When they began their in-depth
study the number of researchers had
increased to five, and the nature of
their investigation had expanded
considerably. The project included
Wyman Frampton, Rhett Talbert,
Tom McKee, Heyward Robinson
and Jackie Powers as researchers and
Gene Furchgott and MacLeod Rhodes
directing and producing the video.
They conducted most of their activities
during the nighttime hours when
nesting loggerheads came onto the
Kiawah beach to lay their eggs. Using
automobile headlights, they found and
followed the tracks left by a female as
she came onshore. While she laid her
eggs, they attached an identification
tag to one of her flippers and watched
as she laid and covered her eggs. In
the second year of the project they
proceeded to remove the eggs from
the nest, place them in a bucket and
move them with their vehicle (a U. S.
Army surplus Jeep salvaged by piecing
together parts from vehicles recovered
from flooding during Hurricane Agnes)
to a hatchery/protection pen that they
had constructed from two by fours
and chicken wire. They estimated that
they deposited 40 percent of the eggs
laid that summer to these student built
hatcheries where they reburied every
37