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Damage done by Hurricane Irene

We are still assessing the damage done by Hurricane Irene.  Preliminary results indicate that we lost 20 nests to the extremely high surf.

Above photo by Len Kreger.

Boy, did we misscall this one!  This nest, laid on May 29, was called as a green turtle nest.  It hatched and produced leatherbacks!!!!! 

"We have the first green nest of the 2011 season.  The nest is located on northern edge of the Ritz Carlton."

This is what came out of the "green" leatherback nest!!!

Early morning green turtle nests on Amelia Island, July 17.

Early morning green turtle leaves her nest.

Green turtle photos above taken my Carol Condit

New 2011 volunteer, Richard Trostle, finds 3 nests in one day within 200 yards of each other.  What a find!!

Ft. Clinch State Park gets ANOTHER leatherback!!!!  On 6/10/11 another leatherback visits the park property.  She apparently didn't nest, but her marks are impressive all the same.   Note the size of the track compared to the flip flop next to it.

Ft. Clinch State Park gets a leatherback!!!  Ft. Clinch rangers found a leatherback crawl on the beach on May 31, 2011.  Pictures below were taken after the park vehicle drove over the tracks.  Still clear enough to see it was a leatherback (Dermochelys coriacia)  that paid a visit to our island.

Leatherback photos above taken by Sandra Baker-Hinton.

Our first nest of the season was found by Mary Raines in front of Summer Beach on Amelia Island, May10, 2011

Tagged nesting turtle identified

A nesting loggerhead was observed to have a flipper tag.  TTR403 was seen nesting at about 4:00 AM on June 26.  We checked with the Archie Carr tagging database and found that TTR403 was tagged in 2006 on Little Cumberland Island while she was nesting.  No one has seen her since.  The database workers were glad to know she is still alive and well and successfully nesting on Amelia Island four years later.

June 2, 2010....Leatherback sea turtle nests on Amelia Island