So, What is a scarp?

A scarp is a small erosional cliff formed as the waves erode into the backbeach area or downward, lowering the beach level. Scarps thus formed are always evidence of an erosional shoreline. Fresh scarps are straight, steep, and “clean”-looking. As they are attacked by the weather they slump and collapse forming a less steep appearance with a depositional “toe” at their bottom. Scarps are important in sea turtle conservation because they stop turtles from crossing from the beach into the preferred nesting habitats behind the shoreline.

Gale A. Bishop
6/06/07

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Posted on June 6, 2007 | Filed Under Daily Journal

Observers: Katy and Gale

Observations: We left the Turtle House at 5:15 A.M. and drove through the maritime forest to South Beach. Three trees were down on State Road, two on back creek Road, and one on South Beach Road, all were successfully driven around on the Gators. I monitored South Beach entering at South Beach Entrance at approximately 5:45 AM and drove northward to McQueens and Katy, a few minutes behind, monitored southward. Rain associated with Tropical Storm Barry began Friday night about 20:00 and continued through most of Sunday monitoring, accumulating 4.26″ (10.8 cm) in the gage on the Main Dock.. Monitoring of South beach was accomplished from McQueens to the Mud Bank near the South Tip … SW Beach and North Beach will be monitored on the second tide … as four non-nesting crawlways indicated that nesting was unlikely as the females could not trigger due to lack of warm, backbeach sand.

Four non-nesting crawlways were encountered:

Crawlway 1: 31.59715 N; 81.14887 W
Crawlway 2: 31.00000 N; 81.00000 W
Crawlway 3: 31.00000 N; 81.00000 W
Crawlway 4: 31.00000 N; 81.00000 W

Nests 07-004 and 07-005a were observed and found to be intact, although 07-005 (original position) had been overwashed and eroded somewhat and 07-004 was overwashed and partly eroded, exposing part of the screen. Nest 07-004 was recovered with sand and will be watched on the afternoon tide. Smaller branches were cleared on the way back to the Turtle House, arriving at about 08:15.

A Further Note About the Weather

Tropical Storm (now Tropical Depression) Barry has moved north of the Island on the west and we are now receiving 30-40 mph winds from the SW and West … The leading winds from the east and northeast last night did some minor erosion on the beaches. From broken branches and trees I estimate the winds last night were approximately 40-50 mph (Beaufort Scale 8.0 -9.0, fresh to stong Gale force. Beach effects consisted of slight erosion at McQueens, minor scarping south of McQueens, and erosion of the “toes” of scarped dunes” along South Beach Entrance, and root washing on the south end of South Beach. Washover fans were active on the night high tide and surf (estimated to be 4-5 feet at dawn).

Gale A. Bishop
6/03/07

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Posted on June 6, 2007 | Filed Under Daily Journal

Daily Observations

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Observers: Katy and Gale

Observations: We left the Turtle House at 5:15 A.M., Katy monitored North Beach and I monitored South Beach entering at South Beach Entrance at approximately 5:45. Rain associated with Tropical Storm Barry began last night about 20:00 and continued through most of Saturday. Monitoring in the rain was attempted with moderate success.

South Beach was monitored from South Beach Entrance northward toward McQueens Inlet on a flood tide then southward across Flag Inlet to the obstructionist trees.

Four non-nesting crawlways were encountered:

Crawlway 1: 31.60641 N; 81.14453 W
Crawlway 2: 31.60287 N; 81.14622 W
Crawlway 3: 31.59326 N; 81.15090 W
Crawlway 4: 31.58717 N; 81.15346 W

Batteries in my GPS went down between Crawlways 3 and 4 … on the way back to South Beach Entrance, I replaced the batteries and took the long/lat of Crawlway 4.

Nests 07-004 and 07-005a were observed and found to be intact. Monitoring was terminated due to high tidal conditions and deterioration of weather conditions on a flooded beach.

A Note About the Weather

When the weather deteriorates it makes working extremely difficult and often dangerous. Routine tasks become difficult or impossible, like Note Taking. During rain we take minimal notes (crawlway locations, nest data, etc.) and compose notes from the days work in the laboratory. Flooded beaches are difficult to drive as the sand becomes fluidized and glasses wetted with rain. All equipment is kept in plastic bags (ZipLocs) making its use even more difficult. In a short phrase, our degrees of freedom begin to be attenuated. When this happens we often revert to minimal expectations and focus on safety of the personnel and equipment.

