2012 Terrapin Nesting Season

The end of the nesting season was on September 25, 2012 with over 500 hatchlings recovered, meaning a 75% hatch success rate at Sedge.  We also outfitted 5 terrapins with depth and temperature sensors that will (hopefully) be recovered in 2013.  Thanks again as we had a great yeat with terrific interns and volunteers.

It is hatching time!  We have recovered over 240 hatchlings as of August 27, 2012 out of 28 nests.  It is a good year so far.  Thanks Jillian, Dylan, Angelica, Estefany, Ryan and Juliet and helping with the hatchling recovery.

                                           Check out our hatchlings that we measure and
                                            release back to the marshes on N. Sedge!

At Sedge, we have moved and protected over 600 eggs with our last female terrapin disgging a nest on Tuesday July 17, 2012.  As we wind down the nesting season, hatching and emergence will be in the near future.  Thanks to Lauren, who coordinated the nest relocation project this summer. 


June 22, 2012 we fitted three female terrapins with temperature and depth sensors to determine annual exposure in terms of temperatures and depths that a female would encounter at Barnegat Bay.  We fitted old reliable, AHPW, along with BHIO and NPQW all funded by Exelon Energy Corporation, Oyster Creek.  Nesting season is going very well with 26 known female nests and 6 nests from unknown females.  This puts us at approximately 451 eggs protected as of June 22.  I would like to thank our awesome interns and volunteers for their work...
Lauren, Jackie, Juliet, Ryan, Lisa, Dylan and Jillian!  As of June 30, 2012, we are at 500 eggs and we outfitted terrapin AJVW with a logger (see picture below...).  Her datalogger was sponsored by the students at Cedar Creek Elementary School in Lacey Township as part of their generous donation to Project Terrapin. 



Terrapin code AJVW with transmitter on back left carapace

On Saturday May 26, our first female terrapin was captured on N. Sedge Island (code ACIW).  On Wednesday May 30, we found our first nest and marked two more female terrapins.  We welcome Lauren Cruz from the University of Delaware as a summer student researcher (see below).  Lauren is studying the effects of coastal upwelling events and how the reduced temperatures brought on by upwelling may impact nesting frequency.  We have a new hatchery on the Island as well!  On June 2, our familiar nester, code AHPW, came back to the Island for her tenth consecutive year.  We hope to see her in two weeks to fit her with a temperature and depth datalogger to determine what conditions she is exposed for a year.  We also had a female terrapin nest June 3 that was 2007 grams!  The largest ever measured on N. Sedge Island!

See our new hatchery below... Thanks Tony Raniero for the easy access design and look!

Lauren Cruz installing a "human traffic counter" as part of her terrapin nesting study on N. Sedge Island

2012 LBI Nesting Project

High Bar Harbor had a tremendous hatch success rate this year.  Over 1000 hatchlings emerged out of 1063 eggs.  This is definitely a record in terms of hatch success.  Kathy and her volunteers were tremendous and we look forward to 2013! 

On Tuesday August 10, the first clutches of hatchlings emerged at the High Bar Hatchery!

High Bar sets the Bar High!  Kathy and her amazing team, have rescued over 1000 eggs this year.  The Crimi Hatchery is keeping the eggs safe from predators.   Kathy needs help monitoring the emergence of the hatchlings starting July 23.  Please get involved and take a shift! 

                                           View of terrapin nests protected in one of two
                                              hatcheries on High Bar Harbor, LBI, NJ

Kathy and her High Bar and Barnegat Light Team are working very hard this season.  They've saved over 700 eggs as of June 30 2012.  See below for the latest nest that is being protected on site!  There are 15 sites protected outside of the hatchery!  Thanks to the Crimi's for the addition of a 2nd hatchery.

We will continue our project at the LBI Foundation and also at High Bar Harbor. The goal is to protect terrapin nests from negative human impacts.  Kathy aided by her dedicated team of volunteers already moved over 16 nests from heavily trafficked areas to the hatchery - just June 3, 2012! 

Kathy is locating a terrapin nest on LBI with the aid of Grace

A new hatchery was installed by some very dedicated volunteers (thanks to John Crimi for all of his hard work and generous support) working under the direction of Kathy Lacey.  This is part of the LBI/ High Bar Harbor Conservation Program.

