Waties Island Sea Turtle Monitoring
Waties Island is a 2 ½ mile, undeveloped barrier island located on the northeast coast of South Carolina, just above Cherry Grove beach. Students and faculty at Coastal Carolina University regularly use a portion of the Island owned by the Coastal Education Foundation, a private, non-profit support component of CCU. Classes, laboratories and independent research projects are conducted on both the upland and the Island by both undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff. In addition, field workshops for precollege classes (K-12) and adult groups are led by a marine science educator of CMWS.
Sea turtle volunteers are active each year on the Island with daily monitoring from May through October. This South Carolina Department of Natural Resources permitted program involves over 50 people who walk the beach each morning looking for sea turtle nests. When found, the nests are protected from predators such as fox and monitored until hatching. Data from each nesting occurrence is collected, compiled and reported to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Marine Turtle Conservation Program (SCDNR).
