STRANDING BETWEEN 59TH & 60TH AVE.

Dave and I walked the high tide line from Hoggs Inlet down to 34th Ave. keeping an eye out for tracks or anything on the beach. On the way back we walked closer to the water. Very near the end of our return walk, near the pier closest to Hoggs Inlet, we stopped to talk to a woman on the beach. She mentioned that their was a turtle
just up ahead. Dave and I saw something about 60 feet ahead of us. Couldn't tell what it was from where we were. We walked up to it and found a turtle with a shell that looked to be only about 12 inches. We made the call telling Linda what we found and the location.

Linda Mataya, Rob Kayton and Barb and Steve Demusz started to arrive about 15 minutes later and took lots of pictures, took measurements, scanned for a tag and determined we found a juvenile Kemp's Ridley. They filled out the paper work and will forward it to The Department of Natural Resources.

This is North Myrtle Beach's second stranding in two days.

We just never know what we will find. While waiting for someone to arrive we were talking to another woman who said that people are seeing very large turtles around the pier we were at. I was very surprised that the turtles were so close to shore.

Valerie and Dave Way