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.
Another exciting turtle we encountered was Aurora. We attached a satellite transmitter to Aurora. She was tracked for almost a year as she traveled all the way past Cape Breton in Nova Scotia! It was exciting for us to see her after four years.
You can find a few more images of here by clicking the above image.
