Three Good Inventories

It was a beautiful morning on the Isle of Palms with three nests ready for inventory. In spite of the excessive heat this summer, these nests did extremely well. The Cristian & Erika Ghisleri family from Italy with their son, Lorenzo, were visiting the United States and came especially hoping to see hatchlings. The turtles cooperated and the sunrise was beautiful.

Nest 22 was found on June 27 at Ocean Point by Penny Gorby, Shree Beverly & Eileen Montanaro. There were 133 eggs that were relocated to the beach at 3002 Palm Blvd and incubated there for 52 days. Today's inventory revealed 128 empty eggshells, only 4 undeveloped eggs, one dead hatchling and one live hatchling. The hatchling was released by Shree and Eileen who had her baby grandson in attendance. Hatch Success was 96.2%.

Nest 23 was laid two days later on June 29 at 49^th Avenue and was found by Linda Forslund, Lori Nelson, Liz Hartzell & Patti Porfelli. This clutch contained 147 eggs and turtles emerged on August 18, the same day as Nest 22 after incubating for 50 days. Out of 147 eggs all but 6 developed and hatched. There was one dead hatchling and 6 live ones that Linda and Patti released. Hatch Success was 95.2%.

Nest 24 had the shortest incubation period we have seen this summer at only 47 days before producing hatchlings. It was discovered in the night before July 1 at Grand Pavilion in Wild Dunes Resort by Aelecia Rideout & Bev Miller. There were 130 eggs in the clutch that were moved to 3004 Palm Blvd since it was in the renourishment project area where they would have been destroyed. This was also the case for Nest 22 above. We are grateful to WD Security Officer Michael Kibler for his help in early July, a very busy time of the season at the Resort. Today we found 124 empty eggshells and 5 undeveloped eggs, There were also 3 dead hatchlings and 10 live ones. One hatchling had a noticeable deformity on its shell, but all four of its flippers worked very well. They were released to crawl to the water by Isle of Palms resident Reston Merritt who will be on the Turtle Team with her mother in 2027. Hatch Success here was 95.3%.

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