September 25, 2024 • 28 mins
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Join us as we cover our second annual Sea Turtle Podcast from Sapelo. You'll hear from this year's sea turtle technician, Joyce Sykes, as she shares a live nest excavation and the secrets it reveals about the turtles' incubation period and nest success.
To track the sea turtle nests on Georgia's beaches, click here.
For more information from the sea turtle technicians and updates from the GA Sea Turtle Cooperative, click here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hi and thanks for joining Sappalo Nerds, a coastal
science podcast.
I'm your host, corinne.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I'm your host, Brittany, and we work at the
National Estuarine ResearchReserve, or NEAR on Sappalo
Island, a Georgia barrier islandHmm Reserve, or NEAR on Sapelo
Island a.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Georgia barrier island.
Oh, brittany, you sound so sad,are you okay?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I mean, I guess it's kind of just the end of the
season and I'm so bummed.
Summer no, not summer, I'mtalking about sea turtle season
Of course, sea turtle season.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It is sad when the sea turtles are gone, but
sometimes good, I mean they makeit out to the water.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, so from May till October, typically it is
sea turtle season, and you'veheard us talk a little bit about
sea turtle season here on thischannel and if you missed last
year's episode in which weinterviewed Matt, our sea turtle
tech for 2023.
You mean, keep calm and turtleon, exactly.
If you missed that episode,please go check it out, because
(01:15):
it's really important to havesome background information for
what we're going to do Today weget to share a really cool in
the field episode of aninterview with this year's sea
turtle technician, Joyce.
Yeah, and we're going to go oversome really cool things that
Corinne discovered with her,including the fact that sea
turtle season is beginning wayearlier.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, joyce came out to the island in mid-May, but
we're actually starting to see.
Although we used to say thatsea turtle season started about
May 1st, they may come up evenearlier.
They're talking about bringingsea turtle technicians out in
potentially mid-April.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And that can have a lot of implications for people
who are living or visiting ourbeaches.
Things like dogs on the beachand making sure we turn off our
lights at night to prevent theturtles from going in the wrong
direction, and even things likemaking sure that we cover up our
holes when we're digging in thesand, are really important to
do earlier in the season nowthan we originally thought.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And the reason why our sea turtle season is
starting even earlier we cantell through our system-wide
monitoring program or swamp data.
Earlier we can tell through oursystem-wide monitoring program
or swamp data.
We have a steady record showingthat water temperatures are
warming, which means those mamaturtles are getting their
seasonal cues to start layingnests sooner.
This can actually have bigimplications for the population
(02:38):
of sea turtles.
If the sea turtles are comingup sooner, it means those nests
usually have to incubate alittle while longer, which means
those nests are usually alittle bit cooler and that
slight temperature variation canactually mean there's more male
turtles than female turtles.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And because it's happening earlier.
Whenever the nests are outduring the warmer end of the
season, those nests are actuallyincubating a shorter amount of
time and producing tons offemales, Since we talked about
in our last episode that sex canbe determined by the heat of
the nest.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So we want to make sure that all of these turtles
that are coming up to ourGeorgia beaches are staying nice
and healthy and safe and thatwe're not impacting the
population too much with thesedifferent temperatures.
That's because the turtles thatwe have here in Georgia are
part of the northern recoveryunit of sea turtles.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Northern recovery unit turtles.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So these NRU turtles are actually distinct from the
ones that are nesting justacross the border in Florida.
They tend to stay further south, while our turtle population or
turtlation ends up stayingfurther north, so they don't
interbreed or spread out furthersouth very often.
This is a really uniquecollection of turtles that isn't
(03:55):
going to spread out very far orwon't get replaced very easily
if we lose them.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
That's why it's super important that the monitors the
local population and how manyturtles we are seeing hatched on
our beaches.
We're super excited that thisyear, instead of just
interviewing our sea turtle techin our studio, aka Corinne's
office, we were actually able togo and do an in the field
(04:22):
podcast episode.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And this one wasn't as bad as our other one that we
did in the field where it wassuper windy on the beach.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
We promise we've gotten better mics.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
All right, so we are out here on Nantigo Beach on
Sappalo Island and I am withSappalo's 2024 sea turtle
technician, joyce Sykes.
Hey, joyce, hi, nice to be herewith you.
Yeah, thank you so much forletting me come out and bother
you.
Nice to be here with you.
Yeah, thank you so much forletting me come out and bother
you.
So we are working on what wecall a nest excavation or
(04:57):
sometimes a nest inventory.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Can you explain what that is?
Yeah, so we conduct nestinventories to basically get a
sense of what happened in a nestduring the time that it was
incubating.
So we do two different types ofinventories.
We'll do one either five daysafter a nest has hatched or we
do one on day 70 if we didn'tsee any sort of activity of a
hatch during that period.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So if you're looking for a hatch, you're looking for
a bunch of tiny, adorable littletracks leading to the water
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
There's usually a pretty distinctive hole right
where the eggs would have been,and then we'll see all those
distinct little hatchling tracksheading towards the water.
But sometimes we miss it.
If there's high wind or if it'sraining, those tracks get
washed away pretty easily.
So just to be safe, we'll waitthe 70 days and just do an
(05:46):
inventory later.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
So how long is a typical incubation period?
How long are they typically inthe ground?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It can be anywhere from 50 to 70 days, but the
average on Sapelo has beenconsistently around 55 days of
incubation.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Awesome, and do we know if that's changing at all,
like so we're getting warmer.
Do we know if those are goingdown or up, or is it staying
pretty consistent?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
it's staying pretty consistent, at least here.
On sapelo um, which is goodnews.
It really is dependent on umwhere the eggs are being laid to
, so if a lot of the nests arehigh in elevation, it can take
them longer to hatch as well.
So so I would say that thatseems to be the cause.
On sapwood here.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Okay, so elevation can make a big difference, so in
addition to elevation, timealso plays a big, a big role in
this as well.
So the nests that were laidearlier in the season typically
have to incubate for way longer.
