1. INTRODUCTION
Sea Turtle Habitat at Risk: Longitudinal Record of Sea Turtle
Nesting on St. Catherines Island, GA
Jaynie L. Gaskin, Brian K. Meyer, Michael J. Samms, Gale A. Bishop, R. Kelly Vance and Fredrick J. Rich
Georgia Southern University Sea Turtle Program at St. Catherines Island
 St. Catherines Island, located off the coast of Midway, Georgia, has
21 km of sea turtle nesting habitat that has been monitored from
1990 to the present
 Loggerhead Sea Turtle nests on St. Catherines Island (SCI)
beaches face two major threats:
Washover of nests due to erosion
Depredation of nests by feral hogs
 Management and storage of data from the last 25 years of sea turtle
conservation has been complicated by rapidly evolving technology.
Fragmented storage of data has precluded using the data in any
kind of comprehensive analysis.
 Combing data from all 25 years would facilitate longitudinal analysis
of sea turtle conservation efforts on the beaches of SCI
Data:
Nesting data from 1999-2008 were entered into Microsoft Excel and
exported into SPSS for Windows.
Environmental and nesting data were recoded into appropriate
variables for biostatistical analysis
Analysis:
Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to
investigate all associations.
 Nesting and environmental data from conservation reports from 1999-2008
were successfully cleaned, merged and imported in SPSS biostatistical
software for analysis
 Analysis of data produced statistically significant results that can be used to
improve sea turtle conservation efforts on St. Catherines Island
 Nests that are screened or caged or both are 50.6% LESS likely to be
depredated than nests that are not screened or caged or both. This result is
statistically significant.
 Nests that are NOT relocated are 2.627 times MORE likely to be washed
out than nests that are left in situ. This result is statistically significant.
 Nests that are left in situ are 81.6% MORE likely to depredated than nests
that are relocated. This result is statistically significant.
 This study highlights the need for further longitudinal analysis of the
interactions among environmental and nesting variables
Strengths:
The present study is the first to use biostatistical analyses to test for
correlations among sea turtle nesting variables and environmental hazards
The present study demonstrates the effectiveness of a novel biostatistical
approach to the analysis of sea turtle conservation data
The present study includes ten years of continuous nesting data from the
same barrier island
Limitations:
The internal validity of this study is compromised because data used in this
project were not originally collected for biostatistical research purposes.
 The purpose of this study is to determine the merit of cleaning,
digitizing, and merging sea turtle nesting data sets from 1990- 2014
for biostatistical analysis
 This project will serve as a pilot study, focusing on data sets from
1999-2008
Bishop, G. A., R. H. Hayes, B. K. Meyer, H. E. Rollins, F. J. Rich, D. H. Thomas, and R. K. Vance. 2007.
Transgressive Barrier Island Features of St. Catherines Island, Georgia, p. 39-85, In F. J. Rich (ed), Fieldtrips
of the 2007 Annual Meeting, Southeastern Section, Geological Society of America. Georgia Southern
University (Statesboro, GA).
Bishop, G.A., and B.K. Meyer.* 2011.
Sea turtle habitat deterioration on St. Catherines Island: defining the modern transgression Chapter 14. in
Bishop, G. A., H. B. Rollins, and D.H., Thomas, (eds), Geoarchaeology of St. Catherines Island, Ga., American
Museum of Natural History Anthropological Papers, 94: 272-295.
Bishop, G. A., F. L. Pirkle, B. K. Meyer, and W. A. Pirkle. 2011. The foundation for sea turtle geoarchaeology
and zooarchaeology: Morphology of recent and ancient sea turtle nests, St. Catherines Island, Georgia, and
Cretaceous Fox Hills Sandstone, Elbert County, Colorado, Chapter 13, in Bishop, G. A., H. B. Rollins, and
D.H., Thomas, (eds), Geoarchaeology of St. Catherines Island, Ga., American Museum of Natural History
Anthropological Papers, 94: 247-269.
Meyer, B. K. 2013. Shoreline Dynamics And Environmental Change Under The Modern Marine Transgression:
St. Catherines Island, Georgia. Dissertation, Georgia State University, 250 pp.
Meyer, B. K., R. K. Vance, and G. A. Bishop. 2014. Rising Seas: Addressing eroding habitats on St.
Catherines Island, Georgia (U.S.A.), Status of the World’s Sea Turtles, SWOT Report, (9):18-19.
Mrosovsky, N. 2006. Distorting Gene Pools by Conservation: Assessing the Case of Doomed Turtle Eggs,
Environmental Management, 38:523–531 DOI 10.1007/s00267-005-0348-2
Demographics of the Samples
YEAR 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 10 Year
TOTALS
Total Nests 125 115 53 76 142 59 122 124 52 139 1007
False
Crawls
247 118 93 152 250 30 186 151 153 240 1620
Relocated 70 64 37 49 135 21 55 91 41 122 685
Washed Out 1 0 0 1 0 2 2 8 2 0 16
Depredated 42 29 15 35 16 17 17 32 17 11 231
Hatched
Nests
88 109 26 42 133 55 105 113 43 40 651
% Depredated % Not
Depredated
Odds Ratio (95% CI) P-value
Screen or Cage or
Both
18.6% 81.4% 0.494
(0.366, 0.668)
0.000
No Nest
Management
31.6% 68.4%
% Washed Out % Not Washed
Out
Odds Ratio (95% CI) P-value
In Situ 3.1% 96.9% 3.627
(1.307, 10.068)
0.008
Relocated 0.9% 99.1%
% Depredated % Not
Depredated
Odds Ratio (95% CI) P-value
In Situ 30.4% 69.6% 1.816
(1.340, 2.460)
0.000
Relocated 19.4% 80.6%
PURPOSE
METHODS
RESULTS
REFERENCES
STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS
CONCLUSIONS
Association of Nest Management and Depredation
Association of Relocation and Nest Wash Out
Association of Relocation and Depredation
Figure 1: St. Catherines Island
Figure 2: Coastal Erosion of SCI
Figure 3: Nest Depredated by Feral Hogs
Figure 6: Hatchlings Rescued from Poor Habitat- First Wild Nest of 2014
Figure 5: Hatchling Released Summer 2014Figure 4: Mother Turtle Returning to Sea
Figure 7: Hatchling Release 2014