Last night was a great night for turtles! The seas were rough, it was really windy, and we saw seven leatherbacks! One of the Marinelife Center volunteers was walking on the beach around 8 pm when she spotted a leatherback in the Seminole golf course. When I got there at 8:40, she was already covering. I'm sure it was awesome to see a leatherback at sunset! I think I would have kept going south in search of a turtle that Chris saw false crawl the night before on Singer Island, but I forgot my red light and needed to go back to the office. The turtle the night before was coming out of the water around 4 am when someone took a flash picture of her and scared her back in the water. Remember, flash photography is prohibited on the beach at night, whether the turtle is coming out of the water or going back in.
On my way back to the office, I found Icy emerging by Mercury Rd. On the pass north, there was a new turtle going back in the water already at 9:30. The people who were watching her said she had been there since 7:30! The little girls there named her Joy. With so many turtles so early in the night, we weren't too sure if there would be anymore. Then, two more nests in the park, Bella and Roomba. Another new turtle up north and Libra by the pier.
I wasn't able to get passed the giant sea wall on Singer Island since the seas were so rough. On my last pass south, the tide had dropped a bit and I was able to sneak through. I found three nests that we weren't able to get to. That makes a total of 10! On our best night last year, we had nine. We are at the peak of leatherback season right now and hopefully we get a couple more big nights!