So sometimes we'll see hatchrates or they'll start hatching
on like day 70, which is waylater than we would normally see
(06:53):
if they were laid later in theseason.
And also there's a huge impactof time on sex ratio in the nest
as well.
So the longer that the eggs areincubating, the more likely
you're going to have males.
So if it's really, really short, if it's just at like 50 days
or early around 48 days, thatnest is probably going to be
(07:15):
almost all female.
But the longer the eggs aresitting there, the more males
you'll get.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Okay, so that has to do with the fact that turtles
are temperature-determined sexesor genders, right?
Yes, so the males are coolertemperatures, the boys are cool
and the females are hot rightExactly.
Okay, awesome, that is so cool,so that makes sense.
It's a little cooler earlier inthe year, but once it's hot in
the summer, they're baking,they're cooking pretty quickly,
(07:40):
right, exactly, awesome.
So to kind of set the scenebefore we start diving in, here
we are sitting on the primarydune, we are surrounded by beech
tea, croton and sea oats, andthere are just Gulf fritillaries
and dragonflies everywhere.
If you can hear the sounds ofthe waves behind us, it's just
absolutely gorgeous out here,and so we're gonna start by
(08:02):
digging a hole, right, yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
exactly.
So we're basically recreatingwhat the mom did when she came
to lay the nest.
So we can feel the differencein the mom did when she came to
lay the nest.
So we can feel the differencein sand density where the nest
is laid.
I can basically feel that thesand is really soft and it's
really easy to kind of sink intoas compared to all the sand
around it.
And so I just kind of go intothe hole and remove all the sand
(08:28):
on top and the nest is usuallyabout a foot deep or so, and
that depends on basically thesize of her back legs, flippers,
exactly, yeah, or her backflippers Whichever, but exactly
it depends kind of on their size, and if the mom was disturbed
(08:50):
as well too.
Sometimes if they're in a hurrythey'll lay like a really
shallow nest just to be donewith it and turn around okay.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
So while you're digging up here, you're setting
some of the sand aside if youcan tell it's just sand, and
then, if you can feel eggs,you're actually putting it into
a like gridded seed, like largemesh sieve.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Yeah, it's kind of like a large sieve.
I'm basically using it as asifter.
So it's this big wooden boxwith like a metal grate at the
bottom, and I'm putting all ofthe contents into there and it
just lets us kind of siftthrough the contents of the nest
a bit faster.
So, um, at the end, after Iscoop all the contents out, I'm
(09:31):
going to shake it and so all thesand will fall out and we'll
just be left with, hopefully,just the eggshells and anything
else we find.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Awesome.
So we can already see there'sfire ants crawling around.
Fortunately not a ton.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
We're not getting attacked?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Not yet.
Not yet, and we can see a fewghost crab burrows around, so
that might be evidence that wecould expect some predation in
here.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Is that right?
Yes, so that's evidence thatthere might have been some sort
of predation.
When I find this nest everysingle day after I come and I
look at the nest and we try tosee if there's any signs of
predation.
But there was originally aprotective screen over it.
So that protective screen islike this really big plastic
(10:14):
mesh that we put on top of thescreen and it usually helps stop
coyotes or raccoons or any bigpredators that are going to get
a lot of eggs stop from gettingin the nest, but it can't stop
ghost crabs because they're toogood at their job.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
They're pretty good at digging holes.
We see lots of those burrowsaround our dunes, so that's
awesome.
And here we have.
The post that's next to thisnest is N-94, so nest number 94.
And it has an I, which means insitu, right, yes, so why does
it have in situ versus R forrelocate?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
So that means that this nest was left exactly where
the mom laid it.
So we didn't do anything to itother than find eggs to
establish that it was a nest,and we actually took one egg as
a genetic sample.
But other than that, we left ituntouched.
We also put a screen on top ofit too, which is we can tell,
because we mark it as T2 for thesecond treatment, which is
(11:11):
putting that screen on top of it.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So a lot of places.
People might think that puttingthe post over it and the mesh
over it and signs near it is forpeople, but one of the primary
uses is to make sure we keeppredators out Exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
We've had basically a 100% success rate of keeping
out bigger, anything bigger thana ghost crab If you, especially
coyotes.
If you put the screen on topyou might see a few little paw
prints around it, but they donot try to dig up the screen, at
least on.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Sapaloo and we have coyotes out here, which are a
problem.
We also have hogs.
We do.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
They don't seem to be an issue here.
In the past there have been afew instances, but it really
hasn't been as much of an issue.
Since the coyote population hasincreased, They've kind of been
keeping them away oh,interesting, as well as raccoons
.
In previous years raccoons werethe biggest threat, but now
it's coyotes.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And on most beaches they cover all of their nests
with that predator screen and dothe marking.
But, like you said, this istreatment two.
So we have four differenttreatments we do here on Sappalo
right.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yes, so treatment one is also in situ nests.
So that's just where we leaveit and we don't put a screen on
top.
We just kind of let nature dowhatever it wants.
And this one for treatment twowe leave the and we don't put a
screen on top.
We just kind of let nature dowhatever it wants.
And this one for treatment twowe leave the nest in place but
we put a screen on top.
Treatment three is when werelocate a nest.
(12:42):
So whenever I find a treatmentthree nest, I will take all the
eggs from it and move it tousually further back in the
dunes so that it won't be washedover by a tide.
And then treatment four kind ofgets the whole suite.
So we put a screen on top andwe relocate it.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
We're doing the relocations as kind of a
research purpose, to see whathappens when we relocate nests.
But other places have to, likeyou said, so they don't get
inundated by the tide.
There are areas where they haveto relocate nests in order to
protect the eggs.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Exactly so.
Here it's more for researchpurposes.
So no matter where I find anest, if it's a treatment three
or treatment four, I'm going torelocate it no matter what, and
we just try to have it at aplace that we don't think will
get washed over at all duringthe season.
And we're mostly doing that tohelp get some data on the
(13:34):
effectiveness of relocation, ifit actually works and if it
affects emergence and hatchlingsuccess.
