Our 2022 turtle season begins this week, and we’re excited! Every day from mid-May to mid-August, someone is checking the beaches of South Carolina for sea turtle nests. The first nests have already been laid in Cape Romain, and North Myrtle Beach saw their first (rare) endangered Kemp’s Ridley nest this year. If you are on the island, we would love to get you to walk with us.
In 2017, I wrote this post on 7 reasons to walk with the turtle team. You can click here for the whole post, but here is the summary in pictures:
It’s really fun: if you have any questions about how it all works, you can ask me (Judy), Lori Sheridan Wilson, our island ecologist/land manager and permit holder, Claudia DeMayo, Brucie Harry, Carey Sullivan, and Alicia Reilly. A thankful shout-out to Gary McGraw, who spearheaded our turtle team for years and missed out on a big public thank-you due to the pandemic.
You don't need to be a Wildlife Biologist to Help
Not sure what you’re doing? don’t worry, we can train you. Here is a series of videos you can watch to understand everything that happens. (If you’re a veteran, you might see yourself, your kids, or your grandkids in here.) This training series will be added to when we get to things like inventories and predators, but here’s what you need to get started as a volunteer:
We are going to start with some loggerhead biology basics, but (full disclosure) that video is ALMOST finished. Here are two videos that show some basics and an unusual day nester from 2019:
Sign up to Walk
Carey manages our sign-ups through sign-up genius, which (if you’ve never used it) is a great way for people to get reminders for their calendars and switch when they need to.
Plus! There's a book
In 2009, we put a book together for the turtle team about what to look for and what to expect. If you like to read things rather than watch videos, this is a way to do that.
There is a Special Edition of this book in the nature center that has all the important things for our local turtle team to know, including phone numbers: you can buy it on the Conservancy shelf in the Nature Center. If you do your reading on kindle, here’s a link on Amazon to the Kindle edition:
Please think about joining us! We’ll have a kickoff informational session just before Happy Hour at Memorial Day weekend, but you don’t have to wait until then! Reach out to a team member to get rolling!
