Criminal Defense Attorney in Tybee Island, GA.

Earlier this week, volunteers at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center inventoried a nest of sea turtles like they have done many times since the beginning of May, when the Georgia coast's annual sea turtle nesting season commenced. However, this nest was a bit different from the other 31 nests, which held the eggs of loggerheads.

Chantal Audran, executive director of the center, said that they call them their "hometown girls" because 99.8% of Tybee's nest are made by loggerhead sea turtles.

This one nest, however, held green sea turtles.

Audran and her team noticed immediately that it was a different type of turtle, Audran said, because they are so used to loggerheads. "I've been in the field for 20 years, and I've never seen a green sea turtle hatchling."

Audran explained how the turtles get their name. "They eat a lot of algae, all of that chlorophyll dyes their soft membranes, so around their eyes and in other places their fatty tissues green, so we know he was a green sea turtle immediately because even the babies look really different. They have much more almondy eyes, and he was gray almost, and we're used to black, and dark brown loggerheads. I've only raised loggerheads myself, so when you hold that animal in your hand, you're immediately like, oh, this is not one."

She added, "That's why the green sea turtle was so exciting, and such a big fun surprise, we've had very few in our past."

Green sea turtles are one of five of the most common species of sea turtles found on Georgia's barrier islands. The others are loggerheads, leatherbacks, Kemp's ridley and hawksbills, with loggerheads being the most prevalent. Green sea turtles don't often nest on Tybee's beaches, however, but Audran said their appearance isn't necessarily indicative of anything.

"Sea turtles like to go back to nest on the same beach that they're born on," Audran said. "Or they will go back to the same spot they've been nesting, so it's irregular to see a neophyte, as we call them, come to our beach."

More:Here’s how many eggs sea turtles laid on Georgia beaches this year

More:Georgia's record breaking sea turtle nesting season winds to a close

More:Summertime dredging in Georgia threatens sea turtles; Corps allowed to kill 214 loggerheads

Sea turtle season

Every year at the beginning of May, Tybee Island Sea Turtle volunteers walk the beach every morning, looking for turtle tracks. Once the tracks are found, the nest is located and marked.

"We know when they're going to hatch, so we let them naturally hatch," Audran said. "We don't involve ourselves in that process. What we do, though, is five days after it naturally hatches, we go back and excavate that nest. We're going to take everything out of that two-foot hole, and count the number of hatched eggs, unhatched eggs, and how many stragglers, and sometimes there's dead stragglers; sometimes there's no stragglers."

A mother sea turtle will drop between 100 and 125 eggs, usually at night, then return to the sea. Stragglers are baby turtles that don't get out of the nest and into the water. Out of that range, 10 green sea turtles straggled behind out of the most recent nest.

After the volunteers inventory the nest, they take them down into the shoreline and release them.

"All of those 10 stragglers are released back into the ocean, but it's really a great moment to be able to see another species," Audran said.

The science center raises one straggler to be its marine debris ambassador for three years. Although they are currently shopping for a new one since their current ambassador, Ike, is due to be released Sept. 23, they couldn't keep any of the green sea turtles.

"We keep loggerheads because they are threatened in our state, but they're not endangered," Audran said. "Georgia has a lot of great numbers of loggerheads, but green sea turtles are endangered."

Caswell Beach in North Carolina also recorded its first green sea turtle nest this year. Theresea Putman, one of the co-coordinators of the Caswell Beach Turtle Watch, said she didn't really know why it happened. Caswell also normally has majority loggerheads.

"Other than population growing, the weather, climate change may have something to do with it," Putnam said. "I'm not really sure. As far as we know it's the first green sea nest Caswell has ever had."

Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at daubus@gannett.com.

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC) - Tybee Island’s city manager officially turning in his resignation.

City Manager Shawn Gillen has been on a medical leave since June.

Tybee City Council will vote on whether or not to accept it on Thursday. In his letter, Gillen said he was resigning for health-related reasons.

Shawn Gillen has been serving as Tybee’s city manager since August of 2017.

His resignation letter starts by saying in summary that he’s sad to be submitting his resignation and that he was fortunate to serve Tybee. Gillen says due to circumstances with his health, he must step down and focus on his recovery. He says Tybee is a special place and his family will be sticking around for many years.

Michelle Owens has been acting as interim city manager. She was an assistant city manager before Gillen went on extended leave during the summer.

Tybee’s mayor sent WTOC a statement on his resignation sent to her and city council members. Mayor Shirley Session says in summary that Owens will stay in the interim city manager role until further notice. Sessions says while the city council decides its next steps, Tybee is in capable hands. She goes on to say, no matter what happens, they are grateful to Gillen for six years of leadership and wish him and his family the best.

It’s not clear what health concerns he’s facing. His letter says his last day would be Thursday.

Also on Thursday, we’ll be sure to keep you updated on the council’s decision to accept or deny his resignation.