Because that has been a concernin the past, that if you take
all the eggs from a nest andmove it to a new spot, what is
that going to do to the a numberof hatchlings that can actually
come out of a nest and move itto a new spot?
What is that going to do to thenumber of hatchlings that can
actually come out of the nestand actually make it to that
(13:54):
point of development?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Awesome.
So we know that relocations canbe a little risky.
So what are some things thatyou do to like minimize that
risk?
Is there a time frame involvedwith how quickly you need to do
relocations, or is there aspecific way you need to change
or move the eggs?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
So a few of the things that we do is, like you
mentioned, time.
We typically try to get to thenest within the first 12 hours
of it being laid.
So that means especially earlyin the season.
I get here as soon as, like,the first rays of light are out,
just right as the sun is risingEarly early morning, exactly,
early early morning.
(14:35):
Luckily it's a bit later now,but we do that to try to
minimize any disturbance.
That we're doing and we aretrying to catch the eggs before
the embryo is actually attachingto the eggshell.
That is when any sort ofmisorientation could occur.
So orientation is reallyimportant to hatch, to
(14:55):
developing hatchlings, becausewhen they actually hatch they
might not know which way to goif we're like moving the eggs
too much, disrupting them whilethey're still developing and the
embryo is still trying toattach awesome, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So you've got to get out here super early, early in
the week, and this morning wegot started about 9.30.
You started packing out.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Nice 10 o'clock start is good Exactly Now that we're
not really getting new nests,that time frame is not as
important and we can kind oftake our time, but when you're
finding new nests, that time isreally, really crucial.
And but when you're finding newnests, that time is really
really crucial.
And also just trying to keepthe eggs in one orientation as
well, not like playing catchwith them or anything crazy, can
(15:36):
really help you with thehatching success, right.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Okay, All right.
So you have reached in aboutshoulder deep and you just
started feeling just sand.
You think you got all the eggsout now.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yes, luckily for the in situ nests the border, like
the boundary of the nest, isusually pretty distinct, so I
can kind of tell when I'vegotten to the bottom of the nest
.
It just feels like hard sandall the way around.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And generally we say that a nest shape is almost like
an upside down light bulb,which makes kind of sense just
based on what she can reach.
So that's been pretty firm.
We've got a good collection ofeggs in here, so what are we
going to do next?
Or eggshells mostly.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
So next, I actually just shook out all the sand and
I'm going to sort the contentsnow into different categories.
So I'm going to try to find allof the eggshells that seem to
be 50% or more of an egg andI'll count that as one hatched
egg.
So if it's just an eggshellwith nothing in it, just kind of
(16:42):
empty, empty shell that seemslike more than 50%, then that's
one hatched egg and that's asign that the hatchling actually
came out of the egg and was inthe nest.
And I'm also looking for anyunhatched eggs, and we seem to
have a few here.
So they're basically any eggsthat haven't broken.
They're still clearly fluidinside or sometimes they're a
(17:04):
little open and you can see theyolk, but that's a sign that the
hatchling didn't actuallyfinish developing.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And those kind of things either the unhatched eggs
or ones that are partly crackedopen are one of the reasons why
gloves are normally really goodto wear because you can get
kind of soupy in here right.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, well, gloves if you're not up for the challenge
.
I think that's part of the job,so it can be a little gross.
Exactly, yeah, definitely.
This is a nice one.
I've definitely seen worse.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And this one.
What we haven't seen are anystragglers, so can you explain
what a straggler might be orwhat they are?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, so a straggler usually a fun surprise.
We typically only see thoseafter a nest that has hatched
and we're coming in to do aninventory five days after
because the straggler refers toany um hatchlings that didn't
quite make it out of the nestand are just kind of sitting
there waiting to come out.
(18:03):
Usually that's because umactually emerging from a nest is
a group process so all of themneed to kind of work together
and hatch at the same time tocome out.
So if there's a few reallysmall guys at the bottom,
sometimes they just don't quitemake it out and we can help get
them out of the nest if we catchthem.
But in this nest it seems likeany of the hatchlings that did
(18:27):
actually hatch out of the eggmade it out, Because I don't see
any stragglers.
I don't see any dead hatchlingsor any sign that they weren't
able to emerge.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So we've taken a second.
We dug out all of the eggs andwe counted them.
We counted how many hatched andhow many didn't hatch.
So what were our totals?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
So we had 50 hatched eggs and 41 unhatched, so for
total that would be around 90eggs that were originally in
this nest and that informationis helpful because we didn't do
a relocation on this one so wedidn't know how many eggs were
in this nest until just now.
Oh, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So what does that tell us?
What does that matter?
Why are we counting the eggs?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
So that tells us both the hatch success and the
emergence success.
So the hatch success isdetermined by how many hatched
eggs there are and you justdivide that by, like, the total
amount of eggs.
Basically, if you have morehatched eggs than unhatched like
we do in this case, that'susually pretty good.
That's a pretty good sign.
This is a successful nest.
(19:32):
Usually you're going to havesome amount of unhatched eggs.
It could just be anything frommoisture, temperature or just
maybe that egg was never goingto actually develop.
But I would say that this was afairly successful nest,
especially since we didn't findany stragglers stuck in there or
any dead hatchlings means thatthe emergence success was also
(19:54):
very high.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Awesome.
So we're trying to understandjust how many actually made it
out of an egg and then how manyactually made it out of a nest
Exactly, and even though we'reonly looking at 50 compared to
40 for eggs, hatched eggs andunhatched eggs, that's actually
pretty good numbers, yeah,exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
That is something that we're looking at on a
larger scale as well with thedifferent treatments that we've
been using.
So since this is a treatment tothe screen, we left it in place
and this data will help us seehow the screen can help affect
hatching success.
Typically, so far that whatI've seen this summer, there's a
(20:33):
way higher hatching success for, and emergent success for, the
nests that have some sort ofprotective covering over them.
