Sewanee students assisted the Turtle Survival Alliance on Kiawah Island this year, along with researchers from Clemson and UGA.
Since 1983, volunteers and researchers have monitored diamondback terrapins—the only exclusively estuarine turtle in the U.S.—in five creeks on the Kiawah River. Sewanee students assisted the Turtle Survival Alliance this year, along with researchers from Clemson University and the University of Georgia. Associate Professor of Biology Kristen Cecala began working on the Kiawah Island Diamondback Terrapin Project in 2004 as an undergraduate student. She continues to engage with the project by taking Sewanee students to participate in sampling and continue the work.
In May and October, students Catherine Bratton, C'22, Molly Almon, C'24, Kabir Menon, C'25, and Kostas Andriotis, C'25, helped continue an ongoing survey of turtles in the saltwater marshes of Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Over three days, they used long seine nets in tidal creeks to catch terrapins during low tide. After the surveys were completed and measurements taken, the terrapins were returned to their home creeks and released.
Lindsey Liles, C'16, participated in terrapin sampling at Kiawah as a Sewanee student. She wrote about the challenges the terrapins face for Garden & Gun this summer.
Learn more about what some Sewanee students are researching, from the coronavirus to costume design.
