Press Releases
Ernst: Turtle Patrol isn't a walk on the Beach (7/5/11)
Sister Sea Turtle Beaches in Florida and Oman (4/22/11)
CWC Turtle Patrol Attends Statewide Meeting (3/9/11)
Baby Sea Turtles Hatch on Manasota Key (6/20/09)
Ernst:
Turtle patrol isn't a walk on the beach
By Eric Ernst
Published: Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 1:23 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 1:23 p.m.
Turtle patrol is not quite the glamorous beachside jaunt some of us
imagine.
I learned that on a recent Sunday morning when I walked with Michael
and Andrea Shlasko on a stretch of Manasota Key beach in Englewood.
When the Shlaskos invited me, I jumped at the chance. Turtle patrol
has always been on my bucket list of things to do in retirement. I
always envisioned joining the thousands of volunteers statewide who
each year watch for sea turtles laying eggs or hatching, then report
those events to researchers. What could be better than communing
with nature while at the same time helping scientists understand the
behavior of endangered creatures?
It turns out that turtle patrol takes a lot of time, training,
continuing education, endurance, attention to detail and just plain
old hard work.
We started at 6:20 a.m. on a muggy day at the Manasota Beach Club by
spraying our legs to repel no-see-ums and mosquitoes.
The Shlaskos loaded two backpacks and a cloth sleeve with water
bottles, measuring tape, logbooks, cameras, GPS reader, a mallet,
stakes, orange marking tape and a bucket.
Then off we went to scour a roughly half-mile territory between the
beach club and the Pearl Beach Resort known as Zone 9.
State permit holders oversee the volunteers. In the Shlaskos' area,
the nonprofit Coastal Wildlife Club, run by Wilma Katz and Zoe Bass,
holds the permit. As another local example, Mote Marine is permitted
for beaches from Longboat Key through Venice and manages 300
volunteer patrollers.
Each day, the patrollers watch for the telltale signs of a "crawl,"
the trail left by a mother turtle, generally a loggerhead in this
area. The markings resemble smooth tire tracks with tread on the
sides where the turtle's flippers have dug up the sand. Patrols have
to start in the morning, before waves, wind, rain and beachgoers
wipe out the tracks.
Crawls do not always lead to nests. The mother turtle often returns
to the water without laying eggs, sometimes because she encounters
an obstacle, such as beach furniture or even driftwood. On Sunday,
one false crawl terminated at a half-buried 2-by-4, perhaps the
remains of an old dock.
The Shlaskos stake out each new nest, marking on the stake the zone,
nest number, date and their initials. They also log GPS coordinates
for the nests. And they chart the path and direction of each crawl.
The paperwork may sound painless, but it becomes quite
time-consuming. For instance, by Sunday, Zone 9 had already logged
105 nests and 179 false crawls since nesting season opened May 1.
The couple also check existing nests each day for predation, which
is recorded in the log book and on the stake.
The occasional dog or coyote may dig up a nest, and ghost crabs
often burrow down and drag away an egg or two, but raccoons are the
most voracious predators.
Sure enough, raccoon tracks and the flies buzzing over Nest No. 103
signified broken eggs and intruders. Protocol demanded that Michael
and Andrea don plastic gloves and dig into the sand to assess the
damage. Andrea counted 51 broken shells, or about half the 100 or so
eggs expected in a nest. The couple logged their findings, and
Michael buried the detritus at the waterline to help hide the scent
and discourage future incursions.
As we neared the north end of Zone 9, a woman ran from her house.
She and her family, visiting from Idaho Springs, Colo., had
recognized the Shlaskos as turtle patrollers, and she asked, "Did
you see the turtle nest by the stairs?"
Two days earlier, shortly after the Shlaskos had finished their
rounds, Patty Septon said, she and her daughters Megan, 8, and Sara,
10, had watched a turtle lay eggs at 10:30 in the morning. In
response to slight skepticism, because loggerheads rarely lay eggs
in daylight, she produced photos and took us right to the site.
A patrol the next day missed the nest because rain had wiped out the
turtle's tracks. Michael carefully dug to the eggs and verified the
nest as No. 109.
The Shlaskos have undergone extensive training. They've studied
under Bass, Katz and other patrollers; they've taken classes on
lighting regulations, how to handle stranded turtles and how to
identify predator tracks; and they attend workshops to stay
certified.
Information collected by the Shlaskos winds up in a database managed
by Anne Meylan at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St.
Petersburg. Scientists use the database. It also helps state
agencies make decisions on land acquisition and the location and
timing of beach renourishment, boat races and construction such as
dune crossovers.
"We love turtles. We do it for the turtles," says Michael, whose
reptilian love affair started 30 years ago when he swam with the
creatures in Akumal, Mexico. "Fish just swim from place to place.
Turtles glide through the water." Added Andrea: "Once you've held
one of those little guys in your hand, your heart is taken."
