Lofton's Lass

SCDNR Nesting Female Satellite Telemetry Project

A project of SCDNR Marine Turtle Conservation Program.

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Species: Loggerhead
Life Stage: Adult
Gender: Female
Release Date: 2003-07-08 01:10:00
Release Location: Cape Island, South Carolina
Last Location: 2006-04-01 00:00:00

Adoptive Parents:
Ed Simmons
Clint Guyton
Kelsey Lynch
Tom Filip
Palmetto Elementary-Grade 3
Cathy Yeadon

Background

Lofton’s Lass is named for John M. Lofton, Jr. Johnny Lofton was a Wildlife Technician and spent the summer of 1939 on Cape Island with Bill Baldwin conducting one of the first systematic studies of loggerhead turtles. They worked the entire island by foot while staying in a shack set well back from the beach in a scorching, breezeless sump, smearing burnt engine oil on the screens to keep out the gnats. They had to carry their water supply over a half mile down a narrow, sandy, cactus-lined path. Later in life John Lofton obtained a law degree from Duke University and became editor of The St. Louis Dispatch newspaper.