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.
The next turtle was a new girl and we tagged, measured and watched her nest on Jupiter Beach. She was named Moira by Carrie who was out last night helping us out. Carrie is employed here at the Marinelife Center where she handles many of the schoolchildren that visit us. For the record, I would much rather deal with leatherbacks! They are usually very quiet (aside for the occasional grunt or snort), predictable and generally nice to be around.
Looks like the next week should be pretty busy with turtles returning for their second nests of the season. Stay tuned!
There are now 12 nests on Juno Beach and 18 nests on our entire survey area (Lake Worth Inlet - Jupiter Inlet)
The graph below requires Flash to be installed to view.
