Savannah State University’s Christopher Hintz, Ph.D., associate professor of marine sciences, led a team of volunteers with the Tybee Sea Turtle Project this summer.

The Tybee Sea Turtle Project is a volunteer organization permitted by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to monitor and assist nesting sea turtles on Tybee, a developed barrier island. Every day in the summer, volunteers walk the three-mile long beach looking for turtle crawls, evidence of a sea turtle nest.

At the end of the incubation period, the volunteers sit by the nests, particularly in highly impacted areas of Tybee Island, to ensure the hatching turtles are oriented properly and make it to the ocean.

Hintz participates regularly in the project’s activities and outreach opportunities. The volunteers have assisted in the release of more than 40 hatchling sea turtles that had not emerged by day five and were at risk of perishing in the nest.

Nationwide, sea turtle nests are at a record high for the 2016 season, including record numbers in the states of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. The hatching period runs from May 1 – October 31.

The best way citizens can protect sea turtles is to reduce artificial lights (e.g., flashlights or cell phones) on the beach at night, and turn off any lights on beachfront properties as soon as it is dark.