Here are some goals on Long Beach Island...
1) Assess and log terrapin nests with little, to no, impact on the female terrapins
2) Possibly relocate nests in areas with high human traffice (walking and cars)
3) Conduct a mark and recapture study of nesting female terrapins (after they nest)
4) Maintain hatcheries at the LBI Foundation in Loveladies and High Bar Harbor
5) Promote awareness and stewardship of  terrapins and Barnegat Bay, NJ

 

2012 Upcoming Events

We

Nesting season was long, but we had hatching and emergence on August 10 at LBI, and August 18 at N. Sedge Island. 

Our first female landed and nested on N. Sedge Island at Barnegat Bay (code ACIW) on Saturday May 26 at 1:00 p.m. 

The season has begun and here is what is happening...
The High Bar Terrapin Team (thanks John Crimi) have a great new hatchery and much nesting activity
We just completed the new hatchery at N. Sedge Island on June 2, 2012 (Thanks Tony Raniero)
We are reconditioning the hatchery at the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts & Sciences
Long Beach Township just filled sand in an area at the LBIF that may be used by nesting females instead of "having to cross" the main boulevard
We just completed a terrapin nest site enhancement project on Cedar Run Dock Road (see picture below)!

Come out and check out our terrapin conservation display (italicized were completed)...
May 19, 2012 - Ocean Fun Day at Island Beach State Park (Was terrific with over 3000 visitors!)
June 3, 2012 - Barnegat Bay Festival - Island Height, NJ (It seemed that there were 1000's there)
June 9, 2012 - Thanks to all of you who participated in the training
July 6, 2012 - Barnegat Bay Green Day at the LBIF was successful and well attended!
Aug. 22, 2012 - U.S. Coast Guard Open House - Barnegat Light, NJ    A great day with USCG!
Sept. 8. 2012 - Barnegat Township's Pirate Day (all day downtown Barnegat) A nice turnout for sure
Sept. 9, 2012 - Beach Plum Festival at Island Beach State Park (9 a.m. - 4 p.m.)  Awesome as always
Oct. 7, 2012  - Cattus Island  Nature Festival - Wet, but a great turnout
Oct. 11, 2012 - Student Summit Clean Ocean Action IBSP - Over 350 students and great event!

Please contact projectterrapin@gmail.com for any inquiries.

                          Cedar Run Dock Road Terrapin Nesting Enhancement Project

Terrapin Conservation for 2012

We are 50 bundles from distributing 13,000 BRDs!  A lot more work ahead of us!

At the LBI Foundation on July 6, 2012, The Barnegat Bay Day and Go Green Expo was a success.  Our captive terrapins were a big hit with the crowds.  We must have talked terrapin with a few hundred participants. 


Island Beach State Park Staff trained on June 19, 2012 with John from MATES Project Terrapin.  They helped John to mark animals and to participate in a field activity, collecting terrapins (we captured one).  The Nature Center houses two juvenile terrapins from IBSP for public education that are part of a headstart program through MATES Project Terrapin

                               Staff at Island Beach State Park along with John
                               during terrapin training session.


Thanks to the Garden Club of Long Beach Island for their generous donation of turtle crossing road signs for Barnegat Light and High Bar Harbor, to caution motorists of nesting female terrapins.  Signs were installed in early June 2012. 

                               Turtle crossing sign along Bayview at Barnegat Light Township



Thanks to a generous donation of time and materials from Fernando, an often "overrun" terrapin nesting area was transformed in May 2012 into a terrapin nesting area with reduced human impacts.  Students from the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science (MATES) Project Terrapin helped to plant dune grass to stabilize soil.  Boulders were added to prevent vehicles from parking and trailering boats across the nesting area.

 

A before (left) and after (right) view of the nesting area.  On the right, notice the sand mixed with gravel and tire tracks across the nesting area. On the right, the sand was raked and the site is less accessible by humans, providing nesting female terrapins with less human impacted nesting opportunities.

Happy Turtle Day!

Can you spot the turtles in this picture?

Well, it seems like the terrapins living in the Lighthouse Center's canal knew it was their special day, and popped up for a visit/ bask! Thanks to Pola for this great picture!

Sure enough, it seems fitting that our first terrapin sighting of 2012 falls on World Turtle Day! Of course, every day is a reason to celebrate turtles, but here are five things you can keep in mind:

• Never buy a turtle from a pet shop, as it increases demand from the wild.
• Never remove turtles from the wild unless they are sick or injured. 
• If a turtle is crossing a busy street, pick it up and send it in the same direction it was going — if you try to make it go back, it will turn right around again. 
• Report cruelty or illegal sales of turtles to your local animal control shelter. 
• Report the sale of any turtle of any kind less than four inches. This is illegal everywhere in the U.S.

