MARION - Three interns from New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance dug holes in the dirt, placed three baby diamondback terrapins inside and shoveled the dirt back on top of the turtles in a project that began in June.

The team, which consists of over 40 interns, spends most the year working with adult diamondback terrapins, but from June to early September, they work with hatchlings. 

The project begins with the interns going out in early June at the beginning of nesting season to look for diamondback terrapin nests.

“We’re out looking for turtles or disturbances in the sand to find where they lay their nests,” said Kevin Kangiser of Bridgewater. “They’ll come up out of the marsh, usually around high tide because … they want to get up somewhere dry to nest.”

When the team finds a nest, they take measurements and tag the turtles, then record the nest location.

“We put a chicken wire mesh over their nests to protect them from predators, and we’ll mark the GPS location,” said Kangiser.

The team returns to the nests between 50 to 70 days later to see if the eggs have hatched, and if they have, the turtles are placed into buckets and brought back to the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance’s office.

At the office, the diamondback terrapins are measured, weighed and checked for abnormalities.

Grace Santos of Acushnet said they need to be careful handling the turtles, which are often only hours or days old.

“[Their] shells are not hard, they're still very pliable, like a baby,” she said.

The data the interns gather is then used for diamondback terrapin conservation efforts.

“Everything is recorded three, four, six, seven, or nine times,” said Kangiser.

The diamondback terrapin is a federally threatened turtle species, which means the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance must follow regulations when working.

“A lot of it is paperwork. It’s making sure that we mark and label and tag every single turtle living or dead that we find,” Santos said. “That's really important.”

Climate change, building developments, and almost being hunted to extinction have negatively impacted the diamondback terrapin population. 

“Human development attracts a lot of predators ...  that dig up their nests, and bring a lot of raccoons [and] foxes,” Kangiser said.

According to Santos, some of the turtles hatched prematurely this year at around 50 days instead of the average 65 to 70 day range.

She added that they are unsure if the premature hatches are “due to the warmer weather, climate change or if it was just marked wrong.”

Kangiser noted that the turtles and their habitats are sensitive and said that “it's really important that we don't disturb the nests, but if we do, we have to relocate them, because it makes it really easy for predators to find them.”

As temperatures begin to drop, fewer turtles are hatching, which means the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance’s season of monitoring the diamondback terrapins is winding down.

Santos said that while there are probably more hatchlings underground, they will go dormant and rely on nutrients in their yolk sac during the winter.

“Next summer, on like a really nice, hot day they’ll hatch, and it’ll seem really random,” she said.