Turtles

Dredge spoils could become terrapin nursery in Cape May County
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Sunday, July 29, 2007

AVALON — Researchers are experimenting with sand dredged from the ocean floor to determine whether diamondback terrapins will use it to lay eggs.
Their aim is to find places for turtles to nest other than road embankments — with their four-wheel hazards. But the idea has sparked interest in more than turtle researchers. Another use for the materials may prove fruitful when officials search for places to stock the spoils after dredging waterways.

The Wetlands Institute in Middle Township, Cape May County, received a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation’s I BOAT NJ program. The Richard Stockton College Coastal Research Center is also involved.

Wood said the research involves looking at potential dredge materials for nesting as well as potential sites for it to be placed to draw turtles away from the highways.

“This is really early preliminary stuff. Who knows what’s going to happen?” said Roger Wood, director of research at the Wetlands Institute and a zoology professor at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Galloway Township

Over the years, development on barrier islands and construction of roads through salt marshes changed the habits of diamondback terrapins. As humans developed the land over the past century, terrapins developed different nesting habitats: seeking road embankments to lay their eggs above the high-water line.

The Wetlands Institute is close to documenting its 7,000th confirmed road kill in almost 20 years of recordkeeping, Wood said.

Their efforts also include extracting eggs from crushed turtles and incubating them, as well as erecting mesh fencing along some roads to keep the turtles from crossing during nesting season.

But the experiments with alternate nesting habitats seek to remove roads from the equation.

The concept sparked Avalon’s interest.

The borough plans extensive dredging of its harbors, lagoons and bays over the next decade.

Dredging produce large quantities of materials, said Stewart Farrell, of the Coastal Research Center.

“The problem is, where do you put it?” he said.

Avalon is proposing to the state Department of Environmental Protection transforming a dredge disposal island it owns and building a road to it.

The road, Avalon Borough Engineer Tom Thornton said, would make it easier and more cost effective to remove dredge materials from the island once they dry.

As a result, it could be used as a recycling center for dredge materials. Otherwise, the island would be almost stocked to capacity after dredging this fall, Thornton said.

But their plan involves disturbing three acres of wetlands to build the road and then reducing the size of the existing dredge disposal island to compensate for the environmental impact.

The proposed project will also require environmental and wildlife studies, officials said.

Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi said proposing the area on Macchia’s Island as turtle nesting habitat is part of their application to the DEP to make the project more appealing.

“How are they going to say no to turtles?” he said.

Macchia’s Island is a pear-shaped island and existing dredge-disposal site located between Avalon and Middle Township.

Middle Township has also supported the idea for dredging it plans near Avalon Manor, which is in Middle Township.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:BIanieri@pressofac.com

Expensive Taste

Marauding mink plunders plover nest in Stone Harbor Point
By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Wednesday, July 18, 2007

STONE HARBOR — Eggs of one of the state’s most expensive birds were eaten by minks, whose fur produces some of the world’s most expensive coats.
And this in one of New Jersey’s most expensive seaside resort towns.

State environmental officials said they believe a mink ate the eggs in two and perhaps three piping plover nests located on Stone Harbor Point.

But the appearance of the soft, furry, semi-aquatic mammal represents just one of the problems this year with piping plovers on Stone Harbor Point.

A combination of flooding and hungry laughing gulls and foxes have hurt the nesting season in the quiet, sandy habitat located in the southern end of Stone Harbor, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday.

“(It’s) not going as well as we had hoped,” said Darlene Yuhas, spokeswoman for the DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.
To date, 17 nesting pairs of the tiny shorebirds produced three young, she said. Other hatches are pending, as are census results.

Piping plover eggs can prove easy fare for wildlife eyeing the early-bird menu. To combat this, biologists place cages that wrap around the nests to limit cats and raccoons, for example.

But the mink, officials believe, was small enough to sneak through the cage.

“We have predator issues at all of our sites. In this case, based on tracks that were observed at the scene, evidently we did lose some eggs to a mink,” Yuhas said.

“Most predators can’t get through that caging, but in some cases very small ones can. It doesn’t happen too often, but it has happened before,” Yuhas said. “We have had minks destroy nests previously, so it’s not unprecedented, but it hasn’t happened very often.”

