CCU Family Day on Waties - September 20

On Saturday, September 20, CCU Center for Marine and Wetland Science hosted an open house (should this be "open island"?) for freshmen and their parents in conjunction with other Family Day activities. Over 200 visitors came out to see Waties and learn about some of the research and projects that are conducted on the island. If you click on the photos, you can see the details.



Karen at a table displaying some information about our turtle monitoring program.

Dr. Paul Gayes greeting visitors where he gave them some island history and talked about the types of research that CMWS does out on the property.



Dr. Eric Wright talking about a ground penetrating radar project he is conducting.



Another display of turtle artifacts - model of a sea turtle, plastic cast of a loggerhead skull and some real rib bones. There was a book made up of photos that volunteers have taken during the season for people to look through.


Allie was there representing the summer interns who monitored Myrtle and North Myrtle beaches this summer looking for sea turtle nests. She demonstrated how to dig a new nest for the relocated eggs.

She spent time with both parents and the freshmen explaining the monitoring project. She also demonstrated probing and showed people the fake nest she built (golf balls make great turtle eggs).

A display of sea shells collected on the island. Bob and Sandy Frantom provided a basket of lettered olives (the SC state shell) so visitors could take home a souvenir from their visit.



Not a whole lot of beach left for visitors to walk on - the tide was coming in.



And in it came! We initially set the tent up in the entryway rather than on the beach, but still we had to move everything back once the tide was high.


Bob and Sandy exploring the beach with some visitors.

Photos by Nancy Mercurio; posted by Barb Demusz

The new look of the Island

The Friday after Tropical Storm Hanna had passed, a group of volunteers visited the Island to see the changes that were made to the beach. These pictures were taken by Nancy Mercurio.

The abandoned beach house now missing it's front railing and paneling.
The entrance way to the beach, just one big dune left and a nice, wide entrance.
The view towards Cherry Grove, notice the cut dunes that were flat before.
A cut off due that now stands about 6 feet high and about 10 feet from where high tide used to be.
Another cut dune.
A channel created by water flowing between the dunes, kind of like a river.

Miracle Nest # 6

Nest # 6 found dug up by fox with shells all around it. The hole was covered and sticks were replaced around it, hoping that it will be protected. Somehow it survived the hurricane.

Thursday Sept. 4th Good Memories Before Hanna

Click on photos to enlarge:

Rare photos of a nest "boiling" by Sherry Kelley. They are rare because of also rare daytime (late evening) emergence, and we cannot use flash cameras at night. Maybe they could sense the coming hurricane.

It is a great sense of accomplishment to escort the cute little critters down to the surf and watch them swim away. That Thursday Night crew was Bob & Sandy Frantom of course, Sherry Kelley and her friend Donna Palm, plus myself (Ron) and Jackie Boyce, whose Mother donated all that land to Coastal Carolina. Karen Fox was with us on Thursday AM walk when we found the one set of prints coming from Nest # 4.

After seeing photos below, I can see why Karen Fuss called off the walks. However, Jackie, who as a private owner, has her own keys, and I will walk regularly to check on any tracks, etc. We can dream can't we?

Monday Night, Jackie invited me, Karen Fox, Bob and Sandy Frantom, Sherry Kelley and Donna Palm out for a walk. Donna could not go but the rest of us walked, and we were amazed at all the sand dunes had been cleared for 15 to 20 feet, which obviously would include the nests.

However, there was much trash, and many crab traps washed up on beach. We did free two stone crabs from one of the traps, and Karen got a nice Channel Whelk shell (empty) from another. We all commented about how much grief we feel from the loss of the 11 turtle nests.

Hanna takes nests

After viewing the Island this afternoon, it was confirmed that ALL 11 remaining nests have been washed away by TS Hanna. Thus, ending our wonderful monitoring season early.

Above is view at entrance where dunes got plowed down by storm surge.

Another view of the "new" entryway.


View looking toward jetty taken at entrance.

View from entrance looking toward Cherry Grove.


View from jetty looking toward Cherry Grove.





Distance marker #1 on edge of dune.




A picture of Nest #7 before the storm.





A photo of Nest #7 after Hanna - the stick approximates the location of the nest using GPS data.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR EFFORTS THIS SEASON!!

Karen Fuss

Inventory before Hanna

This morning we inventoried two nests. Nest #4 near marker #3 which hatched on September 4th and Nest #5 right at the beach entrance which hatched on September 3rd. We got special permission from SC Department of Natural Resources to inventory these nests before the standard 3 days after emergence due to incoming Tropical Storm Hanna. It was a choice between inventorying and releasing hatchlings a little early (maybe before they are ready) or leaving them to drown in their nests. Marcy Maglott, one of the interns, joined in so she could learn about inventories. So here are the results:

Nest #5

88 Hatched egg shells

6 Unhatched

7 Dead hatchlings

9 Live hatchings

Nest #4

50 Hatched egg shells

7 Unhatched

1 Dead hatchling found outside of nest

1 Live hatchling

Stranded turtle in North Myrtle Beach

(Pictures by Nancy Mercurio)

This morning, a live sea turtle beached herself in North Myrtle Beach. Nancy Mercurio and Karen Fox were able to be there to see the turtle and watch Jerry Gordon from Animal Control pack her up in their truck to take her to meet Charlotte Hope from DNR so she could take the turtle to the SC Aquarium Sea turtle Hospital. Here are some notes from Shane Boylan at the SC Aquarium about the status of the turtle.

"Charlotte (DNR) picked up a severely traumatized loggerhead from NorthMyrtle Beach and arrived at the Aquarium at 7:45 PM. It appears tobe a 2 week+ old boat strike as the wounds already have a fibronecroticmembrane and very significant biofouling. Entire pieces of the carapaceare dead and devoid of keratin which can take a week at least in my experience. Surprisingly, the animal is somewhat active. The spine'sintegrity is in question with only the tail showing any movement. The limbs were not evaluated neurologically tonight due to stress concerns, but there could be paralysis since we saw no intentional movement all night. She received an analgesic cocktail mix, fluids, antibiotics, and an hour worth of wound flushing thanks to the interns. To head off any questions, the wounds are too old to repair. Any manipulation of the broken scutes will likely open tissue to infection. All we can do is administer good supportive care (fluids, antibiotics, etc.) and remove dead tissue as it necroses off the animal. The prognosis is very poor given the depth and number of the wounds. The prop hit "her" at the nuchal scute all the way down to the tail where there was an old, healed wound (unrelated to this more recent injury). Pain management is one of our top concerns, but this animal has survived like this for some time."

Following Pictures by South Carolina Aquarium

Unusual Daytime Hatching at Nest #5

The Wednesday group discovered 65 hatching turtles today on Waties Island and ensured that each reached the ocean safely. It appeared that each egg in the nest had produced a live and healthy baby; we saw no evidence of broken or unhatched egg shells. When we first arrived on the beach, that nest showed some signs that hatching was imminent, possibly this evening. However, when the group covering the "short walk" returned to the site, lo and behold, the hatchlings were already crawling out of the nest! I'm a novice at turtle-watching but believe it may be an anomaly that these turtles hatched in broad, sunny daylight rather than after sunset.

Dale L.

Check out the results from yesterday's nest inventories below.