Hurricane Idalia hit the Florida Gulf coast and then swung across and impacted Edisto. We did experience high tides as it moved over during a high tide. The tide was even higher due to the Supermoon King Tides. We did lose some nests from the impact, however, majority of our nests have already come and gone. I created a video to share what the impact may be on sea turtles from an extreme weather event like a hurricane. Check it out below ..read more

Blog Post By: Lilli Stanley, Sea Turtle Intern This summer I wanted to do an internship working on wildlife conservation so when I got the opportunity to work on Edisto Island, SC working on loggerhead sea turtle conservation I was so excited. My family has been vacationing here since I was little, so getting to do the work that I had seen others do was an exciting opportunity. In a lot of ways, this summer was a challenge for me. It stretched me in a lot of ways like moving to a new place where I knew no one, it pushed me out of my comfort zone by requiring me to talk to knew people every da ..read more

As soon as we started our walk on Saturday, we got to witness a few straggler hatchlings emerging from a nearby nest. It was great to already have hatchling activity! As we ventured further down the beach, there were more hatchlings to witness emerging from another nest that had recently showed signs of a major emergence. This is why we wait 3-5 days to inventory a nest as the next few nights, there may be hatchlings that emerge from the nest on their own. The following morning we documented three new nests and two false crawls and there were no new nest emergences. It was a great night walk ..read more

On the Thursday night walk, we had a turtle emerging from the surf. We were excited that there was an adult turtle coming ashore as the new nesting activity had been slowing down. We took a look through the night vision monoculars only to discover that once she crawled up and hit the wrack line, she decided to turn around and false crawl. We got to see her closer on the crawl back to the ocean. The following morning this was the only turtle crawl documented, so we were lucky to be able to witness this turtle. There were also three nests that emerged ..read more

While still walking in the campground area, we spotted a couple hatchling heads barely poking through the sand. We knew it was only going to be a matter of time before we saw a nest boil! They nickname it a boil as it appears the sand is boiling with hatchlings. We wondered how long we would have to wait but it did not take too long and over 30 hatchlings emerged from the sand and made their way to the ocean. After we saw those hatchlings, another three emerged and from the looks of the photo from the morning volunteers, even more came out during the night! The following morning there were tw ..read more

The Saturday night walk delivered turtles and not just sea turtles! On our way to the inlet, we had a turtle ashore. She had just recently come ashore so we patiently waited while she was digging the egg chamber. We watched through the night vision monoculars before she was ready to lay eggs. We watched this turtle lay eggs, cover and return to the ocean. On the way back, we saw a diamondback terrapin, the brackish turtle that lives in the marsh but nests on our beach. Then before getting to the office building, we saw hatchlings! It was a busy but fun night walk! The following morning we ..read more

We were thankful that we were still able to conduct the walk portion of the program on Thursday as earlier on in the day it showed thunderstorm arriving right around 9pm. The initial radar when we went out onto the beach showed that a storm would not arrived until 1am, so we excitedly headed out, with the hopes of witnessing a nesting sea turtle. We came across a turtle ashore not too far down the beach. This turtle was almost done covering when we saw her though and she quickly slipped into the high tide. A little further down and all of a sudden the group reported a sea turtle emerging, r ..read more

Nest 261 all protected with a metal cage. This was our first intern-led night walk and Lilli did a great job! As soon as we finished with the indoor portion of the program, we proceeded out on the beach only to discover two nests had already emerged! As we proceeded to walk down the beach there was an adult turtle crawl but it lead to a false crawl in the dunes. We were still hopeful that we would get the chance to witness some turtle activity.  Not too much further down and there was a turtle ashore! After confirming with the night vision monocular that she was laying eggs, the group ..read more

When we were almost at the inlet we had a turtle that was heading back to the ocean after completing a false crawl, she seemed tired after attempting two egg chambers and climbing the steep scarp. Hopefully she found another place to successfully nest. On the way back to the park, things got eventful. We had a turtle that was emerging from the surf line. Then as we were watching her through the night vision monocular, another turtle started emerging just nearby. This turtle crawled up to the high tide line but eventually turned around. In the meantime, another turtle started to emerge behind ..read more

Blog Post By: Elaine Walters, Sea Turtle Intern There is something about turtles that captures the imagination and hearts of human beings. They feature prominently in the origin stories many different cultures, and they were often believed to possess mystical powers. As with many stories these often instill some kind of moral teaching or lesson for those listening to them. While the reality of these myths, legends, and proverbs may be called into question, many of the lessons still ring true today and, in many cases, our modern society might do well to listen to them.   In creation stori ..read more