Deeper High Tide and Sea Turtles

The UPI reported earlier this week that  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers say they are trying to learn why high tide along the Eastern United States is deeper than normal.Mike Szabados, head of a NOAA tide and current program in Silver Spring, Md., said the deeper high tide during the last few weeks has been reported all along the East Coast from Florida to Maine.”Right now we’re trying to get a better understanding of what’s the cause,” Szabados said of tide increases of up to 2 feet reported since June.

The sudden rise in the high tide has allowed scientists to reject global warming as a possible cause. Szabados said the cause could be the North Atlantic oscillation, an atmospheric pressure change in the North Atlantic Ocean between the Icelandic Low and the Azores High atmospheric pressure centers. n North Carolina, tides have been about a foot above normal predictions.

One concern about rising tides is for sea turtle nests. Some of the thousands of volunteers who patrol North Carolina beaches for sea turtle nests during the summer have noticed the higher tides because they’ve had to relocate nests higher on the beach to keep the eggs from being repeatedly submerged.  In North Carolina, tides have been about a foot above normal predictions.

Early on the morning of June 12, 2009,  an NEST  ATV driver discovered the  first 2009 nest/crawl in Corolla in the Pine Island area. Volunteers searched for eggs until 11:00 am but were unable to locate the nest. Matthew Godfrey, North Carolina Wildlife Commission biologist will review the photos taken of the site to see if he can determine if it was a false crawl or the volunteers were unable to locate the eggs (certainly not due to any lack of effort by the Nesting Response Team). The nesting area has been marked off with police tape and the site will be monitored thru the season for any hatchling activity in the nest.

Network for Endangered Sea Turtles (N.E.S.T.) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of the habitats and migration routes of Sea Turtle and other marine animals on the Outer Banks of North Carolina from the Virginia border to Oregon Inlet.

Volunteers are always needed for a variety of tasks that include turtle rehabilitation, driving a N.E.S.T. ATV to monitor turtle crawls, responding to turtle strandings, and sitting on turtle nests awaiting hatchlings.  N.E.S.T. is funded primarily through private donations, tee-shirt and souvenir sales, and fund raising events.