The North Carolina Sea Turtle Project trains volunteers to monitor sea turtle activity along the entire coast of North Carolina.
There are a number of ways that your citizen science efforts can help protect sea turtles in North Carolina. Volunteers are needed to:
- walk small sections of beach each morning from May to August to look for turtle tracks and nests
- help guard the nests as they become ready to hatch each evening from July to October
- respond to strandings
- transport injured turtles to rehabilitation centers
All the data collected by the project are organized and disseminated to the state and federal agencies that use the information to make management decisions.
The North Carolina Sea Turtle Project, run by the state Wildlife Resources Commission's Division of Wildlife Management, is committed to monitoring North Carolina's sea turtle population. The project would not be possible without the help of hundreds of volunteers!
As seen in Chapter 8 of Citizen Science by Caren Cooper.