The Chelonibia Newsletter of the

Caretta Research Project

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ANOTHER RECORD NESTING SEASON FOR GEORGIA’S LOGGERHEADS!

Georgia recorded 2,333 loggerhead sea turtle nests in 2015, making it the highest year on record since statewide monitoring of beaches began in 1989! Wassaw saw it’s 2nd highest season this year with 218 nests. We identified 110 individual loggerheads: 75 “neophytes” which had never been tagged be-fore, 31 “remigrants” which were tagged on Wassaw in previous years, 3 “immigrants” which were originally tagged on other islands, and one “scarred” turtle, whose history cannot be determined. Additionally, we had one leatherback crawl on Wassaw. One of this year’s remigrant turtles has a long recorded nesting history on Wassaw. “Neritina” was first tagged on Wassaw in 1996 and has returned to nest during 1996, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2012. She has deposited 24 nests containing 2,950 eggs, producing over 2,600 hatchlings. Seven turtles originally tagged on Wassaw Island were seen elsewhere this year. Three nested on Jekyll Island in June (originally tagged on Wassaw in 2002, 2010 and 2012). One tagged this year nested on Fripp Island, SC. Two were caught in a trawl off of Ossabaw Island (one tagged this year, the other in 2011). The seventh, tagged in 2004, was caught at the St. Lucie Power

Plant in Florida. Additionally, three tur-tles tagged on other beaches were seen on Wassaw this year. One was tagged on Oss-abaw in 2011, one on Jekyll this season, and the third was tagged at the St. Lucie Power Plant in Florida in 2000. Eighty-eight volunteers from all over the United States helped protect nearly 22,400 eggs, ultimately releasing approximately 13,350 loggerhead hatchlings into the wa-ter.

Fall 2015

Savannah Science Museum, Inc.

Board of Directors

Ann Ramee, President Kathleen Pitt, Vice President

Larry Sprague, Secretary Mary Jane Martine,

Treasurer Fabienne Dickenson

Rolfe Glover Corrine Howington

Holley Jaakkola Linsey McDougal

Kelley Parker John Reddan Chris Walls

Lynn Wright

CRP Staff

Joseph B. Pfaller Kristina L. Williams

Assistants

Terri Collins Mike Frick

Jason Fuller Debbi Hanibal

Darnice Pettigrew Jamie Price

Cody Struthers

Sign up for the 2016 season on January 4th!

We will start accepting reservations for participation on the Caretta Research Project on Monday, January 4th. We fill up quickly and only have 102 available spots, so don’t get blocked out this year! CALL AND E-

MAIL early on January 4th to reserve your spot on Wassaw and help study these magnificent animals!

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Wassaw’s Loggerheads Test the “Landscape of Fear” When you were a kid, did you have a bully? A bully that slapped school books out of your hands and stole your lunch money, or maybe even roughed you up a bit (à la Scut Farkus from The Christmas Story)? When in the presence of said bully, you altered your behavior, right? You kept a low profile, you avoided the lunchroom or play-ground, or you took a different route home from school. As your “landscape of fear” changed, you changed your behavior. In theory, it should be the same in the sea turtle world, only the bully is a tiger shark and it wants to eat you! In a study published in the journal Ecology this year, Dr. Neil Hammerschlag (University of Miami) and colleagues used satellite-tracking data collected from Was-saw’s loggerheads and other female loggerheads nesting in Georgia and the Carolinas to test the “landscape of fear” model. Because the authors also had satellite-tracking data for adult tiger sharks – a world-renown “super bully” of sea turtles – they were able to overlay movement patterns and assess whether turtles and sharks changed their behavior when in the same area. Based on the “landscape of fear” model, turtles should change their behavior to avoid being eaten and sharks should change their be-havior to increase their chances of … chowing down! Not so fast! The authors found that while sharks appear to change their surfacing be-haviors to increase predation opportunities when turtles are nearby, turtles do NOT change their surfacing behavior to avoid shark attacks when sharks are nearby! This patterns deviates from the predictions based on the “landscape of fear” model. So, why do turtles seem oblivious to predation risk? Aside from turtles being cognitively slow, the authors suggest turtle behaviors may be driven primarily by other physical (environmental conditions), biological (foraging, mating), or anthropogenic factors (e.g., boat avoidance) that outweigh the unpredictability and rarity of shark attacks. This study was one of the first to evaluate the “landscape of fear” model across a large spatial scale in a dy-namic, open, marine system involving apex predators and highly mobile prey, and data collected from Was-saw’s loggerheads by CRP biologists helped make it possible. Hammerschlag, N. et al. (2015) Evalu-ating the landscape of fear between apex predatory sharks and mobile sea turtles across a large dynamic sea-scape. Ecology 96:2117-2126.

