Sunday, October 5th - WISTMP End of Year Meeting

 First I would like to thank all of our Volunteers who attend, and especially all who decided to bring some yummy snacks for our meeting.  It was a grand display and I told many of our attendees we could create a WITSMP Cookbook with all of the delicious goodies that we were treated.

After everyone had a plate, Leslie gave a summary of our sea turtle nesting season.  We had a total of 9 nests, 6 were in situ, 4 relocated.  We had a total of 6 False Crawls - 3 PN's - 2 became False Crawls and PN03 became our Nest 09.  Our incubation duration is 59.7 days, where the South Carolina incubation duration is 54.2 days.

Leslie congratulated all teams who moved nests to higher, safer ground.  We did not lose a nest this year, and only had one washover from the high wave action from Hurricane Erin who was along our coast for a couple of days. 

Our new LOA Melissa F had a grand year year and now has one year under her LOA belt.  Congratulations Melissa!  Job well done.

Here's some things to remember -  

- A new company to print our merchandise.  We did submit one order with the new company this year, and another order will be submitted when we start the 2026 nesting season. 

- The Thursday Volunteers started our season on May 1st and they ended the season on Thursday, September 25th.

- May 20th was our first False Crawl, May 21st was our first nest.

- We had a Kemp's Ridley stranding in June

- Tropical storm Chantal

- In July we had a SCDNR site visit with Kelly Lambert

- August 22nd  Hurricane Erin pounded our beaches for a few days

- Last inventory was Nest 08 on Thursday, September 25th 

 

Interesting finds on the beach

- First Diamondback Terrapin Nest found in May

- After Chantal passes all Volunteers picked up multiple bags of trash from the beach for about a week

- Message in the bottle

- Large items - patio chairs, rugs, and large black pipe which Steve and Barb had to cut to remove it from the beach

- Deceased animals - alligator, and a nutria 

 

It was the year of the Ghost Crab who harassed our nests all summer.  We caught 22 Ghost Crabs at Nest 03 and 20 Ghost Crabs at Nest 06R.  Even with the constant harassment we lost a small number of eggs and hatchlings.   The only nest they did not find was our Nest 09 which our PN03.  We could not find the egg chamber, neither did the Ghost Crabs!

 

Leslie gave a brief and incomplete summary of our DNA results, to date we only have Nest 01 and Nest02 results.  

 

It was a good meeting, and I think everyone enjoyed.  We did have two guests, Melissa and Kathy bought their husbands along and Jackie Boyce joined us.  As the tide was coming in (King Tide due to fall full moon) for the next few days) we cleaned up and headed back to the shed. 

 

Again many thanks to the LOAs and Volunteers for your commitment and dedication to this monitoring program. Hoping to see you enjoyed and learned this year, and I hope to see all next year.

 

Leslie 

  Summary and photos by Leslie

 

Getting our snack feast ready

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The spread

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We say Good Bye to the beach 

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Conservation Program under permit MTP500.

 

 

Thursday, September 25th, Waties Island Nest 08 Inventory

Ariana, Thomas, and I headed out to the island for our last patrol and inventory of Nest 08. We were not disappointed by a beautiful South Carolina sunrise. 

Not surprised by the many bobcat, racoon, and deer tracks, 

We were joined by Leslie, Kim T, and Kathy as well as 15 CCU students for our inventory.  Here they come!

Nest 08 was laid 7/23 by our big girl; 36" lady.  Nest was in situ. This Mama traversed the dunes, navigating around sea oats and grasses until she nested close to the base of a dune.  All during the incubation period, this nest was terrorized by ghost crabs.  We caught and removed 13 of those pesky critters. 

Because this Mama nested so close to dune and grasses, some of the unhatched eggs had roots through them.

The students were all smiles once the work began.  Leslie gave instruction and assigned tasks. Kim and Kathy taught and guided some students in the counting of eggs...

...while Leslie taught and guided other students in how to dig to the nest chamber and gather the eggs.

I was dubbed photographer for the morning.

This nest had 78 eggs hatched; 30 eggs unhatched. This Mamma's hatch success is 71.5% and emergence success also at 71.5%. One unhatched egg was opened and flipper used for the DNA paternity study.

 

 

 

Pictures and summary by Melissa

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Conservation Program under permit MTP500.

Tuesday, September 23rd Nest 08 - Straggler tracks

 Another beautiful morning on Waties Island.

 

Even though Nest 08 has emerged, it is still checked daily until we do the inventory on Thursday morning.  The Tuesday Volunteers were excited to see that a single hatchling emerged over night.  It was a very determined little one, he had a long way to crawl to get to the ocean.  We tracked him from the nest, lost his tracks in the dry sand and discovered more tracks as we got closer to the wet sand and wrack line - he made it!

Good Luck little one!  

You can see the depression of the nest chamber, and the start of his tracks

The little one took the long way to the ocean.  Did not crawl directly, but a squiggly way

We did lose the tracks in the soft sand, but found them again in the wet sand

Very determined!

