St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Protocols

Field Notes:

Each day’s work should be recorded as a chronological journal recording the time events occurred, what occurred, and where they occurred. The St. Catherines Sea Turtle Program has developed a notebooking technique which allows you to rapidly generate daily notebook forms which expedite the keeping of a daily journal. Notes are kept in a three ring binder (such as a Five Star Day Planner) on lined notebook paper purchased from surveying suppliers (Forestry Services or Ben Meadows) and run through a laser or ink jet printer (which is NOT waterproof). Each page is dated and can be removed and archived as a permanent file as the season progresses. The page templates that we use consist of:

    1. A Self-Designed Cover Page
    2. A Communication List
    3. A Daily Duties List
    4. Daily Journal Form
    5. A Monitoring List
    6. A Nest Record
    7. A Habitat Assessment Document

Other pages can easily be developed as needed for full description of the fieldwork.
These data will be summarized onto a web template and posted to the web on a daily basis by having the 2003 Sea Turtle Intern generate a daily web page and e-mail it to Co-Director Marsh who will post it to the web site.

Field Hazards

Working is the field is hazardous. Most hazards can be minimized, but not eliminated.
If you have an accident or are ill, report it immediately to the Director or Island Superintendent and be prepared at all times to assist others who have emergencies.

Serious injuries will be airlifted from the Island by local Lifestar Helicopter Service, less serious injuries may require a boat trip to the mainland and a visit to a local emergency room, or local first aid treatment. Anti venom for snakebite is stored on the island as are first aid kits. In case of emergency reported over the Island radio, be prepared to offer assistance as requested by the person in charge.

To Minimize your risk please know and practice good safety in all work and off-work duties. Some suggestions include:

    1. Always wear an eye covering (glasses or goggles) when working or driving.
    2. Be especially careful around tools, wire screens, and machinery.
    3. Wear a back strap when moving heavy objects or lots of sand.
    4. Drink as much water as often as you can (about a gallon per day is not too much).
    5. Keep skin and head covered at all times by clothing or sunscreen.
    6. Wildlife is wild; they have the right-of-way and should be given their space.
    7. If you are bitten by a snake; you may kill or capture it for immediate identification in the compound (radio ahead).
    8. Check for ticks daily and watch for a bullseye, the sign of Lymes Disease.
    9. If you have an accident or problem, immediately radio for assistance or for backup.
    10. Your best friend on the Island is your charged, turned-on radio!

As conditions deteriorate or things begin to happen, your degrees of operational freedom begin to decrease. Recognize these limitations and do not hesitate to call for assistance or call off work when humans or equipment would be placed at risk.
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Navigating on the Island

Getting around on St. Catherines Island is sometimes a challenge because the roads are purposely left unmarked. It is therefore necessary to carry an island map provided by the Superintendent and learn the road names and junctions as rapidly as is possible.

Sea turtle personnel usually utilize John Deere Gators for transportation. These ATVs are open to the weather and easy to operate. Operators must, however, practice acceptable safety procedures, and operate these vehicles in accordance with Island policies and always be alert to wildlife (which has the right of way) and road conditions. Some of the rules of the road include:

    1. Be sure all loads, or passengers, are secure before beginning movement.
    2. Check your gasoline, tires, and equipment before leaving the compound.
    3. Operate vehicles only on the clearly delineated roads or wet-sand beach.
    4. Always wear your safety glasses or goggles when driving these open vehicles.
    5. A charged, and “turned on” radio must be carried if outside the compound.
    6. Island speed limits of 15 mph are strictly enforced.
    7. Do not run over branches or sticks in the road; Stop and remove them from the road bed.
    8. When you encounter fallen branches or downed trees blocking the road, immediately report them and their location over the radio.
    9. Monitor your warning lights, if the engine heat lamp turns red, STOP the engine immediately and radio for assistance.
    10. Vehicles must be washed with fresh water and fueled at the end of each workday.
    11. Never drive into water in which you cannot see the bottom; Wade it first.
    12. Do not drive into trees or the ocean.
    13. Vehicles are not allowed on the beaches after dark without permission of the Superintendent.

Navigating on the Beaches

Beaches are to be monitored as soon after sunrise as is physically possible. Check the tide chart for sunrise time each day. As you monitor each beach check the location and condition of beach entrances as they are you emergency exits. Experience has shown that some portions of the beach road will “close” or become impassible during certain tidal stages or weather conditions. Some of these conditions include Flag Channel is nearly impassible on Spiny Tides,
As you drive on the beach, please follow the following rules:

    1. Drive only on wet beach sand; sand which has been inundated by the previous high tide.
    2. Be aware of your tidal stage; Dive on the beach only on ebb tides or early flood tides (less than half full stage).
    3. Do not drive on wrack or dry, backbeach sand.
    4. Watch carefully for boards with nails and broken glass so you don’t drive over them.
    5. Do not “jump” scarps or logs.
    6. Watch your ENTIRE forward pathway, including eye height and top of cage, as well as tire path.
    7. Do not drive across mud banks or quicksand areas.
    8. Occasionally it is necessary to cross shallow water areas: Do so reluctantly and carefully. Only after seeing the bottom and knowing the depth of water.
    9. Should you get stuck or into trouble, radio for help immediately, then try to extract your vehicle until help arrives.
    10. Should you encounter lightening or see thunderhead activity, LEAVE THE BEACH IMMEDIATELY.

If you get trapped by the flood tide and cannot exit a beach, find a place clearly above high tide and drive your ATV off the beach (above the last high tide line) and radio reporting your location and suggest you are going to spend some time studying backbeach processes until lower tide.

