– May 24, 2023 –
Georgia’s red knots
Earlier this month Georgia Department of Natural Resources biologist Fletcher Smith invited The Current’s Mary Landers to ride along as he surveyed Georgia’s red knot population by helicopter. Red knots, shorebirds about as big as a robin, make an incredible journey each year. They’re marathon flyers, with some winging it from the southern tip of South America to the high Arctic, a distance of more than 9,000 miles. Coastal Georgia provides important habitat for these long distance migrants. Some red knots spend the winter here and others just fatten up quickly on their way north, gorging on tiny clams or horseshoe crab eggs, if they’re available. Biologists used to believe all red knots visited the Delaware Bay on their way to their arctic nesting grounds. Not true. It turns out that 70% of the Georgia birds fly straight from here to the Arctic, bypassing Delaware Bay. This understanding makes Georgia even more important for these threatened shorebirds.
Robot eavesdroppers
The UGA Skidaway Institute of Oceanography is putting robots to work for right whales. Over the winter, researcher Catherine Edwards partnered with a University of South Carolina researcher Erin Meyer-Gutbrod to equip an autonomous underwater glider called Argus with a hydrophone, as The Current’s Mary Landers reports. Argus patrolled the Georgia coast for about two weeks while the highly endangered north Atlantic right whales were in the area to give birth. In that time the researchers detected multiple right whale calls. Documenting the whales by ear gives researchers another way to confirm to ship captains these animals are present. That’s important because vessel strikes are a major source of injury and death for right whales. The research duo expects to put a listening robot back in the water in December when the whales return to Georgia.
Climate resilience grants
Coastal Georgia communities looking to fund climate resilience projects — think improved drainage or elevated homes — should be heartened by the fact that there’s billions of state and federal dollars earmarked for these purposes, writes Emily Jones of WABE/Grist. Getting awarded these grants, however, may be hardest for the communities that need it most. Jones examines Tybee’s recent good fortune of having a resident with experience in writing grants and a willingness to step up to help the city pursue them. For other communities, help is available through federal and state programs, including a Biden administration’s Justice40 initiative, which promises to put 40 percent of federal climate funding toward historically disadvantaged communities.
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Georgia’s coast provides a critical refuge for this shorebird
Researchers count Georgia’s red knots, a shorebird that fuels up here before taking off for the high Arctic to raise its young.
Underwater robot deployed to aid endangered right whales
Using an underwater robot, researchers listen to endangered right whales along the Georgia coast.
Resilience projects languish as cities look for grant application help
Local government staff, often under-resourced and with plenty of work on their plates, can struggle to stay on top of the different funding opportunities, coordinate the necessary partners or come up with the local match funding some grants require.
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