Sea Turtles Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Mermaid Cottages on Tybee Island, GA

Clover’s Tybee Island Send-off!

Leave a Comment / Fun on Tybee, Live Like a Local, Sea Turtles / Melissa

Hundreds of people showed up on Tybee Island last week to send a hometown girl off in style! Thursday, Clover the sea turtle was released into the waves on Tybee’s South Beach after spending her first three years of life with the marine experts at the Burton 4H Center. See, Clover was a straggler hatching, unable to leave the nest after hatching back in August of 2008. Today, Clover is a healthy, happy sea turtle that is back where she belongs, cruising the Waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

Cruise with Clover

The Cruise with Clover campaign successfully raised the $5,000 to purchase a satellite transmitter. Clover was outfitted with her transmitter last week and then she was ready to hit the waves! The cool thing about the transmitter? It isn’t just for scientists! That’s right, you can follow Clover’s journey right from your own home. She may be left the beach, but fans can follow her progress at Seaturtle.org! Just click the Georgia Sea Turtle Center link and look for Clover!

Thanks to all the supporters who made it out to give Clover a true Tybee Island send-off! We wish Clover all the luck int he world and hope to see her return to Tybee Island for a visit or two in the future!

Clover’s Tybee Island Send-off! Read More »

Tybee is Cruising with Clover this Thursday!

1 Comment / Live Like a Local, Sea Turtles / Melissa

Tomorrow is a big day on Tybee Island! Thursday, August 4th, the Burton 4H Center is holding an event to celebrate the long awaited release of Clover the sea turtle. Clover hatched right here on Tybee Island on August 13th back in 2008 and marine science experts raised her from a tiny hatchling. She is currently a beautiful and healthy 24 pounds and is now ready to head out to her ocean home!

clover01 — Help us give Clover the best send-off ever this Thursday!

The Cruise with Clover campaign was a fundraising effort and we are so happy to say the effort successfully raised the $5,000 needed to purchase Clover’s satellite transmitter. The transmitter will allow marine experts and all of her fans to track Clover after her release over on Seaturtle.org! Isn’t that awesome?

clover03 — With this neat transmitter, you can track Clover's journey through the ocean!

Make plans to attend the release and send Clover off in style! Join the fun at the Tybee Pier and Pavilion from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The release will happen between 2 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. There will also be loads of other things for adults and children alike, including other live animals to see and observe, sea turtle products, and much more! Don’t miss a minute! Help Tybee Island let Clover know we are proud of her and wish her luck on her journey home. We hope to see you there!

Tybee is Cruising with Clover this Thursday! Read More »

Breaking Tybee Sea Turtle News!

Leave a Comment / Live Like a Local, Sea Turtles / Melissa

Tybee Island’s sea turtle nesting season is really heating up! Nest One was the first of the season to hatch just last week. This week, Nest Two was the star! Tybee Sea Turtle Project workers excavated the nest Friday and were surprised to find 21 live babies still inside. The even better news? There wasn’t a single casualty found and all 21 babies were released safely into the waiting waves. It just doesn’t get much better than that!

Back of a small turtle on sand — imagesource.com

The wonderful people with the Tybee Sea Turtle Project are still hard at work, too. They are diligently on patrol each morning, on the lookout for new crawls, and they are monitoring each of the island’s current nests for activity. Tybee has nine nests so far, the latest being Nest Nine found in front of Marlin Monroe’s!

Want to be the first to know what’s going on with Tybee’s sea turtles? Make sure you keep updated on all of Tybee’s breaking sea turtle news and follow the Tybee Sea Turtle Project on Facebook, our own Mermaid Cottages Facebook Page, and of course, stay tuned right here on our blog for everything Tybee Island! Viva la sea turtles!

