IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BECOMING A SEA TURTLE WATCH VOLUNTEER FOR OUR 2012 SEASON, PLAN ON ATTENDING THIS WORKSHOP PUT ON BY THE STATE. IT IS A MUST AND THIS IS THE TRAINING YOU WILL NEED. ALSO PLEASE CALL ME, SHARON MAXWELL AT 850-897-5228, AND TALK TO ME ABOUT OUR WALKING AREAS, OUR WALKS TAKE PLACE AT ABOUT 5:30 A.M. DAILY FROM MAY THROUGH OCTOBER AND YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO WALK AT LEAST ONE DAY A WEEK. CALL ME IN FEBRUARY OF 2012.
Northwest Florida
Wednesday, March 28, 10:00am – 2:00pm Central Standard Time
Gulf Coast Community College – Student Union East/Conference Center, 2nd Floor, 5230 West Hwy 98, Panama City (850) 769-1551
From northwest of Panama City, get onto US 98 E. Turn left onto Alabama Ave. Turn left onto US 98W. Cross Hathaway Bridge, and GCCC will be on your left. From southeast of Panama City, go SW on US 319 toward CR-67. US 319 becomes US 98. GCCC will be on your right before Hathaway Bridge.
Who could have foreseen the BP oil disaster and how it was to affect sea turtle nesting.
The problems it brought were many, here are just a few.
Extra reports and interface with local, state and federal officials as well as with the media.
We watched different owners, condos, and hotels, take action into their own hands to keep the oil out with no regard to sea turtle habitat.
Extra work to do our daily monitoring while every kind of vehicle that was on our beaches day and night.
Working with day and night cleaning to keep everyone on track.
Try to keep all the different agencies on the beach off until we could do our daily monitoring.
Moving nests at the correct time.
Caging nest to prevent hatchlings from going into the oil in the gulf.
Educate folks to what was going on.
People handling, extra effort is given to explain what and why sea turtles do what they do.
And if that was not enough we had nest predated by red fox, coyote and dogs. For the second year in a row we have had domesticated dogs digging up our nests and killing hatchlings, this is a problem to be addressed with Walton County.
ACTUAL NUMBERS
1 Kemps Ridley nest
30 Loggerhead nest
21 false crawls- as you can see this number is more than double or usual number
13 nests relocated to the East Coast
4 nests that hatched into cages and hatchlings moved to the East Coast for release
7 nest were Predated many hatchlings lost
SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THE VOLUNTEERS OF SOUTH WALTON TURTLE WATCH GROUP FOR ALL THEIR EFFORTS THIS SUMMER, I KNOW IT WAS VERY HARD GOING BUT YOU DID A GREAT JOB AND YOU DO MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE. I WILL KEEP YOU ON FOR NEXT YEAR.
Again as of today 8 242010 all nests will be screened. Nest #19 at WaterSound has been predated and a few eggs are left, it is at day 54
Nest #20 was completely predated and 46 hatchling were found on top of the sand by the early morning walker, 39 were dead and 7 alive and released but only 3 on these poor babies made it to the water. This nest was on Blue Mountain Beach
Nest # 21 on Blue Mountain was also completely predated and nothing but a few egg shells were found.
Nest #22 at Water Sound was predated and a few eggs are left and day 50 will be 8-29-10
Nest #23 was undisturbed and will be at day 50 on 9-01-10
The predators appear to be fox. Coyote and dogs. If you see anything running loose near or on the beach please notify me. Thanks.
After relocating two nests this morning we got a call about a sea turtle in the surf near Camp Creek Lake, we were able to get her out of the water and she was alive but weak, she had some oil on her, and a gauze sample of this was taken. She is now at Gulf World, and I will check on her in a couple of days.
Nest #29 is in Seagrove near the Villas,
Nest #30 is at Pelican Circle in Sea Crest
68 Hatchlings left by Fed Ex to be release tonight on the East Coast.
Great news out of the nests we caged and sent to the East Coast. We sent 270 hatchlings out of 3 nests and only 1, yes, only 1 died on the way. So thanks so much team. Hope they come back to our white sandy beaches.
On June 2, 2010 Kelly found a Loggerhead Sea Turtle nest in Walton County. This nest was to close to the high tide line and was moved straight back. Because of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico the nests were to be relocated into coolers and transported to the East Coast of Florida. When this nest was dug into to be relocated it was found that some eggs were already piping. Piping is when the sea turtle hatchlings brake open the egg. The nest was quickly reburied and a cage put over it to catch the hatchlings so they would not hatch and go into the Gulf of Mexico. Two days later an indentation appeared in the nest and that night volunteers Sherry and Anthony watched the nest. About 9 p.m. the hatchlings started to appear. They wanted to go to the water. The hatchlings, 91 in all were gathered up and up into two separate coolers and kept overnight. Early the next morning Bob Reddick and his Fed Ex truck were waiting to take the hatchlings to the East Coast to be released into the Atlantic. With great care the coolers were strapped in for their ride to meet Bob. The coolers were labeled and the volunteers present introduced Bob to our Hatchlings. The hatchlings in the coolers were very happy to be going to the water. Bob took his time and got the coolers securely into the truck and away the hatchlings went with the words “Come back and nest here in Walton County.
What fun it is to walk, Nests, 1,5 and 7 have been relocated into coolers, Nests 3,4, and 6 were found to be piping and caged. Nest #3 has hatched out 88 and the hatchlings are being taken to the East Coast to be released. This will be the case of the other caged nests. Nest 2 hatched into the Gulf and dug. I do not know of any nest digs at this time. This all is being coordinated by others. I will just update.
So I get home, sit down with dogs and coffee and the paper and the sheriff’s office calls, a turtle has been spotted on the beach in 3 different areas down near Whales Tail. So off I go again. She is way up in the dunes laying her eggs, so I take pictures, measure, call FWS and do all the things we do, here are her tracks. By the way it is really hot now at 8:30
She had been in twice before, and some people had put her back into the Gulf. After all my paperwork was done…at 140 feet from the water she hit a walkover, the she went 46 more feet up and hit the seawall, then she went another 30 feet alone the seawall and was nesting in the sand and grasses, I thought, but she did not move. So I took the sand off her as I talked to Lorna. I did not know what I had as she had completely covered herself up and was not moving.
