chris's blog

Usually by June 15th we are all very tired and ready to quit, but this season has been very exciting and it is really hard for me to say it is time to quit. Last night we encountered another six turtles along Juno Beach! This week alone, we have encountered more than 18 nesting leatherbacks - quite a few for so late in the season.
Juno Beach, now has 145 nests incubating in the sand and I expect that we will end up with about 160 nests along this six mile section of beach. Our previous record of leatherback nests was 128 in the 2001 season and it is pretty exciting to beat that number. Other leatherback nesting beaches in the carribbean are also receiving good nest numbers this season as well.

Last night was a busy one! There were eight nests along our survey area and were able to observe six of the eight turtles as they nested. Many of the turtles were found on the south end of the survey area in MacArthur Beach State Park.
One of the oddest things we have found in a while was found on one of our turtles last night. Katharine discovered some fishing gear on a nesting leatherback at about 4am. We sometimes find commercial longline gear on our girsl, but this was recreational fishing tackle. The turtle had a Pompano fishing rig, with a hook through one of her rear flippers. These types of rigs usually have two or more hooks and this one had two hooks. The second hook had caught one of the turtles "companion remoras" and was dragged up the beach behind the turtle. The story didn't end well for the fish, but we did remove the hook from her flipper and she returned to the water.

I know, I know! Sorry for the lack of updates here on the site. We have really been very busy out there each night and each morning. This season we are conducting our nightly patrols in addition to patrolling a much larger morning survey area. The Marinelife Center in partnership with Ecological Associates in Jensen Beach is now conducting sea turtle work along the beach from the Martin County line all the way south to MacArthur Beach State Park. This area contains some of the most important nesting beach in the state for leatherback turtles and we are very excited to be out there. It is a lot of work, and I guess the project log posts are suffering. I will try to keep everyone updated!

Last, night we had another one of those very lucky nights where we were able to spot every turtle as they exited the surf and crawled up the beach! At about 11:30pm we spotted a new turtle that nested near the kitesurfing beach in Jupiter. We made sure she was going to nest and then quickly rode up the beach about a mile to find another turtle crawling out of the surf. Again, we made sure she was going to stick around and then headed north a bit before turning around to head back to the first turtle. As we were approaching the second girl, I looked through the scope and was a bit confused?? Why was she crawling back up the beach?? Then, looking up the beach a bit, I realized that it was ANOTHER turtle! Three turtles on the beach at the same time. It was gonna be a long night!

Lat night was the first night it really felt like summer. Hot, humid, buggy and stormy. It was the first night with small thunderstorms moving up and down the coast. The lightning was very pretty for a while. I have been trying to capture an image of a leatherback nesting with a lightning storm in the background for as long as I have been carrying a camera with me. I really thought last night was the night, but the turtles didn't show up in time! They did eventually show up though. Three turtles nested last night; Sedna, a new turtle and another turtle that I did not see. I spent too much time with the first two and I just missed the third. I really hate that!

Things are going well on the beach and we have been having a lot of fun out there. I have already spotted seven turtles since Sunday! The number of leatherback nests here on Juno Beach continues to climb and we have a few more nests than this date last season. I do still think it will be a great year based on the number of turtles nesting on beaches to the north of us. In some areas the nest numbers are double the "normal" numbers for this time of year.
Sorry to report that our new Fastloc GPS tags have stopped functioning! I am not really sure what the problem is, but one of the top things on my short list of items is a very large male leatherback turtle. One of the tags failed when the turtle was a good distance off the coast near Cape Canaveral which is almost the same exact location where we lost a transmitter in the 2005 season. That girl came back to nest with her entire harness missing and we think she may have had an interaction with a biting male leatherback!

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. The problem is that we have been so busy out there at night and each morning and have been having a hard time finding the time to sit here in front of the computer.
First off, I must say that this season is going crazy! Turtles everywhere! In the past week alone I have seen more than TWENTY leatherbacks. Last night we had another five turtle night and four of them were new to our beach. It can be a lot of work when there are that many turtles to handle and luckily Sandy and Niki have been out a few nights helping out. One of the new turtle had a pretty bad encounter with a large boat.

Last night was a tough one! It rained pretty much all night and I was only able to get out there for three passes along the beach. I didn't any turtle nests along my morning survey route which runs from the Jupiter Inlet south to MacArthur Beach State Park. Given the history of nesting in the park this year I imagine there was one or two nests down there. That beach is going crazy with turtles this year! Tonight the weather looks to be good and Sandy and I will be out there looking.

Last night was another cold one! Sandy and I rode the beach completely bundled up. The temperature dropped to 55 degrees by the morning and we were wearing many layers of clothes to keep warm.
The leatherbacks did not seem to mind the cold though! We saw two turtles on Juno Beach and in MacArthur Park. One of those turtles - "JuneBug" was fitted with a satellite transmitter. Once again we are using the new generation of GPS tags with are configured with the new and improved "Fastloc" technology. These tags are programmed to give us a very high quality GPS position each hour during the evening and night time hours. We deployed 5 of these tags during the 2006 season with mixed results. Hopefully the issues have been worked out with the programming and we will be able to show everyone where these turtles place their nests and what they are doing between those nests.

I was out surveying the beach with Sandy tonight. It was the first time I had help since we started a few weeks ago and it was nice to be able to take the survey a little slower and only cover half the beach on each pass. Maybe Sandy is bit luckier this season than in years past, since she found the first turtle tonight!
She found Sedna just as she was finishing up her nest on MacArthur Beach. Sedna was first tagged in 2004 and one encounter with her can be found in Carl Safina's book "Voyage of the Turtle" She looked perfect, and sandy and I sat with her for a while pondering the age of dinosaurs and leathery turtles.