And we can also comparedifferent treatments like
treatment number one andtreatment three, which are using
no screen at all, it's just therelocation and we've seen with
that they seem to have a moresimilar hatching success and
(20:54):
emergent success.
So it's not as much of adifference between whether or
not you leave a nest in place oryou relocate it.
At least on Sapelo we haven'tseen that it greatly increases
hatching success if you relocatea nest, other than it might
stop a nest from completelygetting washed over from the
tide.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So relocations are good to keep things out of the
water, not having a huge impacton how many actually hatch or
emerge.
But the predator screens aregood.
We're seeing that the datashows us predator screens are
important.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Exactly so this kind of follows data that we have
seen in the past, because thisis a really long running project
that's been going on for like25 years or so.
That relocation should probablybe done when you know for sure,
or are pretty sure that a nestis going to be washed over and
it's not going to last.
But if that's not the case,it's usually best to just leave
(21:51):
it in place and put a screen ontop.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, and this can be really hard to tell about that
high tide line.
Especially this time of year.
We're getting really high tides.
You're having a hard timegetting out on the beach until
the tide line goes down.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
It's been really hard to predict, especially since
the hurricane we had last month,I think.
Since then, our tides have justbeen crazy, crazy high, and
nests that haven't been washedover all season have been
suddenly getting washed over,and so that's been skewing our
results a little bit as well.
So it's important to do thisover a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
And is it guaranteed that if the sea turtle nest gets
washed over one time, that,like the, the nest is lost?
Or might they be okay?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
They might be okay, so it depends on the level of
inundation.
So how much water actually gotinto the nest?
If it just gets washed overonce, lightly, it's probably
fine, but if it gets, if there'sa lot of tidal activity, if it
gets really washed over andthere's standing water and it's
just completely sunken into thenest and it's really soupy down
(22:50):
there, that nest probably willnot hatch.
We have seen, though, thatnests can usually make it till
about three wash over events,and that's when it really starts
affecting the hatching andemerging success.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Okay cool, really interesting.
So this was nest number 94 outof how many on Saplo Out of 133.
133.
Okay, so that's not our highestyear, definitely not.
We had about 100, a little over100 more nests last year, but
that's normal, right?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So we have been seeing a kind of cyclical
pattern with the loggerheadnesting on the Georgia coast and
typically every three to fouryears there's kind of a drop.
We just have a lull, and thatcan have anything.
That could be anything fromjust like when these turtles are
actually reaching sexualmaturity.
When you have a lot of moms onthe beach, they're laying a lot
(23:45):
of eggs and then they go out,reach sexual maturity at the
same time and come back and nestat the same time.
So it's just a cycle that wesee and it's something that we
expected and are able to model.
So next year we'll probably seea few more nests than this year.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Because this takes a lot of energy.
These mamas are coming up andlaying three to five nests in a
nesting year.
It these mamas are coming upand laying three to five nests
in a nesting year.
It takes a lot of work, lots ofenergy, so they usually don't
nest every single year either.
Right, exactly, awesome.
So this is towards the end ofthe season.
This nest was laid on July 9th,based on the information on our
(24:22):
post.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So this was one that you didn't catch the hatch on
right?
Yes, so this nest is at the topof a dune and it's covered by,
like a lot of vegetation, sosometimes, when there's a lot of
wind or rain or we justsometimes, don't see those
little small hatchling tracks.
Um, it's not a huge deal and weusually wait until the 70 day
mark and let the hatchlings comeout on their own instead of
(24:51):
marking a false hatch, becausethat would be way worse for our
data if we were just like.
I think it probably hatchedaround 55 days, so we would
rather just wait and see andcount all the eggs, so we gave
it some time to kind of finishhatching on its own.
But, yeah, so this nestprobably hatched around the
(25:11):
50-ish day mark, but we won'tknow for sure.
All we can do is go off thedata that we found in the nest.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Sure, that makes sense.
We've got to trust the data.
So how many more nests do wehave that either haven't hatched
or that you still need toexcavate?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
I have about 10 that I still have to excavate, which
is crazy to think about.
The season has gone by so fast.
I feel like I was juststressing over all 100 and
something nests that I wasworking with and now there's
only 10.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So, yeah, so is it going to be a little bit of
culture shock?
You've been out here on Sappalosince May.
Yeah, early May, since May 14this my first day.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
It's going to be crazy going back to like the
suburbs All the people, all thepeople.
Away from the water too.
I don't have easy access to thewater.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
You're going to miss it a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
So what's something that you're looking forward to,
though?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
going back to civilization, I'm looking
forward to a warm bath thatdoesn't have gnats in it and
trader joe's I miss trader joe's.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So thank you so much for letting me come out and hang
out with you, joyce.
We really appreciate you kindof walking us through an
inventory.
Yeah, no, no problem.
Well, I hope y'all liked thislesson on turtles today, or what
we like to call it a turtorial,like a tutorial.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Tutorial and maybe it looked better on paper.
Yeah, I think that was one.
That probably isn't a podcastjoke, that's a written down joke
, but but I got one for you.
A policeman in a big city stopsa man in a car with a large
turtle in the front seat.
The police officer exclaimswhat are you doing with that
turtle?
The guy goes well, I'm takingit to the zoo.
The following week, the samepoliceman sees the man with the
(27:03):
turtle again in the front seat,with both of them wearing
sunglasses.
The policeman pulls them over.
He says I thought you weregonna take that turtle to the
zoo.
The man replied I did.
We have such a great time.
We're gonna go to the beachthis weekend.
That sounds like you last week.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
yeah, it's a normal day.
Well, at least they're not, youknow, hurting the turtles.
I mean, I'm not vegan oranything, but I do think it's
pretty messed up that they makesweaters from turtlenecks, oh
hooray.
For more information about anyof the topics we covered today,
or to submit your question thatmay be featured in our upcoming
(27:43):
episodes, please email us atsignersocials at gmailcom.
That's S-I-N-E-R-Rsocials atgmailcom.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Thank you for listening to Sapelo Nerds, a
coastal science podcast broughtto you by the Sapelo Island
National Estuarine ResearchReserve.