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How You Can Help Georgia’s Loggerheads Sea Turtles

The CRP is a public non-profit charity (501(c)3) and we do not receive funding from the state or Federal

government. We depend on outside contributions to fund operating costs of the project. Every year, we

receive generous contributions and gifts to fund our research, conservation and education efforts from

people like you. Here are suggestions on how you can donate your resources:

Participate on the Project and get a hands-on experience protecting the turtles Individual Donations made directly to the Caretta Research Project

Corporate Matching Gifts that match contributions from employees to charities, doubling support Adopt-A-Turtle for classroom learning tools, holiday gifts, birthdays, other special occasions, or for yourself

Purchase Sea Turtle gifts from our on-line store Honorariums and Memorials in honor of or in memory of a special person in your life

Volunteer as a Boat Captain to transport crews and gear to and from Wassaw Island during the summer.

All donations to the CRP will be used to directly fund sea turtle research, education and conservation efforts.

Caretta Research Project Partners with River Street Sweets / Savannah’s Candy Kitchen!

River Street Sweets•Savannah’s Candy Kitchen celebrated the launch of its first franchise location at Tanger Outlet Mall in Pooler on Friday, October 23! The Strickland Family, owners of the RSS/SCK, hold a special place in their hearts for sea turtles! This is the start of exclusive part-nership with The Caretta Project. The event on the 23rd was a Chocolate Loggerhead charity event that do-nates a portion of all Chocolate Loggerhead sales to the CRP. They have combined the best of both worlds— sea turtles and chocolate!!

Presentations at Scientific Meetings Southeastern Regional Sea Turtle Meeting, Jekyll Island, GA, February 2015 Joe Pfaller won the Boyd Lyons Best Student Presentation Award Runner-up for his presentation “Adult Loggerhead Survival: Biased estimates necessitate regional approach.”

International Sea Turtle Symposium, Dalaman, Turkey, April 2015 Joe Pfaller also won Best Student Presentation Runner-up for his talk “Global phylogenomics of Planes crabs, a common symbiont of sea turtles”, a central topic of his Ph.D. research.

International Sea Turtle Symposium, Dalaman, Turkey, April 2016 Dr. Brian Shamblin will present “Accounting for Site Fidelity in Reproductive Parameter Estimation Through Subpopulation-Scale Genetic Capture-Recapture of Loggerhead Turtles,” using data from long-term tagging projects, including the Caretta Research Project.

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Celebrating 43 years of Loggerhead Research on Wassaw Island

About 180 people joined the staff and Board of the Caretta Research Project at The Florence on October 22 to celebrate 43 years of research and conservation of logger-head turtles! Special thanks go to: Allison Crumpton and the Florence-the venue was perfect and the food was delicious! Ray Williams and Dick Benedis -the music was fabulous! Lynn Wright—the photos are wonderful! Please check out more of Lynn’s pictures from the event at http://lwrightcaretta.blogspot.com!

Thank you to our generous sponsors!

LEATHERBACK: DIRTT Environmental Solutions

Holley and Juha Jaakkola

LOGGERHEAD: Canewater Farm Floor and Decor

GREEN:

Landa and Landa Eyecare Dr. And Mrs. James Wilson

KEMP'S RIDLEY:

Brennan and Company, LLC Low Country Dermatology

Mmermaid Cottages David and Christine Palmer

HAWKSBILL:

Georgia Power Company Guerry Lumber Company

Dr. And Mrs. Joseph Gussler Savannah Vascular and Cardiac Institute

Dale and Sonny Thorpe Lynn and Tom Wright

HATCHLING:

Christopher and Emily Cay Mr. And Mrs. F. Reed Dulany III Judy McDougal Remax Savannah

Ben and Lisa Sutker

IN KIND: Kennickell Group

The Florence Savannah Distributing Company

Savannah Brewing Co.

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Thank you to our generous auction donors!

Mrs. Sue Bark, Mr. John “Crawfish” Crawford, Elizabeth’s on 37th, Mrs. Melanie Elmore, Mr. Bill Eswine, Found Jew-elry, Mr. Rolfe Glover, GSU Center for Wildlife Education, Mr. Greg Hall, Mrs. Catherine Lovett, Mrs. Kelley Parker, Mr. Dave Peterson, Ms. Annie Quaile, Mrs. Ann Ramee, Mrs. Jane Ramee, Sea Kayak Georgia, Mrs. Ridley Stallings, Tybee Island Marine Science Center, and Mrs. Sarah Yates.

What do you get someone for Christmas who already has everything?

