We have amazing maps showing the location of Dewees loggerhead sea turtle nests for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Click here to see them using Google Maps.

To see them using Google Earth, download Google Earth and then click here.

Christina Lanzieri, one the 3 turtle interns on Dewees (and Cape Roman) this summer, created the maps using GPS data collected by Gary McGraw. She says she included the dates for each false crawl, nest, and relocated nest.  She also created 3 “zones” on the beach which are helpful when analyzing data.  Zone 1 is the Isle of Palms edge of the beach to the shoals on the south end.  Zone 2 is the area in the middle of the beach between the 2 shoal areas.  Zone 3 is the area from the shoals on the north side of the beach to Capers Inlet.

The maps are color-coded and labeled:

— false crawls (meaning no eggs were laid) are color coded pink

— insitu nest sites (meaning nest that have been left in place) are shown in green

— the original location of a relocated nest is also show in green; they’re also labeled “OL”

— relocated nest sites (the new location selected by Turtle Team for nests they moved) are shown in blue and labeled “RL”

Chrissie also created before June 30 and after June 30, 2008 areas on the maps.  June 30 is when the Isle of Plams beach renourishment (“ocean floor erosion”) project ended.  Interestingly, Chrissie, notes there has only been one false crawl since June 30 while there were 7 before then.  All the nests laid after June 30 are between the shoals on the North and South ends of the beach.  100% of nests laid before June 30 have had to be relocated while less than 50% have had to be relocated since that time.  Immediately after June 30 was a “surge” of nesting activity with 1 nest July 1, 2 nests July 2 and then 2 nests July 14 and 1 nest July 15.