Please check back for moreepisodes released on the 1st and
the 15th of each month andthat's the saddle of sound.
Hi and thanks for joining Sappalo Nerds, a coastal
science podcast.
I'm your host, corinne.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I'm your host, Brittany, and we work at the
National Estuarine ResearchReserve, or NEAR on Sappalo
Island, a Georgia barrier islandHmm Reserve, or NEAR on Sapelo
Island a.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Georgia barrier island.
Oh, brittany, you sound so sad,are you okay?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I mean, I guess it's kind of just the end of the
season and I'm so bummed.
Summer no, not summer, I'mtalking about sea turtle season
Of course, sea turtle season.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It is sad when the sea turtles are gone, but
sometimes good, I mean they makeit out to the water.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, so from May till October, typically it is
sea turtle season, and you'veheard us talk a little bit about
sea turtle season here on thischannel and if you missed last
year's episode in which weinterviewed Matt, our sea turtle
tech for 2023.
You mean, keep calm and turtleon, exactly.
If you missed that episode,please go check it out, because
(01:15):
it's really important to havesome background information for
what we're going to do Today weget to share a really cool in
the field episode of aninterview with this year's sea
turtle technician, Joyce.
Yeah, and we're going to go oversome really cool things that
Corinne discovered with her,including the fact that sea
turtle season is beginning wayearlier.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, joyce came out to the island in mid-May, but
we're actually starting to see.
Although we used to say thatsea turtle season started about
May 1st, they may come up evenearlier.
They're talking about bringingsea turtle technicians out in
potentially mid-April.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And that can have a lot of implications for people
who are living or visiting ourbeaches.
Things like dogs on the beachand making sure we turn off our
lights at night to prevent theturtles from going in the wrong
direction, and even things likemaking sure that we cover up our
holes when we're digging in thesand, are really important to
do earlier in the season nowthan we originally thought.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And the reason why our sea turtle season is
starting even earlier we cantell through our system-wide
monitoring program or swamp data.
Earlier we can tell through oursystem-wide monitoring program
or swamp data.
We have a steady record showingthat water temperatures are
warming, which means those mamaturtles are getting their
seasonal cues to start layingnests sooner.
This can actually have bigimplications for the population
(02:38):
of sea turtles.
If the sea turtles are comingup sooner, it means those nests
usually have to incubate alittle while longer, which means
those nests are usually alittle bit cooler and that
slight temperature variation canactually mean there's more male
turtles than female turtles.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And because it's happening earlier.
Whenever the nests are outduring the warmer end of the
season, those nests are actuallyincubating a shorter amount of
time and producing tons offemales, Since we talked about
in our last episode that sex canbe determined by the heat of
the nest.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So we want to make sure that all of these turtles
that are coming up to ourGeorgia beaches are staying nice
and healthy and safe and thatwe're not impacting the
population too much with thesedifferent temperatures.
That's because the turtles thatwe have here in Georgia are
part of the northern recoveryunit of sea turtles.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Northern recovery unit turtles.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So these NRU turtles are actually distinct from the
ones that are nesting justacross the border in Florida.
They tend to stay further south, while our turtle population or
turtlation ends up stayingfurther north, so they don't
interbreed or spread out furthersouth very often.
This is a really uniquecollection of turtles that isn't
(03:55):
going to spread out very far orwon't get replaced very easily
if we lose them.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
That's why it's super important that the monitors the
local population and how manyturtles we are seeing hatched on
our beaches.
We're super excited that thisyear, instead of just
interviewing our sea turtle techin our studio, aka Corinne's
office, we were actually able togo and do an in the field
(04:22):
podcast episode.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And this one wasn't as bad as our other one that we
did in the field where it wassuper windy on the beach.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
We promise we've gotten better mics.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
All right, so we are out here on Nantigo Beach on
Sappalo Island and I am withSappalo's 2024 sea turtle
technician, joyce Sykes.
Hey, joyce, hi, nice to be herewith you.
Yeah, thank you so much forletting me come out and bother
you.
Nice to be here with you.
Yeah, thank you so much forletting me come out and bother
you.
So we are working on what wecall a nest excavation or
(04:57):
sometimes a nest inventory.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Can you explain what that is?
Yeah, so we conduct nestinventories to basically get a
sense of what happened in a nestduring the time that it was
incubating.
So we do two different types ofinventories.
We'll do one either five daysafter a nest has hatched or we
do one on day 70 if we didn'tsee any sort of activity of a
hatch during that period.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So if you're looking for a hatch, you're looking for
a bunch of tiny, adorable littletracks leading to the water
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
There's usually a pretty distinctive hole right
where the eggs would have been,and then we'll see all those
distinct little hatchling tracksheading towards the water.
But sometimes we miss it.
If there's high wind or if it'sraining, those tracks get
washed away pretty easily.
So just to be safe, we'll waitthe 70 days and just do an
(05:46):
inventory later.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
So how long is a typical incubation period?
How long are they typically inthe ground?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It can be anywhere from 50 to 70 days, but the
average on Sapelo has beenconsistently around 55 days of
incubation.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Awesome, and do we know if that's changing at all,
like so we're getting warmer.
Do we know if those are goingdown or up, or is it staying
pretty consistent?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
it's staying pretty consistent, at least here.
On sapelo um, which is goodnews.
It really is dependent on umwhere the eggs are being laid to
, so if a lot of the nests arehigh in elevation, it can take
them longer to hatch as well.
So so I would say that thatseems to be the cause.
On sapwood here.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Okay, so elevation can make a big difference, so in
addition to elevation, timealso plays a big, a big role in
this as well.
So the nests that were laidearlier in the season typically
have to incubate for way longer.
So sometimes we'll see hatchrates or they'll start hatching
on like day 70, which is waylater than we would normally see
(06:53):
if they were laid later in theseason.
And also there's a huge impactof time on sex ratio in the nest
as well.