These are recommendations from American Tortoise Rescue. Mother Nature Network also wrote a great story about world turtle day which you can find here. Our friend the diamondback terrapin even got a cameo in the article!

World Turtle Day or not, we're very excited to see that Barnegat Bay's terrapins are ready for summer to begin. Soon enough we'll be finding them on nesting beaches (which also means they'll be crossing roads, so drive safely!) and collecting them in our traps. We hope you can come out and join us for what is sure to be a great field season:0)

Earthwatch Board Members Visit our Site!

October 20, 2011 was a red-letter day in our research at Barnegat Bay. We had 50 very special visitors come to the Lighthouse Center - The Earthwatch Institute's Executive Board! While many of them have worked behind the scenes to help fund, implement, organize, and support our expeditions, it was very exciting for these board members to see what it is really like to be a volunteer on our project. Some board members were from the main Earthwatch headquarters in Boston, while others traveled from as far as Japan, England, and Brazil for this meeting!

We split into two large groups, with half of the group going out on the R.V. Peter Kilham for a tour of the bay, and half of the group going out in small boats to check traps. In the afternoon, we switched. We really lucked out on weather, and although it was windy, the sun was shining like a day on the bay in August! Because it was so late in the fall, water temperatures are not ideal for terrapins to be swimming around much so we did not expect to catch many in our traps. Low and behold, not only did the board members find terrapins, we caught two NEW captures in our hoop nets - a record for that time of year! You can see in this picture how thrilled everyone was to catch their very first terrapin:

Overall, the visit was incredibly successful, even beyond catching terrapins. It was a wonderful opportunity for the board members to see how all of their hard work pays off for the Earthwath volunteer's experience. In addition, it was neat for us, as scientists, to learn more about the organization behind Earthwatch, and put names with faces. Since, we've felt much more connected to our funding org., and some incredible collaborations have flourished.

Injured Terrapins in Barnegat Bay

For the past six summers, Earthwatch volunteers have been essential members of our team. Without volunteers, we would not be capable of trapping and processing the hundreds of diamondback terrapins that we capture each year in the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge. One of the many important findings from our research is that we are catching more injured terrapins each year.

Typically, we go out in small motor boats in the morning to check or set turtle traps. We bring the captured terrapins back to our laboratory which we affectionately refer to as the Marine Station. In the Marine Station, we "process" the terrapins with the help of our Earthwatch volunteers. Basically, this means that we measure (mass and various shell lengths) and mark each individual terrapin with unique codes that allow us to recognize that specific terrapin in case we catch it again in the future. We also check each terrapin for the presence of new or healed injuries. We've been keeping a record of the presence and location of each injury for each individual terrapin since 2006. The most common injuries include missing limbs and shell damage to the carapace (top shell) or plastron (bottom shell). We also frequently capture terrapins with boat propeller injuries. These types of injuries are easy to identify due to the major damage to the carapace and plastron, and most times you can actually see a telltale slash mark through the terrapin.

The figure at the top of this post shows the frequency of major terrapin injury in the northern and the southern parts of the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge over the past six years. Only major injuries are included here, and major injuries were considered to be missing limbs or major damage to the shell, head, or tail. When the Earthwatch project started in 2006, only 13% of the terrapins we captured had major injuries. However, we found that 23 to 24% of the terrapins captured this past summer had major injuries.

Terrapins can obtain injuries from natural and anthropogenic sources. Missing limbs are oftentimes attributed to land predators such as raccoons. Major shell damage tends to be due to anthropogenic (human-generated) impacts such as boat propellers or automobiles. There's not too much that we can do about natural causes of injuries; however, there are some steps we could take to decrease human-caused injuries. Partial or complete closures of some wildlife areas to boating may be necessary to protect terrapins from boat strike injuries. Boating speed limits could also be helpful, especially in sensitive areas such as near nesting beaches. In order to lessen the impact of human-generated injuries on the terrapin population in Barnegat Bay, we need to keep collecting data on terrapins and injury rates. If you want to help save the terrapins, please consider signing up for one of our Earthwatch expeditions. Earthwatch volunteers truly are indispensable members of our research team on the conservation of diamondback terrapins in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey.