Sea turtle worker seeks rewards but toils against predators
The 2017 sea turtle nesting season is well underway. More than 4,000 nests have been laid across the South Carolina coast so far, nearly all of them loggerheads. The numbers are on pace for a second straight record season for the threatened species. Hundreds of thousands of turtles will hatch.
But that’s only part of the story.
Thousands of eggs are lost each year, mostly to raccoons. Only about half the hatchlings survive the gantlet of predators standing between them and the deep ocean. Few hatchlings survive to adulthood, and adults face both natural and man-made threats.
With all the public romance of the big turtles and their coastal nesting ritual, you’d think a first-time hire would be a little agog. Schultz, 25, won the job because she has a master’s degree in marine biology and a range of field experience. She surveyed green turtle nests at night in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She’s also certified diver.
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Photo from Marlena Sloss.