So the longer that the eggs areincubating, the more likely
you're going to have males.
So if it's really, really short, if it's just at like 50 days
or early around 48 days, thatnest is probably going to be
(07:15):
almost all female.
But the longer the eggs aresitting there, the more males
you'll get.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Okay, so that has to do with the fact that turtles
are temperature-determined sexesor genders, right?
Yes, so the males are coolertemperatures, the boys are cool
and the females are hot rightExactly.
Okay, awesome, that is so cool,so that makes sense.
It's a little cooler earlier inthe year, but once it's hot in
the summer, they're baking,they're cooking pretty quickly,
(07:40):
right, exactly, awesome.
So to kind of set the scenebefore we start diving in, here
we are sitting on the primarydune, we are surrounded by beech
tea, croton and sea oats, andthere are just Gulf fritillaries
and dragonflies everywhere.
If you can hear the sounds ofthe waves behind us, it's just
absolutely gorgeous out here,and so we're gonna start by
(08:02):
digging a hole, right, yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
exactly.
So we're basically recreatingwhat the mom did when she came
to lay the nest.
So we can feel the differencein the mom did when she came to
lay the nest.
So we can feel the differencein sand density where the nest
is laid.
I can basically feel that thesand is really soft and it's
really easy to kind of sink intoas compared to all the sand
around it.
And so I just kind of go intothe hole and remove all the sand
(08:28):
on top and the nest is usuallyabout a foot deep or so, and
that depends on basically thesize of her back legs, flippers,
exactly, yeah, or her backflippers Whichever, but exactly
it depends kind of on their size, and if the mom was disturbed
(08:50):
as well too.
Sometimes if they're in a hurrythey'll lay like a really
shallow nest just to be donewith it and turn around okay.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
So while you're digging up here, you're setting
some of the sand aside if youcan tell it's just sand, and
then, if you can feel eggs,you're actually putting it into
a like gridded seed, like largemesh sieve.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Yeah, it's kind of like a large sieve.
I'm basically using it as asifter.
So it's this big wooden boxwith like a metal grate at the
bottom, and I'm putting all ofthe contents into there and it
just lets us kind of siftthrough the contents of the nest
a bit faster.
So, um, at the end, after Iscoop all the contents out, I'm
(09:31):
going to shake it and so all thesand will fall out and we'll
just be left with, hopefully,just the eggshells and anything
else we find.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Awesome.
So we can already see there'sfire ants crawling around.
Fortunately not a ton.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
We're not getting attacked?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Not yet.
Not yet, and we can see a fewghost crab burrows around, so
that might be evidence that wecould expect some predation in
here.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Is that right?
Yes, so that's evidence thatthere might have been some sort
of predation.
When I find this nest everysingle day after I come and I
look at the nest and we try tosee if there's any signs of
predation.
But there was originally aprotective screen over it.
So that protective screen islike this really big plastic
(10:14):
mesh that we put on top of thescreen and it usually helps stop
coyotes or raccoons or any bigpredators that are going to get
a lot of eggs stop from gettingin the nest, but it can't stop
ghost crabs because they're toogood at their job.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
They're pretty good at digging holes.
We see lots of those burrowsaround our dunes, so that's
awesome.
And here we have.
The post that's next to thisnest is N-94, so nest number 94.
And it has an I, which means insitu, right, yes, so why does
it have in situ versus R forrelocate?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
So that means that this nest was left exactly where
the mom laid it.
So we didn't do anything to itother than find eggs to
establish that it was a nest,and we actually took one egg as
a genetic sample.
But other than that, we left ituntouched.
We also put a screen on top ofit too, which is we can tell,
because we mark it as T2 for thesecond treatment, which is
(11:11):
putting that screen on top of it.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So a lot of places.
People might think that puttingthe post over it and the mesh
over it and signs near it is forpeople, but one of the primary
uses is to make sure we keeppredators out Exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
We've had basically a 100% success rate of keeping
out bigger, anything bigger thana ghost crab If you, especially
coyotes.
If you put the screen on topyou might see a few little paw
prints around it, but they donot try to dig up the screen, at
least on.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Sapaloo and we have coyotes out here, which are a
problem.
We also have hogs.
We do.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
They don't seem to be an issue here.
In the past there have been afew instances, but it really
hasn't been as much of an issue.
Since the coyote population hasincreased, They've kind of been
keeping them away oh,interesting, as well as raccoons
.
In previous years raccoons werethe biggest threat, but now
it's coyotes.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And on most beaches they cover all of their nests
with that predator screen and dothe marking.
But, like you said, this istreatment two.
So we have four differenttreatments we do here on Sappalo
right.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yes, so treatment one is also in situ nests.
So that's just where we leaveit and we don't put a screen on
top.
We just kind of let nature dowhatever it wants.
And this one for treatment twowe leave the and we don't put a
screen on top.
We just kind of let nature dowhatever it wants.
And this one for treatment twowe leave the nest in place but
we put a screen on top.
Treatment three is when werelocate a nest.
(12:42):
So whenever I find a treatmentthree nest, I will take all the
eggs from it and move it tousually further back in the
dunes so that it won't be washedover by a tide.
And then treatment four kind ofgets the whole suite.
So we put a screen on top andwe relocate it.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
We're doing the relocations as kind of a
research purpose, to see whathappens when we relocate nests.
But other places have to, likeyou said, so they don't get
inundated by the tide.
There are areas where they haveto relocate nests in order to
protect the eggs.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Exactly so.
Here it's more for researchpurposes.
So no matter where I find anest, if it's a treatment three
or treatment four, I'm going torelocate it no matter what, and
we just try to have it at aplace that we don't think will
get washed over at all duringthe season.
And we're mostly doing that tohelp get some data on the
(13:34):
effectiveness of relocation, ifit actually works and if it
affects emergence and hatchlingsuccess.
Because that has been a concernin the past, that if you take
all the eggs from a nest andmove it to a new spot, what is
that going to do to the a numberof hatchlings that can actually
come out of a nest and move itto a new spot?
