The world according to me....

Nearly all the sea turtle nests laid in North Carolina during 2004 have finished their incubation and the resultant hatchlings have rushed across the sand to the ocean. Many of the sea turtle volunteers and participants in the NC Sea Turtle Project have already submitted their final summary sheets containing all the data they collected on the nests laid on their beaches. And yet, a few nests continue to incubate even now, in late October. One such late nest in the northern Outerbanks produced some green turtle hatchilngs, much to the surprise to everyone. Why was it a surprise? For two principal reasons: a) although a small number of green turtle nests are laid in NC each year, they are usually found in the southern half of the coastline; b) the nest in question was washed over many times by the high tides and swash associated with the numerous tropical storms that passed through the area this late summer and early fall. Incubating eggs that suffer repeated heavy bouts of inundation usually have low hatching success.

This hatchling in the photo still had some of its yolk-sac exposed so it is being held for a day or two until its plastron is completely closed and then it shall be released to the ocean, so it can continue on its journey.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The days are getting shorter, the sunsets have a deeper orange color and there is a slight chill in the air. Autumn means the end of the nesting/hatching season, and the last nests laid in the summer are nearing the end of their incubation period. Recently, loggerhead hatchlings the last nest laid in Pine Knoll Shores emerged during one night. Three days later, the volunteers excavated the nest to free any remaining live hatchlings and to verify incubation success. About 12 people arrived to watch and help as one single live hatchling was removed from the bottom of the nest and sent on its way across the sand to the sea. The final tally from the excavation: 87% of the eggs produced hatchlings that left the nest. Not bad for a late season nest that was subjected to high swash from several tropical storms and hurricanes a few months back. With the hatching season winding down, it is time to turn our attention to the increase in strandings of dead or injured turtles that always seems to occur with the onset of cooler weather (and cooler water temperatures).

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the really nice things about working here in coastal North Carolina is the pool of experienced people available when turtle events arise. A case in point is last Tuesday, when James went out with Lisa Goshe and others on the biweekly trip to pound nets in Core Sound, part of the ongoing NOAA-Beaufort Lab mark-recapture project. Around 11am, Larisa called me to say that Lisa G. was returning with an injured turtle. I met them over at the Beaufort Lab, and sure enough, the turtle had an old wound at the end of its carapace, perhaps an old boat strike or propellor cut. The turtle also had some lesions on its flippers, its plastron was covered with leech eggs, and Larisa reported that its blood sample revealed a lower-than-normal level of total solids. All in all, these were signs of an unhealthly turtle. Lisa, Larisa and April helped me transfer the loggerhead to my truck, and I drove over to see Terra Kelly (above), a veterinary resident with the NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine and based at CMAST. Terra made an initial inspection of the animal and called Jean Beasley of the Topsail Turtle Hospital, to confer about treatment once the turtle arrived at the Topsail Rehab Center (the next stop). Soon after, Wendy arrived and she took over, driving the turtle down to Topsail. As you can see, lots of people came together to deal with this injured turtle on a normal fall day in eastern North Carolina!

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It was a long day for Wendy, who left her house around 5am to go out with the pound net fishermen. The objective was to bring back to the NOAA-Beaufort Lab any turtles that were passively caught in the nets, for sampling as part of the Loggerhead Health Assessment Project that is currently underway. One of the many turtles that Wendy helped bring aboard the boat was a juvenile loggerhead that looked vaguely familiar. The turtle already had tags (both PIT and inconel) so she knew that it had been seen before. When she got back to the Lab, she was able to confirm that it was Galveston, a loggerhead that had been found in a pound net in June 2003. At that time, Galveston weighed only 5kg, and had some injuries on its carapace, likely due to a collision with a boat. This is what she looked like in 2003:

It turned out that Galveston had some history: she was raised since hatching in the NMFS lab in Galveston, and used for testing TED efficiency and design. She was released into the wild in the Gulf of Mexico after a few years in captivity. She then apparently swam to North Carolina and into Core Sound, a popular feeding area for juvenile loggerheads. What was surprising about her was her small size: normally, the juvenile loggerheads observed in North Carolina inshore waters are larger, >50cm long and >30kg. Smaller juvenile loggerheads are almost exclusively found in Macaronesia (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands) in the Northeast Atlantic.

When Galveston was first seen in 2003, she was admitted to the Topsail Turtle Hospital for treatment and rehabilitation. She was released in June 2004 on Topsail beach. When Wendy saw her again this month, she weighed nearly 20kg, and appeared healthy and happy. At the rate taht Galveston is growing, I suspect that the next time we see her, Wendy might not be able to pick her up singlehandedly!

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the great things about my job is the wealth of opportunity to participate in different activities dealing with sea turtles. I recently was invited to go up in a small fixed-wing aircraft, as part of an aeiral survey for turtles and marine mammals in the inshore and near-offshore waters around Piney Island, which is part of a target range used by Cherry Point Marine Corps Base. Lisa and April from the CAST team at the NOAA Beaufort Lab were the other observers, plus two pilots, and together we spent about 6 hours flying east-west transects across Core and Pamlico Sounds. The only turtle I saw was a dead loggerhead floating in the middle of Pamlico Sound. What I did see a lot more of were vehicles driving on the beaches of Cape Lookout National Seashore and Cape Hatteras National Seashore. In the photo above, you can see a pickup truck driving along the beach on North Core Banks. Beach driving is a contentious issue in North Carolina, with strong supporters and strong detractors. Several municipalities have debated restricting beach driving seasons, while others have moved to open up their beaches to greater vehicle access. This issue has not been fully resolved in North Carolina or elsewhere and will likely remain a major topic of discussion for the future along the coast of the SE USA.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)