This week started out with us meeting at Horton's seafood on Friday morning at 9:00 and a trip to tour Georgia Sea Turtle center at Jekyll. What an amazing place. Here they treat turtles that will hopefully be released into the wild or placed into captivity. We then left for lunch in Darien and onto the dock at St. Catherines (SCI) to begin our work. We left on the boats for SCI at 2:30. We arrived on the island and was given a quick course on how to work the gators that would be our vehicle for the week. Late that afternoon we went to North beach and found four hatchlings that had not made it out of the nest. What an amazing site. We went ahead and released them since it was so late in the afternoon. We headed back for dinner and then crashed for the night.There are so many amazing animals on SCI. Not only are the sea turtles special but there are lemurs, alligators, heartabest, zebras, hornbills, and kudus. The pictures above show one pack of lemurs. There are 7 groups on the island.
Each morning we got up and arrived on the beach between 6 and 7. That means we were up at 4:45 or 5:45. Now for those of you who know me you must know how hard this was for me to do. I am not a morning person. It helped that we would be spending our time on the beach. We ate a quick breakfast in the dining hall or on the way. I usually was paired in a gator with Lindsay. My group leader was Ginger and my team was April, Anna Susan, Lindsay, Leslie, Steve, and Mirium. I loved my group! They all worked hard without complaining. Each day we rotated to a different beach. There was North beach closest to the compound and the smallest beach and then South beach was divided into North South Beach and South South Beach. SSB was where their were so many pretty shells, but most of the nest were always predated. North Beach has the most nest and the most activity.
Each day we were assigned a beach and then check for new nest, emerging nest (ones that babies have crawled out of), and predated nest (ones that ghost crabs or raccoons have destroyed). I found a new hatred for ghost crabs. I know they are part of the food chain and circle of life but there are so many of them. When we found a nest we checked to see if it was in a good location. If it was then we left it covered it up and marked the nest with a green marker. If not then we moved the nest and covered them and marked them with an orange marker. We usually finished up by lunch time.
After lunch we were free to do as we wished until 4 when it was debriefing time. Some days we went to the pool, took a nap, or went exploring on the gators. After debriefing we had dinner. Dinner was cooked by us researchers. We picked a night to cook and clean. We ate like kings and queens. After dinner one night we got to explore the Button Gwinnett House. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It was amazing to see such history in this house. It is now owned by the family who owns Life Savers. Another night we got to tour the mission. The mission is the oldest church in Georgia. What is left of it is nothing. Where the support columns used to be have been replaced by planted palm trees. Our last night we got to go on a pirate boat ride. We went at dusk and road the boat. It was beautiful.
If we had baby turtles to release that happened at night too. Our second night we released over 250 turtles. Babies have 1/1000 chance of making it to adulthood. The odds are so stacked against them. My favorite story is a baby we found on the last day that was left in an emerged nest. I found him so I got to take him to the ocean. you see you cannot do it for them. You have to put them down twenty feet from the tide line. They have to align themselves with the magnetic field so they know which current to take. I let me little guy go and he started crawling. He would get tired so he would stop and take a break and then go again. Our team was cheering him on. When he finally reached the water he tucked his head down and paddled as fast as he could. A wave hit him and pushed him back. He did not get discouraged, he waited for another wave and tucked his head and went again. He finally made it into the ocean.
I have to say this trip was an amazing research trip by far the best I have ever been a part of. It also was a trip that proclaimed God's amazing glory. That a baby so small would know which way to go to meet the water, that a mom would come back to the same shore to nest time after time, and that a mom can dig a hole that is so complex without looking and with her back flippers. Try that next time you are on the beach. It is hard work. But God put all this into motion and all for his purpose and glory. Sea turtles are amazing and I hope to go back next year to be part of such an amazing trip.
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