Author: Hannah Mauer
Date: April 25, 2025
Some Floridians keep a beach bag in the trunk of their car for easy access to extra towels, a change of clothes, and for an impromptu beach day. Before sea turtle nesting season ramps up, many Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Marine Laboratory students, including myself, add a different kind of beach bag to their car: a field bag.
The average field bag has predictable items like sunscreen, snacks, and a water bottle as well as less common supplies such as zip ties, a state permit from Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, batteries, and red headlamps that are crucial for sea turtle nest monitoring. Now is the perfect time to assemble our field bags as leatherback sea turtles have already been nesting for a month, loggerheads are just starting up, and green sea turtles will soon follow. In preparation and celebration of sea turtle nesting season, I interviewed some of our researchers and students (Director of the Marine Lab, Dr. Jeanette Wyneken, graduate students Elizabeth Schultheis and Alex Hoey, and undergraduate Brynna Fisher) about the contents of their field bags and their experiences monitoring sea turtle nests. As an undergraduate Glenn W. & Cornelia T. Bailey Marine SEA Scholar with a few nesting seasons under my belt, I (Hannah Mauer) sprinkled in some of my own experiences as well.
Why do we monitor sea turtle nests?
During the field season, FAU Marine Lab students and researchers monitor the beach looking for sea turtle nests, hatchlings, and nesting females. Beach monitoring for the FAU Marine Lab occurs at sunset to close cages over selected research nests that are likely to undergo an emergence of hatchlings that evening, after the sand cools. A midnight shift of observers will check those cages for the turtles!
Dr. Jeanette Wyneken, Director of the FAU Marine Lab, believes “it’s important to get a feeling for when studied nests are likely to produce hatchings, turtles that will be cared for and raised in the Marine Lab.” Monitoring can also help identify a subset of study nests that are attacked by predators, and whether extra measures are needed to protect their eggs and hatchlings. The Marine Lab monitors those nests to determine hatchling sex ratios, or how many males and females are produced. Whether a sea turtle becomes male or female is determined by the temperature, moisture level, and other environmental conditions that are experienced by the eggs during a brief portion of the incubation period.
Brynna Fisher, an undergraduate SEA Scholar with one sea turtle season under her belt, explained that she monitored nests “to check for hatchlings in the middle of the night, so that I can bring them into the lab for use in the sex ratio research project.” A small subset of hatchlings (5-10) from each research nest serve as subjects. These are selected from nests in which the eggs will complete development during the beginning, middle and end of the nesting season. In that way, possible changes in sex ratios can be detected that might occur as a result of seasonal changes in the environment.
How long has the FAU Marine Lab been monitoring sea turtle nests?
Dr. Wyneken replied casually, “I have been working with sea turtles, consistently, since 1983. Yup, way before you were born.” This has become a running joke in the lab, since Dr. Wyneken has been conducting sea turtle research for many years! She moved to FAU as a sea turtle researcher in 1990, set up part of the FAU Marine Lab as a sea turtle facility, and the rest is history. The FAU Marine Lab has been conducting sea turtle research projects (in collaboration with Loggerhead Marinelife Center and Gumbo Limbo Nature Center) since then and overtime, more than a few FAU Marine Lab students have become more involved in the nest monitoring process as part of their careers.
Now let’s hear about those monitoring shifts and what our team needs to successfully accomplish them!
What does a typical field night look like for you?
FAU Marine lab students monitor the study nests for hatchlings at sunset and at midnight, which for most college students is either way past their bedtime or when they are finally getting around to doing their homework! Students end up spending between one to two hours on patrol, depending upon how many nests must be checked. Fisher typically left campus around 11 PM, then headed to the Marine Lab for some buckets and a red headlamp for her midnight shift. We shared a knowing laugh about the red headlamp, as it is a lifeline out on the beach during rainy or moonless nights. Sea turtles use the lowest and brightest horizon to find the sea at night, so artificial light can be incredibly disruptive to the nesting and seafinding processes. Red lights are used because sea turtles are much less sensitive to longer wavelengths of light (oranges and reds) than they are compared to short wavelength blue, green, or even yellow light.
Elizabeth Schultheis, a Master’s student at the Marine Lab is on the beach at night for a different reason. She is conducting collaborative research looking for nesting leatherbacks to study the fungal loads they either bring to their nests or are already present in the nest sand. Her typical night consists of getting supplies ready for sand sample collection and taking the ATVs out to do “passes” back and forth along the beach, looking for the nesting leatherbacks. With miles of beach to cover and small window of time to spot a nesting female, Schultheis advises “communication with your team is key.” So much effort goes into sea turtle nest monitoring just to have the chance to study these imperiled animals.
How do you prepare for your night in the field?
Fisher said she usually took a little power nap before her monitoring shift, drank some kind of caffeine, put on beach-appropriate clothes, and then she was ready to go.