What is that going to do to thenumber of hatchlings that can
actually come out of the nestand actually make it to that
(13:54):
point of development?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Awesome.
So we know that relocations canbe a little risky.
So what are some things thatyou do to like minimize that
risk?
Is there a time frame involvedwith how quickly you need to do
relocations, or is there aspecific way you need to change
or move the eggs?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
So a few of the things that we do is, like you
mentioned, time.
We typically try to get to thenest within the first 12 hours
of it being laid.
So that means especially earlyin the season.
I get here as soon as, like,the first rays of light are out,
just right as the sun is risingEarly early morning, exactly,
early early morning.
(14:35):
Luckily it's a bit later now,but we do that to try to
minimize any disturbance.
That we're doing and we aretrying to catch the eggs before
the embryo is actually attachingto the eggshell.
That is when any sort ofmisorientation could occur.
So orientation is reallyimportant to hatch, to
(14:55):
developing hatchlings, becausewhen they actually hatch they
might not know which way to goif we're like moving the eggs
too much, disrupting them whilethey're still developing and the
embryo is still trying toattach awesome, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So you've got to get out here super early, early in
the week, and this morning wegot started about 9.30.
You started packing out.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Nice 10 o'clock start is good Exactly Now that we're
not really getting new nests,that time frame is not as
important and we can kind oftake our time, but when you're
finding new nests, that time isreally, really crucial.
And but when you're finding newnests, that time is really
really crucial.
And also just trying to keepthe eggs in one orientation as
well, not like playing catchwith them or anything crazy, can
(15:36):
really help you with thehatching success, right.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Okay, All right.
So you have reached in aboutshoulder deep and you just
started feeling just sand.
You think you got all the eggsout now.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yes, luckily for the in situ nests the border, like
the boundary of the nest, isusually pretty distinct, so I
can kind of tell when I'vegotten to the bottom of the nest
.
It just feels like hard sandall the way around.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And generally we say that a nest shape is almost like
an upside down light bulb,which makes kind of sense just
based on what she can reach.
So that's been pretty firm.
We've got a good collection ofeggs in here, so what are we
going to do next?
Or eggshells mostly.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
So next, I actually just shook out all the sand and
I'm going to sort the contentsnow into different categories.
So I'm going to try to find allof the eggshells that seem to
be 50% or more of an egg andI'll count that as one hatched
egg.
So if it's just an eggshellwith nothing in it, just kind of
(16:42):
empty, empty shell that seemslike more than 50%, then that's
one hatched egg and that's asign that the hatchling actually
came out of the egg and was inthe nest.
And I'm also looking for anyunhatched eggs, and we seem to
have a few here.
So they're basically any eggsthat haven't broken.
They're still clearly fluidinside or sometimes they're a
(17:04):
little open and you can see theyolk, but that's a sign that the
hatchling didn't actuallyfinish developing.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And those kind of things either the unhatched eggs
or ones that are partly crackedopen are one of the reasons why
gloves are normally really goodto wear because you can get
kind of soupy in here right.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, well, gloves if you're not up for the challenge
.
I think that's part of the job,so it can be a little gross.
Exactly, yeah, definitely.
This is a nice one.
I've definitely seen worse.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And this one.
What we haven't seen are anystragglers, so can you explain
what a straggler might be orwhat they are?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, so a straggler usually a fun surprise.
We typically only see thoseafter a nest that has hatched
and we're coming in to do aninventory five days after
because the straggler refers toany um hatchlings that didn't
quite make it out of the nestand are just kind of sitting
there waiting to come out.
(18:03):
Usually that's because umactually emerging from a nest is
a group process so all of themneed to kind of work together
and hatch at the same time tocome out.
So if there's a few reallysmall guys at the bottom,
sometimes they just don't quitemake it out and we can help get
them out of the nest if we catchthem.
But in this nest it seems likeany of the hatchlings that did
(18:27):
actually hatch out of the eggmade it out, Because I don't see
any stragglers.
I don't see any dead hatchlingsor any sign that they weren't
able to emerge.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So we've taken a second.
We dug out all of the eggs andwe counted them.
We counted how many hatched andhow many didn't hatch.
So what were our totals?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
So we had 50 hatched eggs and 41 unhatched, so for
total that would be around 90eggs that were originally in
this nest and that informationis helpful because we didn't do
a relocation on this one so wedidn't know how many eggs were
in this nest until just now.
Oh, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So what does that tell us?
What does that matter?
Why are we counting the eggs?
Speaker 3 (19:12):
So that tells us both the hatch success and the
emergence success.
So the hatch success isdetermined by how many hatched
eggs there are and you justdivide that by, like, the total
amount of eggs.
Basically, if you have morehatched eggs than unhatched like
we do in this case, that'susually pretty good.
That's a pretty good sign.
This is a successful nest.
(19:32):
Usually you're going to havesome amount of unhatched eggs.
It could just be anything frommoisture, temperature or just
maybe that egg was never goingto actually develop.
But I would say that this was afairly successful nest,
especially since we didn't findany stragglers stuck in there or
any dead hatchlings means thatthe emergence success was also
(19:54):
very high.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Awesome.
So we're trying to understandjust how many actually made it
out of an egg and then how manyactually made it out of a nest
Exactly, and even though we'reonly looking at 50 compared to
40 for eggs, hatched eggs andunhatched eggs, that's actually
pretty good numbers, yeah,exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
That is something that we're looking at on a
larger scale as well with thedifferent treatments that we've
been using.
So since this is a treatment tothe screen, we left it in place
and this data will help us seehow the screen can help affect
hatching success.
Typically, so far that whatI've seen this summer, there's a
(20:33):
way higher hatching success for, and emergent success for, the
nests that have some sort ofprotective covering over them.
And we can also comparedifferent treatments like
treatment number one andtreatment three, which are using
no screen at all, it's just therelocation and we've seen with
that they seem to have a moresimilar hatching success and
(20:54):
emergent success.
