Hurricane Arthur

Thursday,  July 3.   Early morning, bands of rain and rain have already started to hit the beach as Hurricane Arthur skirts our shores.  Connie calls, we have a crawl, incoming and outgoing but the top of the crawl has been raked over already.  The crawl is just above the high tide line but no way to determine if there is a body pit and nest.  Since the incoming and outgoing crawl are about the same length, hope is it was a false crawl and the turtle will be back.  NMB False Crawl #1

Beach was already raked, top of crawl is completely covered over

No way to determine if there was a nest

Volunteers gather, anxious for a nest

wind and rain from Arthur kicks up,  poor Arlene

her umbrella is slowly being destroyed

Earlier, during her walk, Arlene came across this golf cart

abandoned on the beach

Barely had time to put dry clothes on when the call comes in from SC DNR

There is a report of a stranded live turtle on the Briarcliffe Beach

Despite the poor weather conditions,  Larry, Cindy and Judy hurry to the reported location.   Sure enough, juvenile loggerhead at the water's edge.  

Body condition was not bad, some barnacles but not completely covered

Beautiful turtle, no apparent cause of death until the turtle is turned over.....

Huge puncture wound in plastron.....cause of death?

Creative way to move the turtle down the beach

Thank you Segment A walkers for braving the deteriorating weather conditions to make sure the beach was covered.  They were rewarded with a false crawl.....what will tomorrow bring?

Thank you Judy, Cindy and Larry for responding so quickly to the stranding.  All were drenched and wind blown but the turtle was taken care of.  Just sad that we could not help it.