Schultheis prepares labeled tubes and bags for the sand and fungal samples she takes while the female sea turtle is laying her eggs. She also carries with her a supply of “sampling sheets” she has created. These are used to keep track of what samples she collects, including additional information such as the nest ID number, the turtle’s ID (if tagged), the time, and the location.
With a few nesting seasons under my own belt as an undergraduate SEA Scholar, I typically would do homework until 11 pm and then head out with my field bag, crocs, and raincoat. It ended up raining most of my nights, but I also witnessed many hatchling emergences from those nests. I counted that incredible experience as a fair tradeoff with the less-than-ideal rainy nights.
Do you pack any snacks, energy drinks, or anything else to help fuel you during patrol?
The resounding consensus for many of the lab members was that caffeine was an integral part of their patrol routine. Fisher preferred to have an energy drink, “keeping [her] cool during the hot nights,” while I preferred to drink one the next morning if I felt tired.
Throughout her four years doing various sea turtle monitoring, Schultheis has learned that she needs to pack a snack to keep her awake and energized. To hold her over, popcorn is a must along with other snacks.
How heavy is your field bag?
Typically, evening monitoring field bags are not too heavy. The heaviest thing in my bag was my emotional support water bottle, full of ice-cold water. However, researchers may also have to carry a few pounds worth of sand and hatchlings in a large bucket or cooler if they happen upon a research nest where an emergence of hatchlings has occurred! Of the hatchlings collected, only 5-10 will be reared in the lab, and the rest will be released the next evening. Carrying a bucket full of hatchlings off the beach and back to the lab is similar to doing a bicep curl or shoulder shrug for an hour. While this is science, it is also Dr. Wyneken’s excuse to keep us fit.
What are your most used items in your field bag?
Alex Hoey, a SEA Scholar at the FAU Marine Lab, says her most used items in her field bag were reusable zip ties. Hoey often conducts the sunset cage-closing shift where the zip ties are used to secure the metal cage over the nest, so sea turtle hatchlings that emerge from the nest naturally can be collected by the student conducting the midnight shift. It is extremely important to secure the cage properly. If the zip ties are not tightened or the cage is not secure in the sand, the hatchlings might escape or worse, they could be injured by a predator attempting to reach them in a poorly secured cage. So, we make sure to train each new Marine Lab student in “cage closing 101.”
The most used items in my field bag were my earbuds. Although I often enjoyed the calm quiet beach, I eventually needed musical motivation for the trek back to my car. My second most used item was a raincoat with a hood to protect my earbuds from the rain.
How much sand is in your field bag and car?
Despite our best efforts, sand ends up in the bags, shoes, cars, hats, and clothes of all members of the Marine Lab. Hoey admitted that her car “contains an ever-present layer of sand,” a common hallmark feature in the cars of members of the lab. Schultheis conceded that “it's inevitable” to have sand in her car and field bag, with most of the sand ending up in her front seat.
How do you keep your skin protected while out on the beach?
Lab members, like Hoey opt to wear full coverage clothing such as a “long-sleeve, moisture-wicking shirt and waterproof pants” in lieu of sunscreen and bug spray. Fisher preferred to wear a crewneck instead of bug spray during midnight monitoring to avoid smelling bug spray all night.
Hoey always had her “trusty hat”, with the Sea Turtle Protection Zone logo on it (which says, “Go Slow for Those Below!”). That hat is either on her head or strapped to her field bag to stay safe from the sun.
My baggy, navy blue raincoat ended up being multipurpose, keeping rain and bugs off me and shielding my beloved earbuds.
What have you learned during your time monitoring nests?
Florida weather is unpredictable and a relatable experience for lab members during monitoring shifts was that the weather was not always on our side. “You can try to prepare as best as possible for the weather, but you still might leave your raincoat in your car by accident…” admitted Hoey. Additionally, she advised aspiring sea turtle researchers to “make sure your field bag is weatherproof and – as long as you’re not in a thunderstorm – just try to enjoy the rainy walk and fieldwork anyway.”
Fisher reminisced that she always brought an umbrella and then chuckled as she said she always happens to forget it in her car.
Schultheis echoed a similar sentiment stating that she has learned to “never leave [the] house without snacks and raincoat. We live in Florida – you never know.”
What are you looking forward to for this sea turtle season?
Schultheis says “it never gets old seeing a turtle nest” and is looking forward to seeing nesting females and collecting sand samples for her research.
Every season Dr. Wyneken looks forward to “solving mysteries…getting an answer to a question and discovering the various aspects that led to that answer.” Furthermore, students of the FAU Marine Lab are encouraged to ask their own questions about sea turtles and always stay curious about the wonders of the natural world!
If you liked this newsletter article, head over to our social media accounts @faumarinelab where we featured what’s in some of our field bags!
