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 



