2021, 2022, and 2023 Beach Renourishments - 12/1/23
2022: The beach renourishment project for the north end of the island started in January, 2022, and was completed mid April, just prior to our 2022 Turtle season that started on May 1st.
2021:The beach renourishment project for the south end of the island started on July 27th, 2021. It was completed on January 15, 2022.
See https://olsen-associates.com/sai2021/schedule/
Because that renourishment took place during the 2021 sea turtle season, the FWC (Fish and Wildlife Commission) required us to move ALL new sea turtle nests to a safe location outside the project area by 9am each morning. We carefully interpreted every track and disturbed area to determine whether or not it was a false crawl or a nest, drawing on all of our track and nest interpretation skills and experience to be certain that no nests were missed. Because of
For each nest, we carefully removed each egg one at a time and placed it gently into a bucket padded with sand. We transported the bucket to a new location at various places from Summer Beach up to North beach. We used the information from the original nest to create a new nest that was similar in size and depth for the number of eggs moved. The eggs were then very carefully placed into the new nest. We then documented the new nest as well, marking it with an R in front of the name. We relocated 47 nests.
We are often asked if this will harm the development of the eggs. Experience has taught us that when the nest is moved before it is 24 hours old, the eggs will begin to develop normally in the new location. For these nests, our nest success was very close to nests left in place (see our Historical Data page for the details).
New E-mail Address (effective 1/5/23)
ameliaislandseaturtlewatch@gmail.com
Please use this address for general inquiries. We monitor it almost every day. For urgent matters, please continue to use our telephone number.
2024 Organizational Meeting
We held our 2024 season new volunteer signup and training at our Organizational Meeting on April 4th; With our new volunteers, we are all set for this season.
If you find a sea turtle on the beach
If you find a sea turtle on the beach, alive or not, please let us know immediately. We will examine the turtle and take it to a sea turtle hospital if necessary. Sea turtles can become stranded on our beach any time of year.
The turtles have arrived
We had our first nest of the 2024 on May 5th. See our our Nest Summary/Success page.
Our Excavations have started
The first nest hatched and emerged on 7/6/24. We will announce upcoming excavations on our Excavation Schedule page.
Our QR Code education website
We are placing QR codes on some of our nests to help folks learn more about the sea turtles that are nesting on our beach. This other AISTW website is for general education about turtles as well as briefly explain what we (AISTW) do. The QR code link is Scan to learn more.