Monitoring Activities

The monitoring activities to be performed as you traverse the beach include:

    1. Record your activities chronologically in your field notebook.
    2. Watch for new crawlways and take a GPS longitude and latitude of each and record each crawlway (CW) number sequentially in your notebook as you cross them [i.e. CW#1 31.06587N, 81.29841W; CW#2 31.15487N, 81.055675W, etc.].
    3. If possible, tentatively assess each as a Nesting crawlway or Non-Nesting Crawlway and note such in your notes.
    4. Watch for stranded marine mammals or marine reptiles and note the GPS long/lat of each.
    5. Location of a living stranded animals must be reported immediately to Island personnel and to Ga, DNR. [await instructions].
    6. Examine each old nest for predation, overwash, or burial due to wind (cover all screens as often as possible) and record these data on your monitoring list.
    7. Once the beach is monitored, first deal with possible new nests that will be impossible to reach at high tide, then
    8. Deal with other new nests; then
    9. Deal with taking of data from stranded animals; and/or
    10. Monitor the rest of the adjacent beach.
    11. As you complete each task, check off the appropriate note in your notebook as you finish it.
    12. When you return to the Turtle House, transfer all data to the DNR Spreadsheet and to the web template.

Validating a Nest

The validation of nests on St. Catherines Island is done by scraping through the bioturbated fill of the covering and body pits until the undisturbed laminated sediments of the beach are encountered. These are traced by scraping laterally along the contact until the “bullseye” of the egg chamber neck is located. The presence of a nest is usually indicated by:

    1. An elliptical disturbed area at the end of the entrance crawlway.
    2. Dramatically different lengths of entrance and exit crawlways.
    3. Thrown sand in the nesting area.
    4. Presence of a bioturbated layer approximately 10-20 cm thick.
    5. The nest is validated by visually or tactilely sensing the eggs of the clutch.

Validation of each clutch is done only by feeling or seeing the eggs.

Begin searching from the entrance crawlway following the turtle into the nest area.

    1. Carefully dig through the bioturbated layer until firm, laminated beach is encountered.
    2. Then dig laterally (NOT DOWNWARD) to progressively follow the undisturbed beach laminations into the nest area.
    3. Watch for the “bullseye” of bioturbated sediment filling the neck of the egg chamber.
    4. Very carefully scrape across the “bullseye” to delineate its boundaries (about 20 cm diameter).
    5. Carefully dig straight down with your hand (no long finger nails please!) until you feel the top eggs.
    6. Recover the eggs with sand to protect them from the air and sunlight.
    7. [Probing, if done at all, should be done as a last resort, and with patience and gentleness].

Determine the GPS location by holding the GPS unit directly over the egg chamber neck..

Record the longitude and latitude on the nest form and transfer the nest number to your CW notation on your chronological journal (so you know which crawlways have been finished).

Relocating a Nest

Nests that are at risk of being unable to hatch must be moved as soon as possible and as gently as possible. At risk areas now include:

    South Beach from the south tip to ~400 m north of South Beach Entrance.
    Big Washover onSouth Beach from about 6.5 km to 8.0 km (end of eroding dune ridge to beginning of Mc Queens Dune Field)
    Margin of Mc Queens Inlet (north end of South beach with E-W orientation).
    Most of Middle Beach
    North Beach from Sea Side Inlet, past Yellow Bluff, to Sandpit Road Entrance.
    North Beach north of Sand Pit Road ridge system at small lagoon and St. Catherines Sound margin (to be determined).

Once a nest has been found and is judged to be in need of relocation for one of the following reasons:

    1. Nest is located in at risk areas indicated above.
    2. Nest is located below Spring Tide high tide line.
    3. Nest is located in an exceptionally dynamic part of the Island.

The Ga DNR suggest that nests not be relocated after being in the ground 12 hours…
or … Nests may be relocated after 12 days; If eggs are kept perfectly oriented.
On St. Catherines we can relocate the nest by this gentler methodology until approximately 4:00 pm, but always the relocation done earlier is clearly the best for the eggs as it is closer to the time of deposition and is cooler.

A nest should be relocated by the following procedure.

    1. Determine the closest adequate habitat to the nest (and dig a new egg chamber there if possible).
    2. Using a clean five-gallon bucket, place about two inches of sand in the bottom.
    3. Record the time in your journal notebook page, mark the CW# with a check mark and indicate the nest # next to it in your notebook.
    4. On the Nest Form, record the original location, time and other template information.
    5. Expose the clutch of eggs and carefully remove one or two eggs at a time, keeping count as you go, and gently place each egg into the bucket.
    6. Once all eggs are safely in the bucket, check the egg chamber and egg chamber neck one last time, cover the eggs in the bucket with a towel, and record the “time out of the ground” and number of eggs in the clutch.
    7. Carry the bucket of eggs to the new egg chamber as gently as possible (always ride the egg bucket on the floor of the Mule, NOT the box, NOT the seat).
    8. Adjust the size of the new egg chamber to the size of the clutch
    9. Place the eggs back into the new egg chamber one or two or three at a time, not dropping them, until the clutch is back in the ground…
    10. Record the “time in ground” and also the new count (as you validate your count by counting back into the ground), cover with sand, tamp lightly, and mark the center of the egg chamber neck with a piece of wrack.
    11. Record the time, take GPS location of relocated nest, and record these data on the nest form.

Web Operations

During 2003 we will expand the interactivity with our interns by providing a daily Sea Turtle Update summarizing the day’s activities and data. After fieldwork is complete, enter summary data on the template provided and e-mail a copy to Nancy, Royce, and Gale. One of us will upload the page onto the Sea Turtle Web Archive so we all can keep track of the progress of nesting on a daily basis and we will have adequate back up on four different computers and a server.