An important part of sea turtle conservation efforts is knowing how many sea turtles are laying nests along our coast. To help answer this question, researchers Dr. Brian Shamblin and Dr. Joe Nairn from the University of Georgia established a Loggerhead Sea Turtle Genetics Project in 2008. This project analyzes DNA from each known sea turtle nest laid north of northern Florida. From this, they can identify unique nesting turtles and how they are related to each other along the female lineage.
Thanks to this project, we know a little bit about the turtle who is Pip's mother! She first showed up on Wassaw Island, Georgia to lay a nest on May 22, 2012. Apart from our project on Jekyll, Wassaw is the only other Georgia barrier island that tags nesting sea turtles and it was during that first nest that Pip's mother received a set of tags for future identification. She received both flipper tags that can be read from the outside and a microchip tag that can only be detected with a special scanner.
Pip's mother laid three nests in 2012 - one on Wassaw and two on St. Catherines Island. She took a few years off from nesting and returned for her second nesting season in 2016. She laid six nests that year! She was relatively faithful to St. Catherines, but she did lay one nest that year on Ossabaw Island. She again took a few years off between nesting and 2019 marked her third nesting season. Once again, she laid five nests on St. Catherines Island, but strayed over to Wassaw Island to lay one nest. It is common for loggerhead sea turtles to take a break of 2-4 years between nesting seasons. This means that Pip's mother will likely return again in 2022 for her fourth nesting season.
