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.