Breaking Tybee Sea Turtle News! Read More »

Tybee Island Turtle News

Leave a Comment / Live Like a Local, Sea Turtles / Melissa

It has been a busy nesting season so far here on Tybee, and it got a lot busier last Monday! Nest One, on North Beach, finally hatched! The Tybee Sea Turtle Project workers and volunteers were keeping watch and began to see activity around eight-thirty that evening. By ten o’clock, about 80 to 100 baby sea turtles made a successful trip to the ocean with the help of several wonderful volunteers and even some island visitors.

It’s so exciting to know our first nest of the season has hatched! Our turtles are super special to us here on Tybee, but they seem to be important to the entire Savannah area as well! There was even a feature story about Tybee’s sea turtles on WSAV.com…check out the video!

That’s not all of our sea turtle nest either! Nest number eight for Tybee was found Friday morning! It had to be relocated higher up in the dunes, but everything is fine and it contained 72 eggs. Nests two and three are both closing in on their 50 day mark next week as well and volunteers will be watching closely for the next nest to hatch!

cohen-the-diamondback-terrapin_gaseaturtlecenter_02 — photo from The Georgia Sea Turtle Center website

Amazing stuff, right?! Well you know, Tybee isn’t just concerned about our sea turtles. Our island is also home to Diamondback Terrapins, and this is also the time of year these brackish water dwellers lay their eggs. Unfortunately, a lot of them have to trek across busy HWY 80 to do so. Cars and turtles just don’t mix, so please be aware of our Diamondback terrapins as you drive to and from Tybee this time of year!

diamondback_gaseaturtlecenter_01 — photo from The Georgia Sea Turtle Center website

These beautiful turtles are a “species of concern” here in Georgia, as they are in many other states. That means their numbers are dwindling and they could soon become threatened, or worse…endangered or eventually extinct. For more information, check out these Georgia Sea Turtle Center articles, Diamondback Terrapin and Diamondback Terrapins and Roads. So please, watch out for our nesting terrapins as well as our sea turtles when you come for a visit! We’ll certainly appreciate it, and we’re sure the turtles will be pretty thankful, too!

Tybee Island Turtle News Read More »

Tybee Sea Turtle Season Off and Running!

2 Comments / Live Like a Local, Sea Turtles / Melissa

We are so excited! Sea turtle season here on Tybee Island began back in May and we already have four nests! The workers and volunteers of the Tybee Sea Turtle Project have been out each morning on their dawn patrols, diligently scouting the beaches to make sure nests are discovered and cared for properly.

So far, two nests have been discovered in the North Beach area of the island. There have also been two documented nests in the mid-island area around the 7th and 8th Street crossovers. Only one false crawl has occurred and that was right in front of the De Soto Hotel. A false crawl is when a turtle comes on land but, for some reason, does not leave a nest. No one really knows what might cause a false crawl, but it could certainly be light pollution or noise in the beach area. Of course, false crawls are common in undeveloped areas as well. The best thing we can do to help our sea turtles nest successfully is to be respectful of them! Make sure to turn off lights after dark, keep the noise down, and remove anything from the beach that may be blocking the dunes. Doing these things will help nesting mothers go about their business without being disturbed.

turtlecrawls-june2011 copy — photos thanks to the Tybee sea Turtle Project!

We are proud to say Mermaid Cottages does everything we can to make each and every one of our cottages sea turtle friendly. We are so proud of the efforts everyone makes, here at Mermaid Cottages and island wide. We are also super proud of our efforts to help Tybee’s sea turtles through the sales of our Mermaid Morning Bliss Coffee! We provide a supply of our coffee in each cottage for you to enjoy during your stay and you can also stop by Seaside Sisters and pick up a bag or two to take home! Feel good knowing, too, that each time you stay with us, you are helping us help our sea turtles!

coffeandmugsclip copy — You can take home some Mermaid Morning Bliss of your own!

If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Tybee sea turtle news, make sure you follow the Tybee Sea Turtle Project on Facebook. Also, stay tuned to our blog because we always share the latest news right here, with you! Tybee Island’s sea turtle season is off and running, and we can’t wait to see what happens next!

Tybee Sea Turtle Season Off and Running! Read More »

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Sea Turtles