Mayor Sessions full statement is below:

“Tybee Island City Manager Shawn Gillen has tendered his resignation to the City Council, effective September 28, 2023. Acting City Manager Michelle Owens has filled the city manager role since May, when Mr. Gillen took an extended leave of absence, and will continue to do so until further notice. The resignation is contingent on council approval at Thursday night’s city council meeting.

“Until the city council decides its next steps, our city is in very capable hands with the acting city manager and an amazing team of city employees.” said Mayor Shirley Sessions. “No matter what happens, we are grateful to Shawn for six years of leadership and wish only the best for him and his family.”

Copyright 2023 WTOC. All rights reserved.

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

The Tybee Island City Council unanimously passed a resolution Thursday that calls for state and federal lawmakers to consider restricting access to the island when it becomes overly crowded by events which “overwhelm” the city's capacity.

This comes in the wake of last month's Orange Crush festival, when an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people — mostly students from historically Black colleges and universities — visited Tybee, in part leading to massive traffic backups and concerns over safety on the beach.

“I think we all have to be behind this, because this is about public safety, it's about infrastructure and it's about having control over keeping our resources, our people, our visitors, everyone safe,” Tybee Island Mayor Shirley Sessions said ahead of the vote.

Among other measures, the resolution asks legislators to potentially pass a law that would restrict or even shut down U.S. Highway 80 — the only road leading into and out of Tybee Island.

Sessions added that the city does not have the authority to restrict access itself to either the highway — which is overseen by state and federal officials — or the public beach itself.

According to the most recent tourism study of Tybee Island, the city drew in an estimated 1.9 million annual visitors.

“I think sometimes it's easy for the people in Atlanta and wherever to forget about Tybee, and forget that we have a lot to deal with,” Sessions said. “And I think they're beginning to understand. They're seeing the overflow and the problems that traffic and crowds draw — that they hopefully want to help us have a safe experience for people who come here to visit.”

Tags: Tybee Island HBCU Georgia Savannah Atlanta Georgia Politics

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About the author

Author

Benjamin Payne

Savannah Reporter

Benjamin is the Savannah-based reporter for GPB, where he covers Coastal Georgia.

Prior to coming to Savannah, he freelanced in Bellingham, Washington, for public media outlets including NPR, Marketplace, and PRX. Previously, Benjamin hosted Morning Edition for WVIK, his hometown NPR member station in Rock Island, Ill. Before that, he served a news internship with NPR member station WBEZ in Chicago.

Benjamin is a graduate of the University of Nevada-Reno's journalism master's program, and earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from Augustana College in Rock Island.

Animals

Posted: Sep 7, 2023 / 06:11 PM EDT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Dolphins were spotted during a dive training off the coast of Tybee Island in Georgia in a video released on Sept. 7.

The Savannah Fire Department dive team captured the video of the pod of dolphins swimming around 20 miles off the shore.

“The SFD dive team recently met some ocean friends during dive training!” they said in a post.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC) - Labor Day bringing many folks out to the beaches on Tybee Island.

Soaking up the sun, splashing in the waves and fishing off the pier.

Many of the people WTOC spoke with said they feel there’s no better way to spend this holiday than relaxing at the beach.

Some say this may be their last trip to the beach until next year, so for lots of people, this weekend marks the unofficial end of summer.

“Me and the kids are out here enjoying Labor Day weekend. Trying to catch some sun, get a little bit of exercise, probably get in this water and you know, try not to have too much fun,” Tybee Visitor Dylan Belcher said.

“We was at the beach, relaxing, enjoying this weather. We don’t have no beaches at home so enjoying the weather, enjoying the beach. It’s a good vibe,” Tybee Visitor Tyrone Simmerson said.

Simmerson is visiting from all the way from Mississippi. He said he knew Tybee was the place he wanted to spend this weekend because all he wanted to do was decompress by the ocean.

Business owners say they’re grateful for the foot traffic Labor Day brings to the island.

The owner of Boardwalk Ice Cream on Tybrisa Street says this weekend brought one of the busiest days of the summer. He says on Saturday his shop was packed from open until close.

That’s the kind of business he says is crucial this time of year.

“It’s a, it’s a little slow for a few, few weeks leading up to Labor Day, so this is kind of a good, good little extra bump to get us through the winter,” said Allen Newkirk.

Newkirk says although some mark this weekend as the unofficial end of summer, he’s hoping that with these warm temperatures, locals will continue to come out and cool off with his ice cream.

Meanwhile, some people said it was there first time out here on Tybee and they’re already looking forward to coming again.

“Well, we thought it was a great day to come out to Tybee because we did a lot of cleanup after the storm and we just needed to get out of the house and enjoy this beautiful day. There’s not a care in the world out here. I mean there’s nothing to do except just enjoy the sun and lay on the beach, enjoy the water,” said Janice and Jim Ambler.

The Ambler’s say they turn to Tybee when they need a place to forget all their worries.

Copyright 2023 WTOC. All rights reserved.