Club President Lynn King welcomed all and called the meeting to order
Ray Warco offered the prayer and led the Pledge to the flag.
Announcements:
Cory Malphrus told of the service project this Saturday, January 23. Hilton Head High School trash pickup at 9:30 am for an hour to an hour and a half. We will meet at the HHH Athletic Field House behind Island Rec Center. Bring gloves - trash bags and pickup tools are provided. Call/text Cory for more information and to let him know that you can help out. 843-384-0394. Six to ten people would be perfect. This is a great project to get family members involved.
Jonathan Eggert, membership chair announced that this is the third posting for Beth Kuzmick. He also received an application from Lauren Hollis.
Steve Stauffer reported that the past President's committee met (also the nomination committee) and have nominated Creighton Stuckart to the President Elect for the 2021-2022 Rotary year. Election was held with no nominations coming from the floor and Creighton was elected unanimously. Steve had announced the other officers/directors at a previous meeting.
Sergeant at Arms, Suzi Oliver, welcomed guests Ray Enstine (zoom), Lauren Hollis. Suzi collected happy $$ and introduced the speaker.
Speaker:
Amber Kuehn who enlightened us about Sea Turtles and the 2020 nesting season.
photo credit Barry Davis
Amber, who manages the Sea Turtle Patrol, grew up in Bluffton SC and has studied marine biology and received a Masters in 2005. She also has a 100 ton Master Captains license. She has lived in Ft. Lauderdale, Maui besides the lowcountry. Amber worked as a scuba instructor and dive boat captain in the past.
The Sea Turtle Patrol's mission is to "monitor Hilton Head Island beaches for sea turtle nests and hatchling activity May through October to promote the existence of these endangered species and to spread awareness of their struggle through public education and outreach.".
In SC, in 2020 there were 5551 Loggerhead nests, 3 green turtle nests, 1 leatherback nest, 1 Kemp's Ridley nest and 2 unknown. On HHI since 1991 there has been 1 Kemp's Ridley, 5 Greens, 6 Leatherbacks, and 5,648 Loggerheads. Turtle Trackers HHI is a separate organization. Besides monitoring the nesting, they also look for dead ones, and keep track of the results of necropsies. Starting May 1 they start looking for nests. Sometimes they have to move the nests above the tide line. They also do DNA testing to determine the number of each sex and can actually pinpoint which turtle laid the eggs. The texture of the sand enters into the success of nesting. The north and south ends of the island have different textures, with the south end having finer sand. They have done a 3 year study of sex determination and have found that temperature at which the eggs incubate at is a deciding factor. Hilton Head Island has been shown to produce more females than males. The leading cause of the hatchlings not surviving long enough to enter the ocean is misorientation, with last season being the highest. Covid has made a difference in the attitudes of visitors and it has become very important to emphasize "lights out" on the beach rules as well as filling holes and not leaving items on the beach. Trash is also a problem. They do patrol and try to work with renters to comply with the regulations. The "Myrtle Project" is named after an actual turtle that has been nesting on HHI every other year. She is over 60 years old and unfortunately did not come back in 2019. Amber also told of another turtle "Stumpy" that had difficulty digging her nest because of an injury. Amber was able to help her and Stumpy laid her eggs at marker 73B There was 70% emergence but sadly 93 were lost to misorientation. More information can be found at: www.SeaTurtlePatrolHHI.org Also check out Amber's business -Spartina Marine Education Charters -SpartinaCharters.com which is her source of income which allows her to volunteer working with the turtles. Coastal Discovery Museum has an adopt a nest program and you can see more about that on their website.