New Jersey considers the piping plover endangered.

Federal preliminary estimates from 2006 listed 116 nesting pairs in New Jersey.

The tiny piping plovers were listed as federally endangered and threatened in 1986, depending which of three North American locations they breed.

Their protection warrants extensive and costly efforts on both the federal and state levels.

Meanwhile, the traces of a mink was somewhat of a surprise at Stone Harbor Point, although minks are around.

The state identifies the population of minks as stable.

State Fish and Wildlife in 2005 and 2006 reported trappers harvested 1,656 minks.

Stone Harbor Point is located in an area away from houses and roads and on the outskirts of the bathing beaches.

The nesting area is roped off to prevent pedestrians from trouncing on the sand that serves as habitat for piping plovers, black skimmers and least terns.

Nesting wildlife have also witnessed another odd occurrence last month.

In the space of nine days, two small airplanes toting advertisements made emergency landings on Stone Harbor Point. Officials said no wildlife was injured in either case.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:BIanieri@pressofac.com

Deserted Island

Birds, boaters both fond of deserted island in Cape

By MICHAEL MILLER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6712
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Saturday, July 14, 2007

STONE HARBOR — The New Jersey Audubon Society wants the state to beef up protection for nesting shorebirds at Champagne Island.

This shifting sandbar in Hereford Inlet is home to the state's largest colony of rare black skimmers. But the deserted island is a favorite haunt of boaters, too, because they can drink alcohol, grill food and relax without worrying about being pestered by beach-badge checkers, police or lifeguards.

New Jersey Audubon would like to ban boats from the island during the skimmers' breeding season, which coincides with Cape May County's boating season.

Perhaps the biggest conservation obstacle is the island's unusual geography. It straddles the border between Middle Township, Stone Harbor and North Wildwood. No town has taken responsibility for the island.

“It's this ephemeral sandspit, just most of an acre at high tide,” New Jersey Audubon spokesman Eric Stiles said. “This site is critically important to a very imperiled species.”
The state Department of Environmental Protection regularly cordons off large sections of the island while the birds are nesting. But some people pay no heed to the barriers, especially when the rising tide shrinks the sandbar, said Don Freiday, director of birding for New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory.

The skittish birds do not tolerate people or their dogs. When the adults take flight their chicks are exposed to the heat of the sun and hungry gulls, he said.

“A lot of boaters get it. They're respectful of the signs and accept that. More than a few like the birds,” Freiday said. “But over the Fourth of July weekend, it became party town. People were there with grills and Hibachis and they moved into the colony.”

This year, royal terns are nesting on Champagne Island. This is the first breeding colony ever observed in New Jersey, Freiday said.

“That's an exciting development,” Freiday said. “Now there are over 100 royal terns around Champagne Island.”

But he and other birders are concerned about the future of the black skimmers. Not long ago, the state had two large colonies of the birds. Now the largest colony consists of just 1,400 individuals off the coast of southern Cape May County.

“Not only do we have eggs literally in one basket, but we've paved over most of the other baskets,” Stiles said.

The migratory birds are protected by law and are considered threatened with extinction in New Jersey. The black and white birds get their name from the longer lower bills they use to skim the water's surface in search of fish.

Skimmers can be fickle in their choice of nesting spots. For many years they nested off the nearby Stone Harbor Point, which has far more room than Champagne Island.

Freiday said there are no known predators on Champagne Island, unlike Stone Harbor Point, which has red foxes and raccoons.

Skimmers share the vegetated sandbar with about 700 common terns and another 100 or so royal terns.

According to New Jersey Audubon, the DEP does not have enough conservation officers to protect the state's natural resources adequately. The nonprofit group said there are 17 vacancies, a number neither the governor's office nor the DEP would confirm Friday.

The state also relies on volunteers who ask beachgoers to observe regulations designed to protect shorebirds.

DEP spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas said the agency received reports of conflicts between people and birds this week.

“We increased enforcement there. We are investigating it,” she said.

She said people who observe illegal activity such as the harassing of protected shorebirds can call the environmental action line at 1-877-WARN-DEP.


To e-mail Michael Miller at The Press:MMiller@pressofac.com