Addy, a 3-year-old loggerhead sea turtle, was released by her caretakers from the Tybee Island Marine Science Center into the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday.
When she was found in a trash can at the Admiral Inn on Tybee Island three years ago, Addy weighed less than a AA battery. She measured just under 2 inches nose to tail, and her shell was smaller than a square Post-it Note.
Although she was the runt of six loggerhead hatchlings an intoxicated Kentucky couple snatched from the beach one evening, Addy – described by the center s Executive Director Cathy Sakas as a “champion crab cruncher” – is now a robust 56 pounds and ready to make her way in the wild. When she returns to these shores in 20 or so years to lay eggs, Addy will be recognized easily by her tag and chip, provided by the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
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First Sea Turtle Nest of the Season Spotted
BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Nesting season for loggerhead sea turtles has started on schedule.
The annual cycle of these massive turtles returning to beaches in the Southeast to lay their eggs began in Georgia with a nest found Saturday morning on Little Cumberland Island. Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative members reported a second nest Sunday on Sea Island.
Georgia Sea Turtle Program Coordinator Mark Dodd said the first nests are “always around the first of May.” “It’s kind of like clockwork.”
This year’s first also has historical ties. While nesting has been monitored on all Georgia beaches since 1989, the network took root in 1964 when former University of Georgia professor Dr. Jim Richardson started the Little Cumberland Island Sea Turtle Project. That loggerhead monitoring effort is the oldest in North America and shares the status worldwide with a program started in South Africa the same year.
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First sea turtle nest of the season found over the weekend in Ga. (Source: Georgia DNR) By WTOC Staff | May 3, 2021 at 1:01 PM EDT - Updated May 3 at 1:01 PM
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - The first sea turtle nest of the 2021 season in Georgia was found Saturday, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
DNR says the loggerhead sea turtle nest was found on Little Cumberland Island. Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative members spotted a second nest on Sunday on Sea Island.
Georgia Sea Turtle Program Coordinator Mark Dodd said the first nests are “always around the first of May.”
Former University of Georgia professor Dr. Jim Richardson started the Little Cumberland Island Sea Turtle Project in 1964. DNR says the loggerhead monitoring effort is the oldest in North America and shares the status worldwide with a program started in South Africa the same year.