It was a pleasant, cloudy day with a very calm ocean.
We did our normal walk and waited a few minutes after until the LOA’s joined us for the inventory.
Leslie gave a recap of nest 08R which was laid on Thursday, July 2, the turtle was 34 “wide. The original 15” deep nest was laid close to the high tide line so it was just moved further up the dune. She laid 73 eggs, one was sacrificed for DNA. During incubation two hatchlings were lost, one dragged out by ghost crab, another dead one found in the reeds.
LOA’s Melissa and Cherie started the digging. Kathy did final check of the 19” deep nest because the eggs were mixed in with scores of roots. Donna, Sherri, and Kim did the sorting. Claudia, Jewel, and Debbie assisted wherever needed.
Results of this nest were 22 hatched and 47 unhatched eggs. This nest had both hatch and emergence success of only 31%. If you look closely in the last picture of the unhatched eggs, many are orange colored, which means they might’ve gotten some type of bacteria.
Group picture of the attendees.
Text by Sharon. Pictures, Cherie and Sharon
All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island sea turtle patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR under permit MTP500.
No comments:
Post a Comment