So it's not as much of adifference between whether or
not you leave a nest in place oryou relocate it.
At least on Sapelo we haven'tseen that it greatly increases
hatching success if you relocatea nest, other than it might
stop a nest from completelygetting washed over from the
tide.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So relocations are good to keep things out of the
water, not having a huge impacton how many actually hatch or
emerge.
But the predator screens aregood.
We're seeing that the datashows us predator screens are
important.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Exactly so this kind of follows data that we have
seen in the past, because thisis a really long running project
that's been going on for like25 years or so.
That relocation should probablybe done when you know for sure,
or are pretty sure that a nestis going to be washed over and
it's not going to last.
But if that's not the case,it's usually best to just leave
(21:51):
it in place and put a screen ontop.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, and this can be really hard to tell about that
high tide line.
Especially this time of year.
We're getting really high tides.
You're having a hard timegetting out on the beach until
the tide line goes down.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
It's been really hard to predict, especially since
the hurricane we had last month,I think.
Since then, our tides have justbeen crazy, crazy high, and
nests that haven't been washedover all season have been
suddenly getting washed over,and so that's been skewing our
results a little bit as well.
So it's important to do thisover a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
And is it guaranteed that if the sea turtle nest gets
washed over one time, that,like the, the nest is lost?
Or might they be okay?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
They might be okay, so it depends on the level of
inundation.
So how much water actually gotinto the nest?
If it just gets washed overonce, lightly, it's probably
fine, but if it gets, if there'sa lot of tidal activity, if it
gets really washed over andthere's standing water and it's
just completely sunken into thenest and it's really soupy down
(22:50):
there, that nest probably willnot hatch.
We have seen, though, thatnests can usually make it till
about three wash over events,and that's when it really starts
affecting the hatching andemerging success.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Okay cool, really interesting.
So this was nest number 94 outof how many on Saplo Out of 133.
133.
Okay, so that's not our highestyear, definitely not.
We had about 100, a little over100 more nests last year, but
that's normal, right?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So we have been seeing a kind of cyclical
pattern with the loggerheadnesting on the Georgia coast and
typically every three to fouryears there's kind of a drop.
We just have a lull, and thatcan have anything.
That could be anything fromjust like when these turtles are
actually reaching sexualmaturity.
When you have a lot of moms onthe beach, they're laying a lot
(23:45):
of eggs and then they go out,reach sexual maturity at the
same time and come back and nestat the same time.
So it's just a cycle that wesee and it's something that we
expected and are able to model.
So next year we'll probably seea few more nests than this year.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Because this takes a lot of energy.
These mamas are coming up andlaying three to five nests in a
nesting year.
It these mamas are coming upand laying three to five nests
in a nesting year.
It takes a lot of work, lots ofenergy, so they usually don't
nest every single year either.
Right, exactly, awesome.
So this is towards the end ofthe season.
This nest was laid on July 9th,based on the information on our
(24:22):
post.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So this was one that you didn't catch the hatch on
right?
Yes, so this nest is at the topof a dune and it's covered by,
like a lot of vegetation, sosometimes, when there's a lot of
wind or rain or we justsometimes, don't see those
little small hatchling tracks.
Um, it's not a huge deal and weusually wait until the 70 day
mark and let the hatchlings comeout on their own instead of
(24:51):
marking a false hatch, becausethat would be way worse for our
data if we were just like.
I think it probably hatchedaround 55 days, so we would
rather just wait and see andcount all the eggs, so we gave
it some time to kind of finishhatching on its own.
But, yeah, so this nestprobably hatched around the
(25:11):
50-ish day mark, but we won'tknow for sure.
All we can do is go off thedata that we found in the nest.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Sure, that makes sense.
We've got to trust the data.
So how many more nests do wehave that either haven't hatched
or that you still need toexcavate?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
I have about 10 that I still have to excavate, which
is crazy to think about.
The season has gone by so fast.
I feel like I was juststressing over all 100 and
something nests that I wasworking with and now there's
only 10.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So, yeah, so is it going to be a little bit of
culture shock?
You've been out here on Sappalosince May.
Yeah, early May, since May 14this my first day.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
It's going to be crazy going back to like the
suburbs All the people, all thepeople.
Away from the water too.
I don't have easy access to thewater.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
You're going to miss it a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
So what's something that you're looking forward to,
though?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
going back to civilization, I'm looking
forward to a warm bath thatdoesn't have gnats in it and
trader joe's I miss trader joe's.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So thank you so much for letting me come out and hang
out with you, joyce.
We really appreciate you kindof walking us through an
inventory.
Yeah, no, no problem.
Well, I hope y'all liked thislesson on turtles today, or what
we like to call it a turtorial,like a tutorial.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Tutorial and maybe it looked better on paper.
Yeah, I think that was one.
That probably isn't a podcastjoke, that's a written down joke
, but but I got one for you.
A policeman in a big city stopsa man in a car with a large
turtle in the front seat.
The police officer exclaimswhat are you doing with that
turtle?
The guy goes well, I'm takingit to the zoo.
The following week, the samepoliceman sees the man with the
(27:03):
turtle again in the front seat,with both of them wearing
sunglasses.
The policeman pulls them over.
He says I thought you weregonna take that turtle to the
zoo.
The man replied I did.
We have such a great time.
We're gonna go to the beachthis weekend.
That sounds like you last week.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
yeah, it's a normal day.
Well, at least they're not, youknow, hurting the turtles.
I mean, I'm not vegan oranything, but I do think it's
pretty messed up that they makesweaters from turtlenecks, oh
hooray.
For more information about anyof the topics we covered today,
or to submit your question thatmay be featured in our upcoming
(27:43):
episodes, please email us atsignersocials at gmailcom.
That's S-I-N-E-R-Rsocials atgmailcom.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Thank you for listening to Sapelo Nerds, a
coastal science podcast broughtto you by the Sapelo Island
National Estuarine ResearchReserve.
Please check back for moreepisodes released on the 1st and
the 15th of each month andthat's the saddle of sound.
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