PRESS OF ATLANTIC CITY: Tracking terrapins slow, steady work

PRESS OF ATLANTIC CITY (Pleasantville, New Jersey) 01 August 05 Tracking terrapins slow, steady work (Brian Ianieri)
On the salt marshes they call it "turtle E-Z Pass," an experiment where turtles swim strapped with sensors and where submerged metal poles act like computers to record their blips.
A terrapin's life and movements are a mystery once it hits the water.
Scientists and unpaid interns who study diamondback terrapins at the Wetlands Institute in Middle Township ride on 600-pound-weight-limit boats through marsh channels they named themselves, using new technology to study the habits of these creatures in the wild.
"Any question you can ask about what terrapins do in the environment other than coming out to lay eggs, the answer is 'We don't know,'" says Roger Wood, the director of research at the Wetlands Institute and a zoology professor at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. "And it's not just us. It's anybody, anywhere who's ever studied terrapins throughout their range, which is Cape Cod to Texas."
Stockton biology student and summer intern Jenny Hussong rode on the calm water Friday along with Wood to check the metal rods, which are 2 feet under water and seem to attract slime, seaweed and marsh gunk.
Those rods record and store data of turtle movements every three minutes. Finding a terrapin hit is like hitting the lottery, Hussong says as she slaps at a greenhead fly on her shoulder but misses.
Retrieving the data involves lifting the rod from the water and plugging in a cord that connects to a laptop computer they bring along.
It's simple, but they have to get out there first. And once they record the data, they have to figure out what it means.
Researchers have an existing fleet of three outboard-engine boats piloted by interns, many of whom have not driven a boat before.
Wood maneuvers the 15-horsepower P.T. Ives II, named after a scientist who was a colleague of Wood's father. At the site of the closest rod, the engine croaks.
Five minutes later, it's running again, but not fast enough to outrun the biting flies.
The researchers don't pay for the data in fly bites alone. The experiment is not cheap.
Through a $20,000 anonymous grant, the Wetlands Institute bought the recording poles, plus 20 tiny turtle sensors for more than $300 each. They drilled tiny holes in the terrapin shells and affixed the sensors with plastic ties.
The batteries in the sensors are strong enough for 15 months, but if researchers can find the turtles during nesting season, they can recycle the devices and save money.
Of the 20 turtles released for the experiment a few months ago, three have not been heard from since.
Hussong, who is analyzing the data for the experiment, says it is too early to determine what to make of the data. It appears as if terrapins are territorial.
Will juveniles approach an area where adults are?
How far will they travel?
"I don't how much we'll be able to conclude from it, but at least we'll have a baseline of what the turtles are doing now," she says.
Hussong, who works the concession stand at the Stone Harbor 5 movie theater, lives with eight other summer interns in dorms located above the Wetlands Institute. She wanted to do some real lab work before she graduates in two years, she says.
Nishant Pillai, an intern from Bombay, India, took a nap Friday after a morning of removing silt fencing from Stone Harbor Boulevard, where they had installed the fence in June to prevent pregnant turtles from crossing the busy road to lay their eggs.
Field research is about getting your hands dirty.
Wood, who also spent Friday removing silt fencing, wore a T-shirt begrimed by the morning's work.
In college in the 1960s, Wood studied paleontology, and while in graduate school he worked for a professor uncovering fossils, including the fossils of turtles, in northern Kenya.
He started teaching at Stockton in 1971. While living in Avalon, he became intrigued by the turtles that nested everywhere, including on his lawn, he says.
At that time, little research was done on the diamondback terrapin, he said. Almost any experiment -including counting turtles crunched by cars and incubating the eggs from a carcass - was a fresh idea, he says.
If the tracking experiment works, Wood hopes to get more grant money and expand it, using more turtles and a larger area.
"If this continues to look as good as it's looked so far, I've got to go out and get some grant money and really turn this from a pilot project into a larger-scale study," Wood says.
He swats at a greenhead fly, catches it and tosses it overboard.
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