That passion drives the work done by the Shlaskos.
The turtle tally on our Sunday patrol came to five new nests, five
false crawls, and two drops, the slight settling of the sand that
occurs just before the hatchlings emerge.
It was hot. It was buggy. Sometimes it didn't smell so good. And it
took more than three hours to finish.
When I arrived home, I couldn't wait to share my experiences with my
wife, who was at the store. By the time she returned, I was asleep
on the couch.
Eric Ernst's column runs Wednesdays, Fridays
and Sundays. Contact him at eric.ernst@heraldtribune.com or (941)
486-3073. He will be on vacation the next few weeks.
SISTER SEA TURTLE BEACHES IN FLORIDA AND OMAN
Coastal Wildlife Club (CWC) is pleased to host guest speaker Blair
Witherington, PhD, who will discuss
Sister Sea Turtle Beaches in
Florida and
Oman on
April 22nd at 7 PM at the Suncoast Auditorium of
Englewood Community Hospital. He will tell us about his work in Oman
and how turtles, beaches, and people there relate to those here.
Last year, Witherington made his seventh trip to the Sultanate of
Oman, whose beaches host the largest aggregation of nesting
loggerhead sea turtles in the
eastern
hemisphere, and possibly the largest in the world. Working
with rangers, volunteers, and Ministry of Environment staff, he
shares scientific expertise and perspective gained over three
decades, much of it in work on the Archie Carr National Wildlife
Refuge on Florida’s Atlantic coast. Beaches there host the largest
aggregation in the western hemisphere.
Dr. Witherington is a research scientist with the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Research Institute and an adjunct assistant professor in
the Department of Zoology, University of Florida. He served as
president of the 20th International Sea Turtle Symposium and
currently serves on the National Academy of Sciences panel on sea
turtle population assessment and on the Marine Turtle Specialist
Group of the IUCN (International
Union for Conservation of Nature),
for which he is Vice Chair of the Northwest Atlantic region. As a
global authority on lighting and sea turtles, and as a director of
Florida’s nesting beach program, he is a familiar face to CWC turtle
patrol volunteers.
As an author, he is known well
beyond the sea turtle
community. Witherington has authored or contributed to more than 50
scientific articles, monographs, and book chapters, and he has
written five books on sea turtles and other natural history
subjects. Sea Turtles: An Extraordinary Natural History of
Some Uncommon Turtles is well known to CWC
members. More widely known are Florida’s Living Beaches
and Florida’s Seashells: A Beachcombers Guide, and
most recently Living Beaches of Georgia and the Carolinas,
co-authored with his wife Dawn
The public is invited to join CWC members and friends for this
special EARTH DAY program at 7 PM and for coffee and desserts
beforehand.
Loggerhead sea turtle nesting early one evening on Manasota Key
Photo: Wilma Katz, July 16, 2009
CWC Turtle Patrol
Attends Statewide Meeting
By Wilm Katz
March 9, 2011
Coastal Wildlife Club (CWC) turtle patrol volunteers traveled across
the state to attend the annual Florida Marine Turtle Permit Holder
Meeting held February 11th and 12th at the
Crowne Plaza Hotel in Indialantic, Florida. The 64-member CWC group,
nearly half the entire patrol, was the largest among the 334
attendees.
After a social gathering the night before, Saturday’s presentations
began with results of the 2010 turtle season. Nest numbers for
Threatened loggerheads in Florida, the predominant sea turtle
nesting here, were the highest in a decade – but still well below
numbers reached in the late 1990’s. Better news was that nest
numbers for green and leatherback sea turtles, listed as Endangered,
have continued to increase significantly.
Several speakers discussed the cold stun event in January 2010 when
temperatures dropped suddenly, and severely cold weather lasted for
12 days.
St Joseph Bay in the Panhandle and Mosquito Lagoon on the Atlantic
coast are typical locations for cold stun events in Florida.
Previous records for any 12-month period were 400 or fewer affected
turtles at either location. Last year in 2 weeks in January alone,
more than 1,200 turtles were picked up in St Joseph Bay and nearly
2,200 were found on the east coast. Cold-stunned turtles were
everywhere - including 85 on the west coast and 174 as far south as
the Florida Keys.
Almost 6000 turtles were found. Of those, nearly 3,700 turtles were
alive – some barely so - and urgently needing shelter. Who could
make room for these turtles? Who could make brackish water from
fresh? (Fish hatcheries, for example, with empty tanks could do
this.) Of the thousands of turtles rescued - with tremendous help
from the public and from many businesses - most have been
rehabilitated and released.
Presentations on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill which began four
months later were more somber. Rehab facilities were needed again,
but this time for oiled turtles, and the numbers were fewer. Only
295 live oiled sea turtles were received by facilities in Florida
and in neighboring states. We will never know how many more sea
turtles died as a result of oil or from entanglement in the frenzy
of fishing effort before areas of the Gulf of Mexico were closed to
commercial fishing.