Gale A. Bishop
6/02/07

Friday, June 1, 2007

Posted on June 6, 2007 | Filed Under Daily Journal

Daily Observations

Friday, June 1, 2007

Observers: Katy and Gale

Observations: We left the Turtle House at 5:15 A.M., Katy monitored North Beach and I monitored South Beach entering at South Beach Entrance at approximately 5:45. North Beach was monitored by running Seaside Spit then driving the north end of North Beach by Katy.

South Beach was monitored from South Beach Entrance northward toward McQueens Inlet to beat the flood tide. One crawlway was encountered on the south margin of McQueens Inlet with a certain nest [31.63243 N; 81. 13050 W] at its zenith. This nest had two covering pits and was situated in the front of the wrack zone on the backbeach. Due to a rapidly flooding tide, I put two plastic screens over the probable nest and scooted back south to avoid being trapped by the tide. I then monitored southward across Flag Inlet to a beach obstruction near the south end of Flag Lagoon, turned around and headed back toward South Beach Entrance … when I noticed a possible nest immediately south of Flag Inlet at [31.58216 N; 81.15594 W], before recrossing Flag Inlet ahead of the flood tide. Katy joined me at South Beach and we walked across Flag Lagoon and crossed Flag Inlet to complete nest 007-004 which we determined had been deposited on Saturday May 26. Evidence of this was established by bicolored eggs, white below and pinlish above and by Ghost Crab burrows in the crawlway. Because of its location on the erosional overwash area south of Flag Inlet we decided we would move it on day 12 … the morning of June 7. I found a beautiful coral colony crossing Flag Inlet (GAB 200706011) that will be cataloged into an invertebrate collection.

In the afternoon, on an ebb tide at about 12:30 Katy and I returned to McQueens Inlet (13:30), excavated the nest on McQueens margin and located the nest’s clutch with some difficulty and relocated it behind the storm wrack line onto the face of a northeast facing dune. A clutch of 104 eggs was taken out of the grond at 13:45 and replace in the ground at 13:56 in nest 007-005a [31.63203 N; 81.13028 W]. I stopped at Flag Inlet to observe vibracoring of Flag Inlet by the island Ecology program while Katy monitored SW Beach on foot, returning to Flag Inlet at about 16:46.

Daily Observations for Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Posted on May 31, 2007 | Filed Under Daily Journal

Observers: Katy and Gale

Observations: We left the Turtle House at 5:30 A.M., Katy monitored North Beach and I monitored South Beach entering at South Beach Entrance at approximately 6:35. North Beach was monitored by running Seaside Spit, then driving the north end of North Beach by Katy. One crawlway was encountered on North Beach by Katy [31.68216 N, 81.13624 W], but the turtle did not nest and left a non-nesting crawl extending above high tide level.

South Beach was monitored from South Beach Entrance southward to a backbeach tree blockage at Flag Lagoon as high tide was approaching (6.3 ft; 7:10 AM). I turned back northward toward McQueens Inlet and monitored northward. A series of deep hog rootings on the beach were encountered at [31.59386 N; 81.15058 W] between Flag Inlet and South Beach Entrance. These were photographed and documented. After being turned back by the tide at Airplane Hammock, I then drove to Jungle Road Entrance and monitored a few hundred meters of beach there, then returned to South Beach Entrance to meet Katy and we continued to monitor toward McQueens Inlet.

We waited for the gate to McQueens (a log jumble obstructing the beach) then monitored to McQueens Inlet (09:35), then headed back south along the beach. A class from the Island Ecology program was passed at South Beach Entrance heavily involved in a field lecture. We left the machines north of the mud bank on the south end and crossed Beach Creek and monitored SW Beach on foot, returning to the Turtle House at 11:46.

After a lunch, we hung six Venetian blinds in the west porch; it now looks so good we have renamed it, The Beautiful Sunset Suite.

