ON THE ISLE
DID YOU KNOW?
DISCOVER FUN FACTS AND STORIES ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE ISLAND.
BY VICKI HOGUE-DAVIES
Wedding Tidbits
The Sea Island wedding team facilitates approximately 60 weddings a
year. Here, the team shares some fun
facts about Sea Island nuptials:
• White Wedding and Sea Island Salted
Turtle are the most popular cake flavor
choices for weddings on the Island.
• Many bridal party ladies let off some
steam at the Sea Island Shooting School
before bridal luncheons and activities.
• Sea Island pastry chefs recreate the
top tiers of wedding cakes for returning
brides and grooms’ anniversaries.
• Many engaged couples come to Sea
Island exactly one month before their
weddings to bury a bottle of bourbon
upside down; this brings good luck that
it will not rain on the big day.
SCOTT HOPKINS PHOTOGRAPHY
For information about hosting your
own celebration at the resort, please
contact the Sea Island wedding team.
(seaislandwedding.com; 912-634-4422)
Sea Turtle Talk
May through October is sea turtle nesting and hatching season on Sea Island. Last year, there
were 41 nests, down from 86 in 2013 and 102 in 2012, but as Sea Island naturalist Raleigh
Nyenhuis explains, 2014 was a very low nesting season for the entire Georgia coast and it is
believed the lower nest count was due to a natural trend.
Female sea turtles lay approximately 100 eggs up to four times during the season and will nest
beginning at 30 years old up to 90-plus years. Last summer Georgia saw three generations nesting on its beaches.
Ninety-nine percent of nesting female turtles at Sea Island are loggerheads, which, like all
seven species of sea turtles, are listed as threatened.
“Two years ago, Sea Island had one green sea turtle nest, and last year we had one leatherback
nest,” Nyenhuis says, adding that the leatherback is the largest of the species. Leatherbacks,
which survive only on jellyfish, can grow up to 8 feet long and weigh as much as 1,500 pounds.
Sea Island’s nesting leatherback measured approximately 4 feet, 6 inches.
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