of a canine patrolling the dune line.  I have pictures, and tried to compare to our animal track chart, the tracks closely resembles a Gray Fox vs a Coyote, or maybe just a small Coyote - that was around MM5.  

No beautiful sun rise this morning

The sun was trying

Several dead fish on the beach
along with a few Cannonball Jellies

The metal boat shell is visible again

A beautiful Whelk, but did not take

The whelk creature was home, 

so put it back in the sand

For those who have not been on WI for awhile - this is what the dunes look like at Marker 9 - these dunes were lost from last year's hurricane Isaias that came up the coast last August

We have a canine patrolling the  beach - 

Gray Fox, small Coyote???

First Sand Dollar of the year

Yes, still plenty of Ghost Crabs on WI

Sunday, May 2nd

 Second day, beautiful, quiet, but  uneventful day.  

We did find a knobbed whelk egg  mass string which was in great shape.  Picture below.  This string produces dozens of disk-like shaped capsules where tiny hatchling whelks emerge.  This string had holes in the discs indicating they had emerged.

I also attached a picture of different knobbed shells they could be when matured.

Paulette & Sharon

2021 South Carolina Sea Turtle Nesting Season Begins Today - May 1st

The recognized sea turtle nesting season for South Carolina officially started today.  Hooray!

The SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program shared that the Georgia DNR reported their first Loggerhead nest of the season on Little Cumberland Island.  Little Cumberland Island is an 18-mile undeveloped beach and is one of the most important loggerhead sea turtle nesting areas in Georgia.  Hoping the sea turtles hurry to South Carolina waters.

The Waties Island Saturday team reported a pleasantly uneventful morning.  They reported you could see where the King tides had been quite high, even on the lower end of the island. We just experienced one of our King Tides for this year, April 26 - 29th.   Not much trash (or anything else for that matter).

Let the year begin!

WISTMP Season 2021

 Hello,

We hope this message finds you all well and enjoying this warmer weather. I’ve heard from a number of you about volunteering this season and I do have some information to share.  This email will bring you up to date on the current status of the program along with some more detailed plans for how we plan to handle new volunteers as they join the program in the coming years.

Last year with the pandemic, only WISTMP Leads walked; no volunteers were allowed to participate at the direction of Coastal Carolina University (CCU).  At the end of last season, Dr Angelos Hannides, stepped down due to academic considerations. He asked if I would be willing to take over the responsibility for the WISTMP permit.  In order to do this, a CCU position had to be created.  This has been done, and I am now a CCU Affiliate under the supervision of Dr Paul Gayes.  I will now hold the WISTMP SCDNR permit for the 2021 sea turtle nesting season.

The start of nest monitoring is May 1st.  At this time, only the leads are going to walk since we are still governed by the directives from the SCDHEC, SCDNR, and CCU COVID guidelines.   As a group we discussed the possibility of allowing a limited number of volunteers to walk starting possibly in June or  July, depending on several factors:

(A)    CCU is currently in Phase 2 in their COVID response. Phase 2 has a particular restriction on Research and extension applications. The WISTMP team is in place for the four person limit, meaning only four people are to be on the island each morning.  This may be updated as things change. 

(B)    This decision will be based on the number of COVID cases at CCU which has more restrictive guidelines than the state of South Carolina.  If the COVID cases spike again, we will have to reevaluate this decision.  My main objective is keeping both the leads and volunteers healthy.

It is extremely important that anyone who wishes to volunteer fill out and submit the attached Volunteer Application.  Since all of the leads have been vaccinated, we are going to require all of our volunteers be vaccinated.  There are several other questions which will assist the leads in selecting the appropriate people to walk - short end vs long end.  

Since we are currently only allowed a team of four people, you may not be walking weekly.  Also, this year no visitors or family members are allowed on the island and there will be no public inventories.

Please fill out the application and submit it so we can begin to review them. Once we have decided to start bringing back volunteers, you will be contacted. 

Thank you,

Leslie

Note: Not able to attach the Volunteer Application within the Blog - send an email to witurtles@gmail.gov and a copy will be sent to you.