You can see how far the little one crawled.

  You can see the DNR post in the background 

 

Our major predator -- but this little one made it to the ocean!

 

Summary and photos by Leslie


All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Conservation Program under permit MTP500.

First day of Fall, September 22nd Nest 08 emergence

  You could tell it was the first day of fall on the beach.  It was cool and gloomy, even the ocean was rough.

As Donna and Claudia walked up to our last nest of the season, Donna raised her arms for victory. I couldn’t figure out why they would walk on the hatchlings tracks.  They hadn’t.  All of the hatchlings emerged  to the left of the nest, and once they got out of the dunes they really spread out.  They emerged at high tide, so they had a smooth walk to the water.  This nest emerged on day 61.

Emergence hole

                                                                   Hatchling Tracks

Summary and photos by Sharon

Waties Island performs research and  management activities regarding sea turtle conservation in accordance with SCDNR permit number MTP 500

Friday, September 19th - Inventory of Nest 07

 It was a great “almost” fall morning on Waties- most likely our last Friday walk of the season with Nest 08 our only remaining incubating nest. We were looking forward to monitoring this last hold out nest, then heading up island to complete the inventory of Nest 07 which emerged on Tuesday, Sept. 16. No signs of of an emergence were present at N08, so we headed up the beach as some early morning fog rolled in softening the landscape and making for another great sunrise.

Nest 7 was discovered by our Sunday team on July 20. It appeared this laying momma had come up on the beach earlier during  the night, but had turned around and returned to the ocean (False Crawl #4) only to return further up the beach and lay her nest at the base of the dune. The body pit was well defined and the nest cavity easily found. Because our momma chose a great location for her nest it was left in situ- in it’s natural position. The nest faced challenges from ghost crabs and one brief wash over due to Hurricane Erin, but there was no evidence of any egg loss during incubation. The nest emerged on day 58 with lots of hatchling tracks observed. 

The Friday team was met at the nest site by Leslie and Barb and Steve with their trucks full of hopeful CCU students and additional patrol volunteers. 

After some on site remarks and procedure review, the history of the nest and it’s incubation was reviewed with the participants.

Leslie provides background information regarding the nest and reviews procedures.

Assignments were made, all were engaged, and a quick and routine inventory was completed.

Diggers and helpers

Sorters

                              

Luckily for the students, 2 live hatchlings were found in the nest. 

After the nest contents were evacuated, sorted and counted, the much anticipated release of the hatchlings was completed to the delight of all.

One of the hatchlings had some difficulty getting himself into the water, so he had a little help from one of the students past the first row of waves.

Results of the inventory: 85 hatched, 23 unhatched, 0 dead, 2 live, 1 wash over. 77.9% hatch success rate, 76.1% emergence success rate. 

A great job by all involved!

                                           Check out the butterfly photo bomb!!

Pics by Kim P, Caroline, Leslie and Kim T. Summary by Kim T.

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island sea turtle patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Conservation Program under Permit MTP500.

Monday, Sept 15th - Nest 09 Inventory

We had a beautiful start to our morning walk with the sun peeking out over a very calm sea.

Nest 09 was originally marked as PN03 at the far end of the island. The crawl, measuring 32” was discovered on Tuesday, July 15. This turtle crawled up and along the face of the dune, then back down again before returning to the water. Much of her track at the dune was obscured by blowing sand. The Tuesday team probed numerous places but did not locate the egg chamber. On Friday, Sept 9, the area appeared quiet with no evidence of activity, just as it had for the previous 58 days. However, just beyond and behind the marked area, numerous hatchling tracks were found leading toward the water from an obvious emergence hole. And just like that, PN03 became Nest 09.

Leslie reviewing the history of the nest and demonstrating the convoluted path she took before she nested

We had 15 CCU Sea Turtle Club members complete the very successful inventory: 91 hatched eggs and 5 unhatched eggs, for a success rate of 94.7% emergence and hatch rate. Duties were assigned for diggers, collectors, and sorters. The process went quickly and smoothly, with the nest found to be 18” deep on one side and 14” on the other.  Unfortunately, we found no live hatchlings

                     Leslie reviews inventory procedures. Tasks are assigned

                             Excited students, ready to dig into the nest

                              Nest contents passed to helpers who hand off to sorter and counters

                                                       Digging out the eggs.

                                       Sorters and counters - Kim and students.

                                                           Leslie checking the bottom of nest.

                                             Nest results - 91 hatched, 5 unhatched

Since this was an undetected nest, no earlier DNA sample could be taken. Barb (Waties LOA) carried an unhatched egg down to the water and explained the procedure to the students. Since some biology majors were in the group, she let one of them open the egg, release the contents into the water, and place the shell into a vial to be sent out for research.

After that, all that remained was the removal of the eggs from the site, and then we were ready for the ride back.

                                 Great job by the CCU Sea Turtle Club!  

Summary by Sharon and Kim T.       pictures by Cherie, Leslie and Sharon .

All Sea turtle monitoring by Waties Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Permit MTP500.