Surprise on the beach

 It was good to see those who attended today’s meet and greet at the historic cottage on Waties. Happy to greet several of our new volunteers and reconnect with our returning veterans. Although the official start of the 2025 season is still 5 days away, the behind the scenes work continued after the meeting with the placement of the buckets, triangulating poles and DNR signs at the mile markers so all can be in place when our patrols commence on May 1. 

On our way up the island, we made a surprise discovery - unfortunately, not a happy one. A deceased juvenile green sea turtle with obvious boat strike injuries had washed up on the shore just below the high tide line. As Leslie had relayed at the meeting this morning, we don’t get many strandings on our beach, so hopefully this is not the start of a new trend.

 However unfortunate the situation, we do strive to learn something from each such incident, and the detailed reporting we do to SCDNR helps us to better understand the reasons for these strandings and assists us in looking for ways to prevent them in the future. 

After completing our inspection, identification of the species, description and documentation of the injuries, and photos, the turtle was buried on the beach.

Present on the carapace were 3 parallel linear chop wounds indicative of a typical vessel strike

Text by Kim T. Photos by Leslie

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

Things have started - Mile Marker Posts are up

Well, our sea turtle nesting season will soon start - Thursday, May 1st.  A few volunteers were out on Waties Island today and were able to get our "mile marker posts" in the ground.

Many thanks to Barb and Steve Demusz, Kim Toney, and Kathy Golden who joined me to complete this work.  Thankfully it was a great day out on the beach and we beat the rain! 

It was a little disconcerting today to see raccoon tracks on the lower end of the beach.  We will have to watch out for these critters, they can cause havoc with any nests laid.

 

 

 

 

 

Steve doing his part - Marker 7

 

 

 Kathy and Kim - Kathy doing a great job with the hammer

 

Kathy, Barb and Kim coming down off of the dune

Job well done ladies - at Marker Pole #1.

 

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by the SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program under Marin Turtle Permit MT500.

Pictures and text by Leslie P.