A Turtley Awesome Week
From June 11-18, I had the opportunity to spend a week at Wassaw National Wildlife Refugee with the Caretta Research Project. On Wassaw Island, the project team studies nesting and hatching sea turtles from the months of May into late September. The majority of the turtles that come up on Wassaw Island beaches are Loggerheads, but they do get a few Greens and Leatherbacks as well. They record all different kinds of things about the turtles from the amount of eggs they lay to their head width. In order to share the full experience (and also because I want to show how cool Wassaw is), I am going to dive right in to my week working on this incredible island.
Night 1:
Our first day was really an adjustment day to settle in and learn the ropes of how things play out when a turtle is found on the beach. That night, I went out on the beach with Mrs. Kris Carroll and patrolled the beach looking for turtles coming up the beach or their crawls if we missed any. When we spotted a turtle, I grabbed the toolkit and datasheet and then waited for the leader to determine what stage of nesting the turtle was in. If she was body pitting or digging, which is in the earlier stages of nesting, we waited some time so she did not get spooked. If a turtle is scared or they find roots or predators, they may stop nesting and return to the sea. Provided she was laying or covering, we were clear to approach the turtle and get our data. First, we got her identification. Each turtle that has nested before can be identified by an internal tag and two metal tags on her flippers. If she has no tags, that means she is a brand new turtle to that beach. We call these neophytes and normally we would have some extra work to do, like get tissue samples and tagging. After tags, we measured the length and width of the turtle. If she nested, we then retrieved an egg for genetics. Next, came marking the nest, recording its location, and putting a screen over it. I know, it’s a lot. Now imagine doing that while running after a turtle. It makes for some fun stories.
We had a total of four nests and three false crawls on the South end of the island that night. The team patrolling the North end had one nest and six false crawls.
Night 2:
The second day was probably the hardest day of all. I stayed up all night the first night and was severely sleep deprived. It was very hard to keep my eyes open. That night, I went to the South end with the summer intern Jaydn. I found the South end really cool because it had a lot of driftwood. We called the driftwood area the Boneyard. In the fallen trees I could see all different shapes and figures. One looked like a witch so we called her Greta. This was also the night I got the pleasure of learning the turtle dance. It’s an iconic thing on Wassaw. It goes through each step of the turtle nesting process and is a good luck charm (as we all learned a few days later).
This night we had a total of one nest and three false crawls. The South end had five nests! That’s a lot to manage with our little group.
Night 3:
I was back on the North end for night three. It was a crazy night for turtles. We had ten turtles come up but none of them decided to nest. Specifically, we had an injured turtle. This turtle really struggled to get up the beach because she had two huge marks from a boat strike. Her back legs were paralyzed, so she had a hard time. I learned from Jaydn that she has been trying to nest since 2012 but has never been successful. It really broke my heart to watch her. I just wanted to dig her a hole and say “Just lay here! We will take care of your eggs!” It was just so heartbreaking, but it’s impressive she has managed well all these years in spite of her injury.
Night 4:
On night four, I was back with Mrs Kris on the North end. This time we had some visitors with us. They were super nice and had never seen a nesting turtle. Of course, we had to change that. Unfortunately, for the first part of the night we didn’t see any and began to get worried. We channeled all of our turtle energy with the turtle dance….and voila, one came up! Funny enough, she decided to lay right beside a tree, so we had to relocate the nest. It was so cool to see people see a nesting turtle for the first time. Their eyes were so wide in wonder and were just so excited. It really made me appreciate all of the experiences I’ve had over the years, and it shows how one experience can have a big impact.
They had to leave not too long after, but we had a total of four nests and the North end had two.
Night 5:
This is the night we had been waiting for, World Sea Turtle Day. This time we were on the North end, and it was looking like it was going to be a great night. All week, we’d been battling high tides from the full moon, but it wasn’t too bad…that was, until this night. We got out on the beach to find there was no beach. We then discovered that three nests got washed over. One was completely gone! It was such a bad start, but that wasn’t going to get us down. Eventually, we could pass the Boneyard and journeyed down the beach to find we missed another turtle that nested. We decided that we needed to do the turtle dance again for good luck. The sun was rising, and we needed the one hardest thing to have in the turtle nesting world…a dawn turtle. A dawn turtle is the best thing to happen; it refers to when a turtle comes up as the sun is rising. It makes for a great photo shoot, and it would be awesome to happen on World Sea Turtle Day. When it was looking impossible, we caught sight of a crawl. We freaked out. Jaydn ran up to the turtle to make sure she was nesting. We watched in awe. I think that was the coolest experience I’ve ever had!
After all the excitement of the dawn turtle, we got the totals for the day. There were two nests on the North end, and four nests on the South.
Night 6:
On night six, I was back on the North end. We had an insane amount of nests this night. We had seven total and they were all on the North end. There were only three of us working the North end, and we had to deal with a crazy high tide again. We got to a bunch of the nests really late. It turned into sort of a joke that every few meters we would find another crawl we missed. There was a series of crawls we found where a turtle kept digging holes, but would abandon them for no reason. It was funny because she did not lay, so there were just a bunch of traps we could have fallen into. This night we also had to deal with another shocking thing. Smoke. On Wassaw Island, fires are not allowed, so it was odd when we had the overwhelming smell of fire burning our way. We found out later than another of the barrier islands was on fire, St. Catherines, which started from a lightning strike.
Night 7:
The last night I was with Jaydn again. We were excited to finish this trip off on a high note, but when Jaydn and I got on the beach, lightning was crackling in the distance. We went back to the cabin as a huge storm rushed in delaying us. After some time, we were able to get back out and do a quick run down the beach just in case we missed ones that were close. Of course, we found one. Lightning was crackling all around coming closer and closer. Typical, this turtle laid below the high tide line and we had to relocate. She was also a neophyte. We literally had the most possible things to do, and it was during a storm. It was crazy stressful trying to write down all the numbers and get the nest in a good place. We also found out that this turtle was laying odd triple and double yoke eggs. It was a wacky night for sure. I will always remember that as an eventful end.
That next day, we loaded the boat home to head for home. It was so sad to leave, but to be honest, I was thrilled to be away from all the bugs. It was such a wonderful experience but a lot of hard work, too. I recommend anyone who has the opportunity to jump on it. Thank you to the volunteers as well as Mrs Kris and Jaydn for making it all possible. I would do it again in a heartbeat!
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