On shore, north of the spill, hatchlings would soon emerge from
nests and almost certainly swim into oil.
Sea turtle scientists determined that clutches of eggs on
beaches in the Florida Panhandle and in Alabama should be relocated
to the Atlantic coast. There, if the embryos survived the trip,
hatchlings could scramble to oil-free water. The nests were left in
place on their original beaches as long as possible – until about
the 50th day of incubation. Then the eggs were taken
across the state courtesy of FEDEX, and hatchlings were released
late at night at the Kennedy Space Center. Nearly 270 nests were
moved.
The significant risk inherent in relocating sea turtle eggs or
hatchlings from their natal beaches was outweighed by the need to
save them from near certain doom. Relocation was seen as the least
harmful option, and the decision was made by some of the most
knowledgeable sea turtle scientists in the world.
Questions about where the oil is now or what will be its lasting
effects remain to challenge ocean scientists.
More upbeat closing presentations focused on projects funded by the
sale of sea turtle license plates through Florida’s Marine Turtle
Grants Program. Readers can learn about the program by visiting:
Helpingseaturtles.org
Peg Magee, a CWC turtle patrol volunteer on Caspersen Beach in
Venice, said, “The location was perfect for a sea turtle meeting –
so close to the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.”
Beaches on the Carr Refuge host the largest aggregation of nesting
loggerheads in the western hemisphere, perhaps in the world, with
numbers rivaled only by the loggerheads of the Gulf of Oman.
Norma Jean Zvosec said, “We’re asked about sea turtles all the time.
Because of meetings like this one, we’re better prepared to answer”.
CWC members learned a lot, renewed friendships, and supported sea
turtle conservation with silent auction purchases.
Note: CWC volunteer Amber Tracy had prepared signs for a CWC video
clip to send to for Good
Morning, America. So far, though, we’ve not seen ourselves on
television.
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CWC turtle patrol volunteers Kevyn Schweim and
Randee LaSalle with Dick and Jane Gates, who said, “We always learn
more about turtles and we share the camaraderie of people doing the
same work on beaches all over the state.”
South Gulf Cove CWC turtle patrol volunteers Cherie LaFlamme and Gwen Ketner with Barb (seated) and Mike Tapp.
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CWC turtle patrol volunteers Rick and Peg Magee
from Venice.
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the presentations at the annual Florida Marine Turtle Permit Holder
Meeting.
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Judy DeMersman, Ginny Clark, and Sandy Fehring
Baby Sea Turtles Hatch on Manasota Key
6/20/09
On April 27th a female loggerhead sea turtle lumbered ashore and climbed the beach along the north end of Manasota Key. Just short of the vegetation line, she dug a hole equal to 2/3rds the length of a person’s arm deep and deposited over 100 eggs. Then she covered the eggs with sand and slowly walked back to the sea.For 53 days those eggs incubated, surrounded by sand. Inside, little baby loggerhead sea turtles developed. During the night of June 19th, the babies broke free of their shells and clawed their way through the sand until they broke the surface. Then, drawn to the lightest horizon, they scurried across the beach, into the Gulf of Mexico. Ahead of them lay a long swim out to sea. The females among them (if they survive many lethal obstacles) may return to Manasota Beach in 30 years to lay their own nests. The males will never return, spending their lives at sea.
We know that this hatching occurred because each day from May through October, members of the Coastal Wildlife Club Turtle Patrol walk the beach looking for signs of nesting and then watch daily for signs of hatching. This particular mother turtle came ashore a bit earlier than normal. Her nest had been marked with a yellow stake and protected from predators such as raccoons, armadillos, and coyotes with a screen box.
While on turtle patrol, Rich & Sue Freeman saw the telltale signs of a hatching. A depression was left in the sand where the babies emerged. And, even more fun, the sand between the depression and the sea was lined with the tracks of many small flippers – a sure sign that babies had emerged and made it to the sea.
In three days a member of the turtle patrol will dig up this hatched nest and count how many eggs actually hatched. This becomes part of the data record reported statewide that helps track the success rate of turtle nesting.
This is hopefully the beginning of a busy hatching season along Manasota Beach. Many other nests have been laid and babies are developing, waiting for their turn to head to the sea. Additional mother turtles come ashore each night and lay new nests.
To learn more about sea turtles and the Coastal Wildlife Club Turtle Patrol visit web site www.coastalwildlifeclub.org.
Photo 1:
Turtle Patrollers Sandy Hertzler, Kimberly Fischer, Sue Freeman and Rich Freeman enjoy the sight of baby loggerhead sea turtle tracks marking the first hatch this year on Manasota Key.
Photo 2:
Sue Freeman, a member of the sea turtle patrol, counts how many eggs hatched from a nest.
Photo 3:
A track left in the sand by a baby loggerhead sea turtle as it passed a small shell and headed for the Gulf of Mexico.
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