How about a

THREATENED SPECIES! Support the Caretta Research Project by adopting a loggerhead sea turtle! Adopt one of the selected loggerhead sea turtles that has nested in previous years on Wassaw Island and was last seen during the 2010, 2011 or 2012 seasons. Since loggerheads typically have a 2-4 year nesting cycle, we expect that these

individuals may return to Wassaw to nest during 2015! For a donation of $25.00, you will receive an adoption kit that includes:

1) a list of adoptees and an adoption form; 2) our semi-annual newsletter; and

3) a bumper sticker.

Then log on to www.carettaresearchproject.org throughout the summer to track “your” turtle’s nesting activity during the 2016 season!

Please make checks out to Caretta Research Project or call 912-704-9323 for more information.

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ACCOMPLISHMENTS SINCE 1973: added over 1,467 turtles to the tagged loggerhead population;

monitored 3,700 nests containing nearly 429,000 eggs; successfully released over 262,500 hatchlings into the ocean;

trained 22 interns who have gone to other environmental / educational programs; involved and educated over 3,000 volunteers from all over the world in sea turtle

conservation efforts.

A special thank you for their continued support over the years:

Shaw Davis, Chuck Hayes, Chris Cooley and the staff at USFW Savannah Coastal Refuges for assistance with permits and for their continuing advice and support;

Beth Betbeze, Lillian Powell, Angie Sheets and all of the members of the Wassaw Is-land, LLC for their support which makes this possible

NEW—LONG SLEEVED T-SHIRTS!!

Get your new CRP t-shirts with a hatchling crawling down one sleeve and our new ball caps and visors! Check out our website for details!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their support and contributions since November 2014:

