leatherbacks's blog

The leatherbacks are still nesting here along Juno Beach! The numbers have dropped dramatically, but we have been getting one or two nests a night since we quit our nightly surveys. This has been an amazing leatherback season with more than 270 nests recorded on Juno alone. Based on our numbers, we believe that there may be more than 500-600 nests laid on Palm Beach County beaches!

Stay tuned for a complete update on the season.

Click here for an Animated Graph showing the number of nests along Juno Beach since 1989.

Last night, a turtle named "Frenchy" laid the 159th nest along Juno Beach, making this a new record season! We still have another good month of nesting ahead of us and research staff (some of us..) are predicting that we will see more than 220 nests along the Juno portion of our survey area.

Click here for an Animated Graph showing the number of nests along Juno Beach since 1989.

I guess it is hard to keep coming up with names for new turtles!
Here at the office, we have a list of names to pick from that staff, friends and volunteers have come up with for our new untagged turtles. Some of them have meaning ("Darcy" - meaning dark one) and some of them are named for friends and family that we have lost. I will never forget the meaning of the turtle names Eleanor, BG, Homcy and Linda Sue. Some of the names we pick are just named because we are a bit lazy and often look online for a simple list of names. This year, we have been using a list of names we all learned when we were young - state names of the United States! They do seem rather fitting though, Montana is a native American Indian word meaning "mountain" (she was a big turtle..) and the turtle Nebraska nested on a calm flat night which comes from a word meaning flat water.

We are in the middle of a very busy season here along Juno Beach.
Since we began surveying back in early March, we have documented 87 individual turtles and 47 NEW leatherbacks nesting along our beach! These numbers are really very encouraging for the population of leatherbacks in the Atlantic Ocean. It is only the end of April and we have already had more turtles than most of the season we have been working. I can only imagine what is in store for us in May, when the #'s typically increase. We could possibly see twenty turtles a night!

We have had two very exciting turtles return to nest this season. One of our favorites is Sara. If you have been following the blog for a while, you may recall the dramatic story of this turtle. Back in 2005, we found her trying to nest along Jupiter Beach. We watched her struggle to lay eggs for a bit before we found that she was completely "plugged up" with plastic. She had a large mass blocking her cloaca and she was unable to pass eggs (and everything else...) We were able to remove the plastic and she returned to try and nest about a month later. At that time, she seemed to have an infection from the blockage and she only laid a few unshelled eggs. Well, I am happy to report that Sara is fine! She nested perfectly on 4/23 and we will likely see her again over the rest of the season.

It has become a tradition to make the same silly joke each year around mid to late April when the "little" turtles arrive on the beach. So, here it is... Last night at around two AM, I heard the sound of chain saws on the beach and I knew it could mean only one thing. The loggers have arrived!
I spotted the first loggerhead of the season as she was heading back to the water after she had hit the dune and turned around. We usually find our first loggerhead around this time of year, but this one surprised me. I was expecting a big, shiny black Leatherback up near the dune when I first saw the crawl in my night vision scope. It took me a few seconds to realize what I was looking at and I almost did not notice the small yellow turtle crawling down the beach. They are really quite "tiny" when compared to the Leatherback in the scope. She did not nest anywhere on our survey area and will likely be back tonight.

It has already been a very busy season here along our survey area. Since we started surveying back on March 6th, we have found more than 44 individual turtles using our beach! This is a LOT for so early in the season. We are all expecting a record season on our beach and along the entire state of Florida. There is about a 50/50 mix of turtles that are untagged and older recaptures. Turtles that were tagged in all prior seasons are nesting this year, and we have seen two turtles from our first season of tagging back in 2001. It is nice to see those girls and wonder what they have been doing and where they have been travelling for all of those years.

One of our dreams is to work a full night where we do not find balloons washed up on the beach. Whenever there is a wind from the east, balloons, plastic debris and assorted garbage wash up along our beach. The bits of plastic will often end up eaten by all species of sea turtles and other marine life. A few years ago, we removed a large mass of plastic from one of our leatherbacks named "Sara" Hopefully, all of the plastic was removed, but she has not been seen since that season.

On a better note, the streak continues - two more turtles! Last night, Bunny (the easter turtle) tried to nest near the Jupiter Reef Club but hit the seawall and turned around. She came back an hour or two later and also tried to nest, but was unsuccessful. There was also another new turtle that nested down south in Lost Tree Village.

It was another rainy night here along Juno Beach. The rain started at about 3am on Wednesday night and as of this AM, has not let up. The weather station here at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center has recorded more than three inches of rain in the last 24 hours! It was cold and wet, but the crew was on the beach and we encountered another new leatherback turtle. The turtle was caught as she was covering up her nest in John D. MacArthur Beach State Park at about 1:30am.

Five turtles in four nights! This is, by far, the most turtles we have encountered so early in the season. Stay tuned.

Well, here we go again! We have been surveying at night for about a week now and we are doing pretty good! In the past few nights, we have already encountered four nesting leatherbacks. This is an amazing start to the season and it looks like it may continue. Around the state morning survey crews are finding nests just about every day now.
The first turtle we encountered on 3/16 was named Abigail and she has not been seen since she was first tagged way back in 2003. The next night we found Clover nesting in MacArthur Park. Clover (yes, she nested on St. Patricks day!) has been nesting every two years on our beach and is really not in the best shape. Both of her rear flippers are missing and she makes a terrible mess when she tries to nest without our assistance. We have have dug nine egg chambers for her since she was fist tagged back in 2003!

Tonight we encountered on leatherback turtle as she was laying eggs south of the Juno Beach fishing pier. She was a turtle we had tagged during the 2001 season - seven long years ago! Lucy has been nesting pretty regularly since then and she was last seen here during the 2006 season.

I do think that the season is now winding down pretty rapidly and this next weekend will likely be our last survey day. We are expecting quite a few turtles this week and I hope they show up. I like to say goodbye to them before they head off to colder waters up north.

As Sara and I are ending the night here in the office, we are contemplating the components of the Keystone Party Mix on the desk. One of the snacks listed on the bag "Midgee" is listed among the snack favorites including cheese curls, BBQ corn chips and tortilla chips. What could midgee be?? An google search comes up without any real results for this odd snack. Anybody out there know what it is?