A Word about Hogs and Sea Turtles

Feral hogs inhabit many beach areas of the world, and can become a problem predator of sea turtle nests. St. Catherines Island is no exception, we have an abundance of feral hogs living on the Island. Some of these hogs cruise the beach on a routine basis foraging on dead horseshoe crabs and edible flotsam. Because they may encounter nesting turtles on their nocturnal patrols, they must be closely monitored on a daily basis to determine if and when depredation on sea turtle nests begins. The day such activity is learned by the hog, it must be eliminated from the population or it will apply its learning to all active nests on its beach, decimating the nests by its depredations.

Rooting behavior of hogs is especially troublesome, as it can easily lead to the discovery of the food resources provided by sea turtle nests as the hog roots along the beach. The picture below documents this behavior in a South Beach hog; a behavior we must stop, before nesting begins in earnest.

Hog Rooting on South Beach

Rooting by a feral hog along South Beach Entrance is a behavior that will lead to discovery and exploitation of sea turtle eggs buried in the beach sand. These “hog craters” represent a depredation “time-bomb” for threatened and endangered loggerheads nesting on South Beach. What are the options to eliminate this behavior from this rookery? What balance needs to be maintained between hogs and sea turtles utilizing our beach habitat? Answers to questions like these are often not easy to formulate and execute. What would you do about this problem?

Daily Observations for Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Posted on May 30, 2007 | Filed Under Daily Journal

Observers: Katy and Gale

Observations: We left the Turtle House at 5:30 A.M., Katy went to North Beach and Gale drove to South Beach entering at South Beach Entrance at approximately 6:00. North Beach was monitored by running Seaside Spit, then driving the north end of North Beach by Katy. South Beach was monitored from South Beach Entrance southward to a backbeach tree blockage as high tide was approaching (6.3 ft; 7:10 AM). Gale turned back northward toward McQueens Inlet and monitored northward. A non-nesting crawlway was encountered at [31.60753 N; 81.14397 W] between South Beach Entrance and the Big Washover. The loggerhead aborted this attempt after crawling over two palm logs on the backbeach.

A second crawlway was encountered at the middle of the Big Washover [31.60753 N; 81.14397 W] and appeared to be a nest (1.9 m x 2.1 m elliptical disturbed area, thrown sand, and disturbed wrack). The entrance and exit crawlways were very short (18 m) as the tide was flooding to its maximum. The loggerhead sea turtle had crawled into the heavy wrack on the backbeach, hit a small 10 cm scarp, then looped around and nested in the wrack zone. The nest was measured, sketched, and photographed by Bishop awaiting the arrival of McCurdy to help dig this nest.

The nest [007-003] was a complex, obstructed, backbeach nest deposited within two rows of wrack marking the last two storm high tide lines. The nest was dug unsuccessfully using a palm frond and a steel trowel. Then the magic Ti shovel was brought into play and the turtle’s track followed into the nest area along the entrance crawlway. The egg chamber was found with the tried and true left foot of GAB as it sank into the neck of the egg chamber (digging time = 18 m 09.75 sec). A new egg chamber was constructed 4.65 m immediately behind the original nest location [ 31.61279 N, 81.14123 W] to get the eggs a little higher and behind the highly erosional shoreline (where we successfully hatched many nests last year). Eggs were removed and counted by Katy into a relocation bucket The clutch of 127 eggs was placed into the new egg chamber with four data loggers [one at the bottom, one in the middle and one on the outside after 60 eggs were replaced, then one on top of the clutch] before it was covered at 8:59 AM, lightly tamped, then covered with a plastic screen and marked with an orange-topped stake [007-003a]. Katy then finished monitoring South Beach while Gale rode north on Jungle Road to monitor hogs (n-1).

Overview of loggerhead Nest [007-003] on South Beach, St. Catherines Island, Georgia. This nest was deposited the night of May 28-29 in heavy Spartina wrack; a simple, obstructed, backbeach nest. Because the nest was deposited in front of the storm high tide line on an erosional beach, it was judged to be in danger of inundation and doomed; the nest was set back 5.65 m to improve its chances of success from ~ 10% to ~ 90%.

We stopped by the house for lunch, then continued monitoring Middle Beach, entering by wading Seaside Inlet at 13:15, monitoring southward to McQueens Inlet and turned back north. The length of Middle Beach as measured with the odometer of a Garmin CXS 76 was 2.75 km from inlet to inlet. The 6 km walk took approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. After wading Seaside Inlet, we drove back to the Turtle House at 15:30.

Gale A. Bishop
5/29/07