HATCHLING: ($1-$499) Anonymous Mr. And Mrs. Matthew Albert Mr. and Mrs. Charles Alling Ms. Rynne Ambrose Mrs. Jamie Smith-Arkins Ms. Chantal Audran Dr. And Mrs. Charles Belin Mr. And Mrs. Nathaniel Belzer Ms. Lauren Black Mrs. Patricia Blanks Drs. Ryan and Pamela Boland Ms. Birgit Bolton Ms. Heather Bonham Mr. D. Bromstad and Mrs. E. Rhangos Mr. Kyle Brown Ms. Marley Marie Brown Ms. Ali Bullock Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Burgess Ms. Bess Butler Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Butler Mrs. Laura Card Mr. Jack Carroll and Mrs. Sue Bark Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Cay Ms. Katie Charron Ms. Jennifer Chean Mr. and Mrs. Frank Chisholm, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Clapp Ms. Stephanie Clement Ms. Linda Cline Coastal Dermatology Mrs. Dorothea Coy Dr. Kathryn Craven Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Crawford Mr. and Mrs. Luke Curtsinger Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Dales Mr. and Mrs. James Daly Mr. and Mrs. Ted Dennard Mrs. Sally Dayton and Mr. Tim Moore Ms. Marie Dent LCDR. and Mrs. Edward J. Derst III Ms. Laurie deVegter Dr. and Mrs. Fabienne Dickinson Mrs. Jennifer Drey Mr. and Mrs. F. Reed Dulany Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ellis, Jr. Endeavorist Mr. And Mrs. Reed Engle Ms. Josephine Ewing Ms. Tess Ewing and Ms. Louise Rice Mrs. Sarah Fangman Ms. Susan Fearon The Fleischer Family Mr. Tom Flynn Mr. Brad Folmar Mr. and Mrs. Michael Frick Mr. and Mrs. Mark Frissell Ms. Kathy Fritz Mr. and Mrs. Alan Fuller Ms. Laurie Garner Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Gentes Mr. and Mrs. Rolfe Glover IV Dr. And Mrs. Todd Groce Ms. Lizette Guzman-Zaragoza Mr. and Mrs. Laurence Hanson Holmes and Salter Interiors Mr. Boyd Holtan Mr. Bill Hopkins Dr. Corinne Howington Mr. Justin Huitt Dr. Jeanne Hungerpiller Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Iocovozzi Mr. and Mrs. Fred Irwin Mrs. Denise Jackson Mr. and Mrs. Felton Jenkins III Mr. William Keaton Mrs. Joyce Krebner Schley and Lang Knight Foundation, Inc. Kroger Community Rewards Program Mrs. Phyllis Lathrope Mrs. Matiel Leffler Mr. David Levy Mrs. Margaret Livingston Mr. And Mrs. Melvin Lockwood Dr. And Mrs. Steve Marlay Ms. Mary Jane Martin Mr. Jay Massey Mr. Colin Matthews Mr. Tom Matthews Mrs. Gina McCullough Mrs. Judy McDougal Savannah Remax Ms. Linsey McDougal Mrs. Janice McGibbon The McKee Family Mrs. Judy McLauchlin Mrs. Marylyn McLeod Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McMullin Mr. and Mrs. Randall Molle Dr. Neely North Dr. and Mrs. Gage Ochsner, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Olson Mrs. Terri O’Neil Mr. and Mrs. Niko Ormond Mr. Carl Parrish Mr. Frank Peterson Mr. and Mrs. Gabe Pitt Ms. Audrey Platt Mr. and Mrs. Paul Pressly Ms. Annie Quaile Mrs. Will Quaile Ms. Jamie Queen Mr. and Mrs. Tim Ragen Ms. Kathleen Ramee Dr. and Mrs. Stephen Ramee Mr. and Mrs. John Reddan Ms. Kathleen Reed Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Rogers Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Rose Mr. and Mrs. Robb Sallee Mr. Frank Saponaro, Jr. Savannah Community Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Sheets Dr. and Mrs. Andrew Sheils, Jr. Ms. JoBeth Shelton Ms. Becky Shortland Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Sitkei Mr. Tyrus Smith Mr. and Mrs. Philip Solomon’s, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Southworth Dr. and Mrs. John Spellman Mr. W. W. Sprague Ms. Sarah Stewart Mr. and Mrs. Tim Strickland Mr. and Mrs. Ben Sutker Mrs. Paula Swart Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Szczecinski Ms. Jess Timmons Mr. and Mrs. Al Townsend Dr. and Mrs. Charles Usher Mr. and Mrs. Wiley Wasden III Mrs. Wilma Whetan Ms. GeorgAnna Wiley Mrs. Suzanne Williams Mrs. Emily Winburn Mr. and Mrs. Rick Woods The Wright Family Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Yarbrough Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Young HAWKSBILL: ($500-$999) Anonymous Guerry Lumber Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Gussler Dr. and Mrs. James Holtzclaw Joined In Giving, Inc. The John G. Kennedy Foundation, Inc. Dr. and Mrs. Jeremy London Mr. Wilson Morris and Mrs. Linda Fisk Mr. Kim Pfaller Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Ramee Savannah Distributing Company Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Wright Piper Jaffray Charitable Giving Program KEMP’S RIDLEY: ($1,000-$1,499) Brennan and Company, LLC Colonial Oil Industries The Hunter Foundation, Inc. Low Country Dermatology Mermaid Cottages Mr. James Olsen Mr. and Mrs. David Palmer Mrs. Kelley Parker Publix Super Markets Charities Mr. and Mrs. Robert Stephens Drs. Christopher Walls and Melissa Cobbs GREEN: ($1,500-$2,499) Landa and Landa Eyecare J.C. Lewis Foundation, Inc. Jolly Foundation Georgia Power Company Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Thorpe, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. James Wilson LOGGERHEAD: ($2,500-$4,999) Canewater Farm Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Floor and Decor Ms. Loretta Kane LEATHERBACK: ($5,000+) Anderson-Rogers Foundation, Inc. DIRTT Environmental Solutions, Inc. Courtney Knight Gaines Foundation, Inc. Georgia Ports Authority Mr. and Mrs. John Imlay, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Juha Jaakkola Shared Earth Foundation BOAT CAPTAINS: Mr. and Mrs. Chris Carroll Mr. and Mrs. Rolfe Glover IV Mr. and Mrs. Philip Grainey Mr. and Mrs. John Groover Dr. And Mrs. Joseph Gussler Mr. Cord Helmken Mr. Rory Jose Mr. and Mrs. Wes Lanier Mr. and Mrs. Gabe Pitt Mr. and Mrs. Joe Powers Ms. Kathleen Ramee Mr. and Mrs. Tom Ramee Mr. and Mrs. Al Townsend Drs. Chris Walls and Melissa Cobbs SPECIAL THANK YOUS: All of our silent auction donors and in-kind sponsors! Mrs. Donna Edwards-In memory of Dr. John Hungerpiller Mr. Gregory N. Crawford-in memory of Dr. John Hungerpiller Mr. and Mrs. Michael Frick-In honor of Nancy Davietta Mr. And Mrs. Channing Smith—In honor of John “Crawfish” Crawford Kennesaw State University for donating gas money Ms. Anna Robertson for donating Mustang Life Jackets IKEA for 90 pillows Mr. Dave Cahoon for fixing and maintaining our Mules Landings Harbor Marina for helping crews come and go from Wassaw each week Delegal Creek Marina-for dock space throughout the season

SAVANNAH SCIENCE MUSEUM, INC. CARETTA RESEARCH PROJECT

P.O. Box 9841 Savannah, Georgia 31412

Phone: 912-704-9323 E-mail: WassawCRP@aol.com

Website: www.carettaresearchproject.org

Protecting Georgia’s Sea Turtles since 1973

CARETTA RESEARCH PROJECT