Mariana Fuentes' Research Group
  • Home
  • People
    • Mariana Fuentes >
      • Services
      • Conference Presentations
      • Advisor
      • Awards
    • Postdoctoral and Professional Researchers
    • Graduate Students
    • Undergraduate Students
    • PhD Committee Advisees
    • Visiting Scientists and Students
    • Alumini
  • Research
    • Marine mega-fauna in a changing world
    • Resilience of marine mega-fauna
    • Prioritization of resources
    • Spatial ecology of marine mega-fauna
    • Other themes of interest
  • Publications
    • Journal Articles
    • Book and Book Chapters
    • Reports
  • Outreach
    • Educational Books
    • Educational Videos
    • Educational Material - Climate Change and Sea turtles in Florida
    • Popular Articles
    • Media
  • Teaching
  • Prospective Students
  • News
  • Funding

Sunrises, Sand, and Sea Turtles: Internship program at St Joe State Park- By Sophia Fonseca

10/2/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture2016 Interns, from right to left : Elizabeth Thomas, Emma Guss, Natalie Montero, John Zito and Sophia Fonseca.
                    This summer, Florida State University (FSU), the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission / Research Institute (FWC/FWRI) collaborated to form a sea turtle internship at T.H. Stone Memorial Saint Joseph Peninsula State Park.  The goal of this internship was to assist park staff with sea turtle patrol at a more remote, dynamic, and less developed area of the park, the Wildrness Preserve.  The four FSU interns included undergraduates Sophia Fonseca, Emma Guss, Elizabeth Thomas, and John Zito.  Graduate student Natalie Montero is conducting her research at the park and acted as the on-site supervisor for the internship.  These students are a part of the Marine Turtle Research, Ecology, and Conservation Group, which is led by FSU Professor Dr. Mariana Fuentes.
                An average day began hours before the sun rose, arriving at the park at around 5:30am every day.  They drove a Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) to the tip of St. Joseph’s Peninsula, dropping off half the group to the start of Section A, and the other half driving to the beginning of Section B.  The unpredictable amount of erosion occurring on the peninsula this time of year allows for the UTV to be ridden on the inland trail only and not the beach.  The group walked almost five miles of beach each day, which totaled over 1300 miles combined for the summer.
Every morning’s main objective was to find sea turtle crawls and determine whether a nest had been laid.  This was completed on FWC sea turtle crawl data sheets and entered in a notebook and spreadsheet containing the entire season’s crawls.  If a crawl was identified to be a nest, it was surrounded by three wooden stakes, one of which had a yellow nesting sign attached to it.  Other data collected included date, species of sea turtle, and location pertaining to high tide line as well as latitude and longitude.
            Natalie Montero is researching the effects of local climate and nest environment on hatchlings and used select nests at St. Joseph for her studies.  This included locating the egg clutch, depositing a temperature logger into the nest, collecting a sand sample from the surface of the nest, and increasing protection of the turtle nest with the addition of a self-releasing screen.  She is also conducting this study at St. George Island State Park to compare how nests laid and hatchlings born at these two locations may differ.
            The total amount of beach covered by the group lent itself to 96 sea turtle nests, 89 of which were loggerhead sea turtle nests and seven were green sea turtle nests.  Unfortunately, this park experiences high predation by nonnative coyotes and native ghost crabs. After the completion of the internship, 66% of all nests monitored had been predated by coyotes, ghost crabs, or both. However, the group is keeping their hopes up for the untouched nests!


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    November 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed