The world according to me....

Sometimes, things don't go quite the way they were originally planned. This is a photo of my footsteps on Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, where there is currently a nourishment project taking place (see previous blogs here and here). Unfortunately, the sand source had far more organic content (i.e. mud) than originally thought and that has had various consequences (see history here). There are some areas of the beach that look pretty bad right now:

We are all waiting to see what happens after a few months of high tides and perhaps a winter storm or two. In the meantime, watch your step if you come to Atlantic Beach; I already destroyed my shoes walking in the mud on the beach.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is where all the plastic bags sent from up and down the east coast of the US end up: on the wetlab table at the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory. What's in the bags? Flippers collected from dead sea turtles found on beaches or in shallow waters. Why are they collected? For various studies, but one principal reason is the ongoing ageing project, based on skeletochronology. This past week, Wendy and I volunteered to help out with the semi-annual "flipper cleaning" session, with Lisa Goshe and Larisa Avens. Although the smell was almost too much at first, we seemed to get used to it and spent nearly the whole day extracting the humeri from the different flippers. As I went through different flippers that were collected in Virginia, Georgia, etc., I couldn't help wondering if there are people working in various places who collect samples in difficult conditions and question if anyone will really use them. At least in the case of flippers in bags, you can rest assured that the samples are valuable will be processed in this ongoing project.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was a beautiful day, with blue skies and warm temperatures (nearly 15 °C), on Indian Beach in North Carolina. I was there because I received a call about a dead turtle on the beach. When I arrived, I found Donna Gurley - the turtle volunteer coordinator for Indian Beach - and a local police officer who was willing to help out. After we finished collecting information and burying the decomposing loggerhead turtle, we chatted about the impending holidays and how great the December weather has been so far in our area. When we parted, we said "goodbye" but not "see you soon," for we usually meet up at this time of year only when there is a stranded turtle on the beach.

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

Here is a mid-construction photo of the beach nourishment project currently in progress at Atlantic Beach, NC. This is the outlet point of the big pipe that is carrying material from Brandt Island where dredged material has been stored for several years. There is some mud and silt mixed in with the sand, making the new material darker and muddier than the sand that was already on the beach (which itself was placed there nearly 10 years ago during a similar nourishment project). When I took this photo earlier this week, the nourishment work was temporarily halted; usually there is a big plume of material flowing out of this pipe. Daily updates of the progress of the work and the project in general are available here, and I will continue to post more photos as time goes by.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)