File:Coast watch (1979) (20037332104).jpg

Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_10 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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Y "(5""^' an Ocean of Odds Turtles are stranding in record numbers on the North Carolina coast. Scientists strive to understand why, and volunteers help collect the necessary data. By Dcum Doe Even without humans complicat- ing their lives, sea turtles have to beat some pretty hefty odds to reach a ripe old age. Greedy raccoons pillage their nests and feast on the eggs. Hatchlings that peck through to the world scramble to the ocean before ghost crabs and other land predators gobble them up. And once in the water, young turtles must elude predators such as hungry sharks that lurk there. It's a life already fraught with dangers. Add to it lost fishing gear and discarded plastics, nets meant for other creatures, pollutants discharged into nion • Photos courtesy of Ruth Boettcher The number of turtles that stranded last year has put those biolo- gists on alert. On North Carolina's coast alone, 503 sea turtles, mostly loggerheads, washed up dead or dying. From 1980 to 1994, the average num- ber of strandings per year was 196, says Ruth Boettcher, the North Caro- lina coordinator for the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network. "Keep in mind that during the first years the stranding network was in place, monitoring activity was low. As the network grew in size, the coverage of the beaches grew as well," Boettcher says, explaining that stranded turtles — .,, , 1:1 f„ i— t a ...„ , ment, unavoidable encounters with recreational vehicles and even sense- less cruelty — and a perilous future faces an animal that has quietly perse- vered for millions of years. Most of the time, we humans don't see the evidence of those fatal impacts, but a number of sea turtles that die off our coasts each year will wash ashore. These strandings provide crucial data for the research biologists working to determine the health of turtle popula- tions. MARCH/APRIL 1997 people now monitoring the beaches. "Still," she adds, "503 strandings is incredibly high." Along other coastlines, the trend is the same. Wendy Teas, the national coordinator for the Sea Turtle Strand- ing and Salvage Network, says that numbers are up in all regions, espe- cially the Southeast (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and the At- lantic coast of Florida). Two years ago, 1,377 turtles were found in this region, Continued

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