Gary, our turtle team leader, just sent out a note to turtle team members with the final complied DNA data from last year. Here is what we learned:
Final Turtle DNA Report for 2010 Nesting Season

Summary: We now have DNA reports for all of our turtle nests from 2010 [15 on Dewees & 11 on Capers]. Nineteen individual mamas laid 57 nests with an average of 3 nests each. As you can see from the maps below, their nests covered a wide range of beaches; mostly north; extending all the way to North Litchfield.

Details: The widely held myth that female turtles “return to the same beach to lay their eggs” is proven incorrect. The rather complicated map below shows they prefer to spread their nests over a wide range of beaches. This certainly makes sense when thinking about preservation of the species.

The chart below shows the name of the Patrol member who found the nest early in the morning; the dates & locations of the nests for that individual turtle; how many nests were found during the 2010 nesting season; the range of clutch size [number of eggs in the nest] and the average clutch size.

We have also collected DNA samples from each nest during the 2011 nesting season [13 on Dewees & 5 on Capers] and will report those results when the analyses are completed by the University of Georgia.