"Turtles use beaches for procreation. People use beaches for recreation. Are the two compatible?" So begins a publication by Mrosovsky et al. on the impacts of building shade on sea turtle nest temperatures in Florida (for a PDF of the paper, click here). These two are mostly compatible in North Carolina, where loggerheads, green turtles and leatherbacks nest on beaches also popular with visitors and tourists. There are some regulations and guidelines in place to help reduce conflict between turtles and people. For instance, some beach municipalities (for instance, Bald Head Island) have enacted a lighting ordinance that restricts the amount of nighttime artificial light that can reach the beach, to the benefit of nesting turtles and emergent hatchlings. Also, there are state laws restricting the construction of certain types of structures on nesting beaches, including sand fencing. Sand fencing is a simple structure designed to capture and hold sand that is being blown by the wind, and is often used to create, stabilize or increase the natureal dune line on the beach. According to state guidelines, sand fencing must be erected in sections that are at 45° to the water line. Each section can be no longer than 10 feet long and must be separated from other sections by at least 7 feet. An example of properly installed sand fencing can be seen here, at the town of Emerald Isle:

Although most sandfencing in NC follows the rules, some does not. A case in point is in the photo at the top, from Wrightsville Beach (thanks to Nancy Fahey for taking the photo). In this case, not only is most of the suitable turtle nesting habitat effectively blocked from being used by turtles, the fencing also blocks people from accessing a public area of the beach. Fortunately, the agency responsible has been notified and apparently the landowner is being assessed a daily fine for each day that this sandfencing remains. I wonder if the person responsible for this really didn't want turtles to nest near the house...

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What can you say about a pile of bones? It is challenging when you see a freshly dead turtle washed up on the beach. Finding bones that came from a long decomposed turtle is even more challenging, in terms of coming up with answers as to why, how and when it died. Nevertheless, we are happy to get any information on any stranded turtles, fresh or not. In this case, just having the information contributes to our understanding of the seasonality of turtles in NC waters. That kind of knowledge in itself is useful.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was joking around with Wendy about how many miles she has driven in recent weeks. I then thought about how many people she has been training for working with sea turtles (above at Hammocks Beach State Park and below with field workers from Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base).

In recent months, I have helped her out with 4 different training sessions that involved over 50 people. However, I know that she has conducted at least twice as many workshops in recent months all over the state's coastline. I asked her once if she ever got tired of all the driving and training sessions. A funny look came over her face and she replied: "Sure, I get physically tired, but it doesn't change that I am happy to work with turtles." As usual, Wendy's optimism and enthusiasm makes my job much more enjoyable and enjoyable.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, I was out on Core Sound with some fishermen who were checking their pound nets and also with Lisa Goshe of NMFS-Beaufort and Hope Valentine of NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine. This trip was part of the regularly scheduled sampling of juvenile loggerheads that are passively captured in pound nets in inshore waters of North Carolina. It is one of my favorite things to do, because not only I get to work with fishermen and see live turtles but also there is always something new or different that happens. In the case of yesterday's trip, the different experience was seeing a large male loggerhead (identified by the long tail that extended well beyond the carapace - see photo above). Up until now, when out visiting pound nets I have seen only smaller juvenile loggerheads that may have been male or female - they hadn't developed any sexually dimorphic external characters. This particular turtle was rather large and it took three of us to haul it into the boat. Surprisingly, he was a relatively docile loggerhead and there was no accidental nipping at anyone's toes or legs. When our sampling was finished, he just quietly slipped back into the water and likely made his way back to the same pound net!

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meeting on the road just outside of the Camp Lejeune marine base, Wendy and I switched an injured loggerhead turtle from my truck to her truck. I think Wendy has spent more time driving to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island than she has at her house this past week. This is a reflection of all the activities associated with injured and rehabilitated turtles that have been going on recently. This particular turtle had been picked up by Lisa Goshe during a regular visit to poundnets in Core Sound. Lisa noticed several injuries on the turtle's shoulder and realized that it needed rehabilitation. She brought it back from Cedar Island to Pivers Island, and then I took it from Pivers Island to the back gate of Camp Lejeune. Wendy, who was on Topsail Island, drove up to meet me and took the turtle from Camp Lejeune to the Topsail Turtle Hospital. Just another day on the job!

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It must be summer again, because Wendy and I have been tagging and measuring a lot of turtles in preparation for release. Here, Wendy (with the help of two NC Aquarium interns) is measuring a 1 year old loggerhead that was raised in captivity at the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. This turtle was discovered as a straggler at the bottom of a nest that had emerged 72 hours previously, in the summer of 2004 on Bogue Banks. The NC Aquarium system is allowed to take in several of these straggler hatchlings each year, to raise in captivity and use for education purposes. Ultimately, when they are deemed healthy and strong, they are released back into the wild. This class size of loggerhead turtle is rarely found on this side of the Atlantic. Therefore, we try to arrange for them to released into the Gulf Stream, so that they will be carried around to Macaronesia, in the northeast Atlantic, where these sizes are more often seen. This past weekend, we arranged for this little turtle to be taken on the Miss Hatteras during one of its regular pelagic bird trips. It is a good opportunity to not only get the turtles out to the Gulf Stream but also provide further education opportunities: apparently, the participants in the bird trips always enjoy learning more about sea turtles and definitely get a kick out of seeing one up close during the ride out to sea.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)