On a recent morning stroll down the beach at Jekyll Island, GA, we were excited to see distinctive tracks going from the water’s edge to the base of the dunes and back to the water making a giant V in the sand. The Vs are tale-tell signs that loggerhead turtles hauled themselves onto land overnight to dig nests and lay eggs. The dedicated group of people with the Jekyll Island Foundations locate the nests, protect them from predators, and post signs marking the spots to warn people away from them. I was gratified to see long sections of the beach with signs posted every fifty feet or so. I don’t know what is normal, but that looked like lots of nests to me.
Loggerhead Turtles (Caretta caretta), Green Turtles (Cheldonia mydas), and the occasional Kemps Ridley’s Turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) use Georgian beaches for their nesting sites. All three sea turtles are endangered due to bycatch in fishing gear, boat strikes, ocean pollution, climate change, loss of nesting beaches, and predation. Considering that Loggerheads take about 35 years to reach maturity, there are numerous reasons an animal might not live long enough to mate and lay eggs. Green sea turtles require 18 – 33 years for maturity, and Kemps Ridleys require about 13 years. Once mature, most females will only lay eggs every 2-3 years. Their slow reproduction rate complicates the efforts for population recovery.
An odd circumstance we encountered on our morning and evening walks was a lack of sea birds. On three beach walks, we saw six pelicans one morning. That was it. There were five laughing gulls, and unfortunately, an equal number of dead ones on the beach. Of course, we don’t know if the cause of death was an avian illness, old age, or something else, but ingestion of plastic is an all too common killer.
We spent a good bit of time picking small pieces of plastic from the sand. Thankfully, there was not a lot of large trash, but the small bits of plastic are what the birds and other animals ingest with deadly consequences. I have seen the skeletons of birds with a pile of plastic bits where their crops and stomachs would have been. It is an arresting site. There is no doubt about what killed those birds when you see such a graphic illustration. Sea turtles are plagued by consuming bits of plastic too. Clear plastic bags look like jellyfish, one of the turtles’ favorite foods. If the bag doesn’t suffocate the turtle when it is eaten, the inability to digest or expel the bag certainly may.
The quantity of cigarette butts discarded in the sand is appalling. I’m considering having shirts made that say, “Smokers – Get your butts off the beach.” If they can’t take their cigarette butts with them when they leave as they should with any other garbage, then they need to keep themselves off the beach. Nicotine is lethal and who knows what other harmful chemicals are deposited in the filters they leave behind.
All in all, the beach was healthy. We’ve learned the importance of protecting the dunes for shorebird and turtle nesting, as well as for flood protection. The dunes were in good condition, with the sea oats and other native vegetation flourishing. There was little trash on the beach other than small pieces of plastic and cigarette butts. And to see evidence of nesting turtles was beyond encouraging for increasing their numbers. I just hope there is an explanation for the absence of sea birds that isn’t bad news for their populations.
What can we do to preserve this precious resource? Take trash, especially balloons and their strings, monofilament fishing line, and other trash off our beaches – be it your own or someone else’s. And keep off the dunes and turtle nests. Together, we can make a big difference.
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Donna H. Black writes articles, fiction, poetry, and more. A horticulturist by training and a writer by choice, she enjoys bringing facts about the natural world to readers. Follow her blog about writing at donnablackwrites.com and find her books on Amazon.com.
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