In June 2004 I made my second trip to Kiawah to sample terrapins. After that highly successful trip (we captured about 80 terrapins in a week) I was excited to return for the third time in October 2004. This time we were accompanied by my former Davidson professor, Mike Dorcas and several of his students. We soon discovered that tides at this time were weak, but despite the high water and cool rainy weather, we soon hit the marsh with seines.
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| Although the high tides made seining difficult and we didn't capture as many terrapins as we would have liked, we did catch this beautiful female Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin). |
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The
best catch of the trip was this old male, first captured 21 years
before by Whit and his children. This turtle was actually captured
in the first seine hall of Whit's Kiawah terrapin study. It is
the oldest turtle documented so far in this population and had
been captured at least 6 times in 21 years. |
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| An unusual trammel net capture on this trip was this young Smooth Hammerhead Shark. Although bonnethead sharks are commonly caught in the tidal creeks, true hammerheads are uncommon. Unfortunately it died in the net before it could be released. |
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| Among many interesting fish captures in trammel nets and seines was this large Southern Flounder. It made a tasty dinner. |
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| I took time on this trip to improve my skill with a cast net. With these nets we caputed several meals worth of fresh shrimp and lots of interesting fish. |
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| Including this Tilapia, captured in a salt pond. |
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| While fishing in a salt pond near our cottage, we spotted a young Alligator hanging around. We came back at night and with the help of some nifty noose-fishhead-stick combination, managed to capture the wily youngster. American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). |
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While
we were measuring and photographing the alligator we thought that
people in the other cottage might want to see. Mike got in the
car to go get the crew, pulled out of the driveway, and then slammed
on the breaks! There, in the middle of the road, not 20 feet from
where we were standing, was a 4-foot Canebrake Rattlesnake
(Crotalus horridus)! Great to see that these
snakes are persisting amidst the dense devolopment on Kiawah. |
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