Night Patrol

Nesting season began May 1 here in Georgia. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center Night Patrol Members started dawn patrols May 1 and started night patrols on May 15th. We started out training in groups of three working two nights, two day shifts and two days off. I worked with Heather M. and Renee R.
The whole night we either walk or drive the Mule up and down the beach looking for nesting female sea turtles. Sometimes we come across the turtle in the actual nesting process other times she may have false crawled or is heading back to the water after nesting.
Watching the process of sea turtle nest is an amazing experience. The process can take up to 45 minutes to an hour,depending on where tide is when she comes up etc. The sea turtle comes up out of the water, looks for a suitable place to lay her eggs then drops about 100 to 120 eggs. After she covers her egg chamber they heads back to the ocean. When she is done nesting we are able to do everything invasive including PIT tag, flipper tag and skin biopsy. Some of the turtles we come across are on the waters edge, either done nesting or false crawling. During these times we have to restrain or 'wrestle' with the turtle to check for tags or in some cases tag her before she re-enters the water.
There has been some interesting nights on the beach. We have come across several stranded turtles. One that was hit by a boat that was still alive and had to be rushed to the center. Another that looked as if it was bit by a shark in the neck and one that was weak and covered in epibiota. Some interesting things not related to turtles include seeing a gator on the beach,running into weird people or seiners on the beach, my boss having to call state troopers as there were people camping on the beach rockwall. All in all, I love working with sea turtles and hope to work with them in the future.