Whachu got, shark?? (Brazen Blue Crabs and other Linsky adventures on Tybee and Williamson Islands)

Ah, the beach…What’s not to love? The sound of the surf, soft white sand, and massive barges. Well, at least that’s the view here on Tybee Island.

Saturday marked the official start to my summer adventures. All the teachers going to the Bahamas in two weeks traveled to Tybee on Friday for a prep session. I woke up early Saturday morning to take a stroll on the beach--one of my favorite things in the world to do. There’s nothing more peaceful that standing on the water’s edge, feeling the pulse of the waves lapping over your feet, and looking out over the seemingly endless expanse of the natural world. However, my serene escape from my busy life was somewhat disrupted by this little reminder of my proximity to the port of Savannah.



Actually, the people of Tybee put up with a lot of headaches for these shipments. The Savannah River needs to be dredged up several times a year to keep it deep enough for the jumbo barges, which prevents the beaches of Tybee from getting the natural source of sediments. So every 7-9 years the beaches have to be “replenished.” This means the sand you see in this picture probably came from a sand bar out at sea somewhere. Also, additional crews have to go out with plows to make sure the new sand isn’t packed down too hard for nesting sea turtles.



Anyway, back to Tybee. This island is the most highly populated of the Georgia islands, but I was really impressed with their environmental initiatives. A lot of their street signs are shaped like sea turtles, there’s a great Marine Science center, and every beach access point has this trash/recycling set up to keep the beaches clean. I assume the ATV-like tracks next to the bins were from people collecting the trash/recyclables. Hopefully they know what sea turtle tracks and nests look like...Some of the tire tracks I saw were right next to the dune line, which is where turtles like to nest.



Speaking of the dunes, check out the footprints right next to the “Keep out of Dune Area” sign. Ug. The dunes protect the upland from hurricanes and are home to an entire ecosystem of organisms including many endangered birds that nest on the ground. If you’re ever on the beach and see a bird flying really close to you or limping around like its hurt, it might be a mama bird pretending to have a broken wing so that you will go toward it and away from her nest. Cool factoid, huh?



But I digress… So after my morning walk, I joined the other teachers on a pontoon boat, and we headed out to Williamson Island. If you’ve never heard of the island, it’s because its completely undeveloped. It’s a tiny barrier island which is so small that it doesn’t appear on any of the maps Google images has to offer (sorry--I tried). Anyway, as we were pulling up, we saw this non-nesting sea turtle crawl. In other words, a mother sea turtle came on shore to nest then changed her mind and went back.



These guys were also trying to lay eggs on the beach, but didn’t have as much luck getting back. We saw these live horseshoe crabs stranded on the beach trying to make it back to the water. According to horseshoecrab.org 10% of these “living fossils” die from shore strandings. We weren’t entirely sure if all of them were stranded or still nesting…We put several of them back in the water, though.



A little farther down the beach we saw another sea turtle crawl and what looked like a nest. We were concerned with the nest’s location because the eggs would probably drown at high tide. However, I now think this was another non-nesting sea turtle crawl because it didn’t have the “thrown sand” like in nest 07-024 on the St. Catherine's Sea Turtle Conservation Website. Mother sea turtles throw sand as they dig their nests, so no thrown sand around a body pit like this means it‘s not a real nest. Again, something spooked this mama turtle, which made her go back to sea without nesting.



I love the marsh. It’s one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet. I look at this and can’t help but think about the marshes in Louisiana. Getting oil on the beaches is bad, yes. But the marshes is where the majority of the ocean’s fish and shellfish go to breed. No marsh=no sea life.



A little later in the day we broke out the seine to see what was hanging out in the ocean around us. We stretched out the net, took it out to about waist deep water, and then turned around and came back to shore. After we checked out the catch, we threw back the fish and other things we found.



We caught this teeny puffer fish all puffed up from the seine excitement :)



We also caught this gorgeous juvenile Bonnethead Shark. As we were marveling at the shark and preparing to throw it back, a tiny blue crab approached it with pinchers out at the ready as if to say, “You wanna piece of me??? Whachu got, shark? Bring it!” He was completely unfazed by the shark thrashing around (double click the picture to enlarge.)

Coming up: I leave for the Bahamas in less than two weeks! I’m not gonna lie...the thought of a little 8-seater plane is a little unnerving. Also, I can’t decide if I should go SCUBA diving or just snorkel. I’d love your input!