A great day-trip to Ossawbaw Island

A team of Skidaway Institute scientists visited Ossawbaw Island this week.

Sandy beach with scattered sea grass and dunes, stretching into the distance under a hazy sky. The shoreline curves near the horizon, with a few small trees and shrubs in the background.

The beach

One of the main reasons for the trip was to perform some maintenance on the Barrier Island Network.

Skidaway Institute is one of a group of organizations developing a network of cameras and sensors that will turn the island into a remote laboratory for researchers and students. Right now the network consists of a weather station, a water monitoring sensor at the main dock, two more in wells in the interior of the island and a camera at the dock. You can access the pictures and data here.

A blue research vessel named R/V Savannah travels on the water under a clear blue sky, with land and trees visible in the background.

(l-r) Herb Windom, Bob Antonelli, Charles Robertson, Sam Cook and Debbie Wells examine a a sensor that spent a little too much time in salt water.

The technical crew needed to change out the sensor at the dock and install a sensor in one of the wells. Long-term exposure to salt water is very rough on scientific equipment.

We got around mostly in pick-up trucks.

Also, the geology team of Clark Alexander and Mike Robinson tramped through the woods to find a good site to obtain core samples.

Two men outdoors examine a fish; one holds the fish while the other uses a tool to take a sample. They are dressed casually and stand near trees and plants in a sunny setting.

Clark Alexander and Mike Robinson emptying a core.

That is part of a project to date the origin of the island.

A person kneels on a sandy beach beside scientific equipment, looking at their watch. The setup includes electronic devices, a laptop, and a solar panel. The ocean is visible in the background under a clear sky.

Kathryn Sutton at the beach with her air sampling gear.

Georgia Southern grad student Kathryn Sutton also went along to obtain air samples from the beach and to collect Spanish moss for her research project looking at the possibility of using Spanish moss as a bio-indicator of atmospheric mercury from coal-fired power plants.

The team also placed a new sensor in one of the two research wells on the island.

Three men are outdoors in a wooded area. Two of them are focused on working together with a long metal object, while the third man, in a red plaid shirt, stands behind them watching. Sunlight filters through the trees.

Sam Cook (Siemitsu Computers) and Bob Antonelli hook up the well sensor while Charles Robertson looks on.

We didn’t see a lot of wildlife this time around. The fresh water ponds are low, which probably keeps the alligators away from the various causeways. Herb Windom and Paul Pressly (Ossabaw Foundation) did meet one of the island’s pet pigs, “Paul Mitchell.”

Two men in jackets and hats stand in a yard, observing a large black boar near the porch of a house with rocking chairs and blue-green railings.

Heb Windom and Paul Pressly meet "Paul Mitchell."

It was a beautiful day and the island scenes were, as always, a treat.

A large, weathered driftwood tree lies sprawled across an empty sandy beach under a bright blue sky, with gentle ocean waves in the background.

A dead tree on the Ossabaw beach

A field of dead, leafless palm tree trunks stands upright in dry, brown grass under a clear blue sky, with some trunks featuring holes and rough textures. Sparse, leafless trees are visible in the background.

Dead palm trees

A wide, open marshland with tall brown grasses extends toward the horizon under a blue sky with wispy clouds. Trees and bushes border the marsh, and patches of green foliage appear in the foreground and background.

An Ossabaw Island saltmarsh

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