If you have been an adoptive parent for the last few updates on Pip, you will have read about the sea turtle projects on Jekyll Island and St. Catherine's Island, Georgia. In this update, we would like to mention a few other sea turtle projects in the state of Georgia.
In total, there are 13 projects that monitor beaches in Georgia for sea turtle nests. The very first sea turtle nesting project in the state was started on Little Cumberland Island. They began nest monitoring in 1964, making it one of the oldest loggerhead sea turtle projects in the world (it ties for the record with a project in South Africa that started the same year). Just next door, Cumberland Island - the southernmost barrier island in the state - often hosts the most sea turtle nests per season. Last year, Cumberland set a new record for its beaches with 1,018 nests! Blackbeard and Ossabaw Islands also often have large nesting numbers. In fact, when you look at sea turtle nest density, Blackbeard Island usually claims the highest number of nests per kilometer.
Over on Sapelo Island, sea turtle nests are not just monitored - they are also researched. Sea turtle technicians randomly assign each sea turtle nest with a treatment; the nest will either be relocated or left in place (called
in situ
) and it will either be covered with a screen or left uncovered. This allows researchers to look at nest success over four different treatments: 1)
in situ
and screened, 2)
in situ
and uncovered, 3) relocated and screened, or 4) relocated and uncovered. The results from this research help biologists from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources make management decisions for nest protection efforts.
These are just some of the other sea turtle monitoring projects in the state of Georgia. If you would like to learn more about any of them, please click
here
. We will tell you about the rest of the projects in Georgia in your next adoption update, so stay tuned!
