2 minute read
Georgia the Sea Turtle
Georgia returned to nest again in 2019. Photo provided by GADNR
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By Lanier Forster
GADNR Public Affairs
Georgia, the state, has shattered its nesting record for loggerhead sea turtles with more than 3,780 nests (the previous high: 3,289 in 2016). And the season isn’t over.
Georgia, the mama loggerhead, deserves some credit for reaching this milestone.
Georgia’s nests have been logged through genetic research with the University of Georgia. Using one egg collected from every clutch, UGA extracts maternal DNA that can be used to identify the female that made the nest. This enables scientists to determine how often and where she nests. Data from all nests is extrapolated to estimate the size of the loggerhead population and survival rates.
But Georgia has played an even more significant role in helping researchers understand more about her species' biology. In 2005 she was fitted with radio and sonic transmitters in a study aimed at understanding the movements of female loggerheads.
She went on to lay four nests on Sapelo and Blackbeard islands that season and has returned six times since, contributing a total of 30 nests.
In between laying eggs – a clutch about every 12 days – Georgia often relaxes near the ballast rock pile at the north end of Blackbeard. Yet as soon as she finishes nesting, she’s off to the Virginia coast for the rest of the summer. When the weather cools, she swims south to the edge of the Gulf Stream off North Carolina for winter.
Although her satellite transmitter played out after about a year, researchers have followed Georgia through genetic tracking from her nests. She nests about every two to three years, always on Sapelo or Blackbeard.
After nesting in 2018, however, Georgia returned to nest again this year, which is highly unusual for sea turtles because of the extreme amount of energy expended during nesting.
Or maybe it’s just another example of this loggerhead doing more than her share.
Follow nesting and hatching daily at seaturtle.org.
Hatchlings heading toward shore. Photo provided by GADNR
Still covered in sand, this hatchling inches its way toward the water. Photo provided by GADNR
A sea turtle hatchling's first swim. Photo by Sara Weaver, GADNR
