There were two turtles last night in Jupiter. The first was a turtle seen in 2001 named Ridgey. When she was first encountered in 2001 she did not lay any eggs even though she tried very hard. Since she did not drop eggs, there was never an opportunity to properly tag her but she did have a very distinctive scalloping on her left rear flipper. In 2003, a turtle with the same problem tried nesting in Juno Beach and this time she was named Alice. The beginning of this season Chris spotted her again and remembered the scalloped rear flipper. After looking through files and blogs, we realized Alice and Ridgey are probably the same turtle. Last night she was attempting to nest in the Inlet project area. She would dig a little bit then try to deposit eggs, then dig a little more and try to drop eggs again. She repeated this for almost 30 minutes. At one point she got so frustrated she slapped her rear flipper down causing sand to fall into her egg chamber and then tried nesting again. Every time she tried dropping eggs you could see the strain in her rear flippers. We are very confused as to why this turtle can't lay eggs because she appears to be in excellent health. Since leatherbacks in Florida have such low site fidelity, we don't know when and where we will see her next. Hopefully next time we will be able to come up with some answers. The second turtle was Lily and had a much easier time laying eggs. She is new this year and was first seen 10 days ago nesting in Juno Beach.
