What do volunteers do? 2 types of volunteers Different levels of commitment

Regular volunteer Commits to 1 or 2 days per week from May 1 through

August 31 to walk a section of beach AT DAYBREAK Reports signs of sea turtle activity

Permitted volunteer May have an assigned section of beach 1 day per week Commits to a year of training locally and by FWC Commits to being readily available to respond to calls

from me

What will you learn? The Regular Volunteer will hopefully learn to:

Tell the difference between a nest and a false crawl

The Permitted Volunteer will learn to Identify different types of crawls Identify different species Locate eggs in a nest Relocate eggs if necessary Excavate a nest upon emergence Respond to dead or injured sea turtles Accept getting “sandy”

Turtle tracks lead volunteers to the nest site

Classic Loggerhead nest site

Loggerhead tracks are easy to identify

Classic Green nest site

Green turtle tracks have distinctive characteristics

Classic leatherback nest site

Leather back tracks are very obvious

6 ft 8 in

What will I see on the beach?

Volunteers dig to verify the presence of eggs Photo by Jennifer Kravassi

The nest is marked and monitored during incubation

Eggs will incubate for 50 – 60 days

When they emerge, hopefully all the hatchlings will crawl to the water

Since almost all emergences happen at night, artificial beachfront lighting can disorient hatchlings, causing them to crawl all over the beach or landward into vegetation or local roadways

Three days after the nest emerges, volunteers will excavate the nest and take an inventory of the contents Photo by Sandra Baker-Hinton

Sometimes a turtle stops development in the egg

Sometimes live hatchlings are trapped in the nest and need to be rescued

Photo by Jennifer Kravassi

Live hatchlings that are trapped in the nest are collected and released to the water

Photo by Jennifer Kravassi

Photo by Jennifer Kravassi

The public is invited to our excavations

Everyone gets excited when there are live hatchlings! Photo by Jennifer Kravassi

Photo by Sandra Baker-Hinton

Photo by Sandra Baker-Hinton

The rescued hatchlings are released and they make their way to the surf

Photo by Sandra Baker-Hinton

Photo by Sandra Baker-Hinton

Swim on, little hatchlings….

Our Volunteers

Select a day (or days) of the week Select a section of the beach The south end is covered by ATV (lack of

beach access) We frequently ride north to visit with walkers Walk that section at daybreak

looking for signs of sea turtle activity the previous night

Call me! I, or one of the other permitted volunteers, will come and verify the crawl

Walkers begin on May 1 and walk through August 31

Hatchlings begin to arrive in July and can continue into October

Volunteers monitor existing nests as they walk and report any disturbance or vandalism

Their future is in our hands….