I was not able to post this yesterday due to some web problem - but this is what I wrote yesterday, the 29th of May.....
last night was far more than just a four turtle night, which was incredible in itself. we had Dr. Scott Eckert from Hubbs Sea World Research Institute, and Dr. Llewellyn Ehrhart's graduate students from the University of Central Florida join us the last two nights on our patrol. Hubbs and UCF have been working on a satellite tracking program for leatherbacks out of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge up in Melbourne Beach. in the past few years, they have placed satellite transmitters on leatherbacks and successfully tracked them to such far away places as Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the Cape Verde Islands, Virginia, and the middle of the Atlantic. we were lucky enough to have them share with us their expertise and they brought along 3 satellite tags that they hoped to deploy here in Juno Beach. it is thought by the group that our turtles here are likely migrating to different places than the turtles in the Carr Wildlife Refuge. and now we will get a chance to find out. our first night on patrol was very quiet, as I noted yesterday. we had the beach fully covered and did not see one leatherback so we were really prepared for Tuesday night. we knew we were expecting (or hoping to see) Sandy and we were hoping to deploy at least one tag. we hit the beach early - just before dusk and began our patrol. it was a beautiful night, the waves had finally calmed down, the water was smooth and aquamarine, and the skies had just a promise of a few rain clouds. no breeze to speak of, and the tide was coming in. we knew it was going to be dark before the moon came up, but it felt like a perfect turtle night. time passed and I know each of us was growing anxious for the turtles to show up. around 1030 pm, loggerheads starting showing up and nesting and the anticipation of leatherbacks became more intense. the moon rose and the beach got brighter. finally through a bunch of muffled phone conversations, we learned that Niki had just gone up to Jupiter Inlet to take a look and they had spotted a leatherback - just outside our usual patrol area. as luck would have it, there was no close available car for me to get Dr. Eckert to the Inlet, however we had made friends on the beach with David, who was visiting from Ohio and had been out looking for turtles a couple of nights. he offered to drive us from Lost Tree up to the lnlet so we piled into his car and took off. Dean, Karen, and Ann Marie (from UCF) were preparing the turtle for the transmitter, and Niki was keeping communications going. we arrived at the Inlet and sprinted the quarter mile (felt like longer with all the gear) to the turtle and got the transmitter in place. the turtle was Aries, and we had not seen her since April 8th, when we tagged her at the Jupiter Reef Club. the transmitter and harness were adjusted and then readjusted to fit Aries perfectly. in the meantime, a new leatherback had emerged just 100 m south of Aries and we were prepared to place another satellite tag as soon as we finished with Aries. at the same time, Chris called me and asked excitedly what tag numbers Sandy had on her flippers. 509 and 510 I replied, and he said "I've got Sandy down here on Juno Beach". 3 turtles up at once - more than we expected. I gave updates to the crew working on Aries and called Jeremy and Stacy who were on their way to Sandy with yet another satellite tag. As we were finishing with Aries, the new turtle false crawled and went back into the water. so we made a run for Sandy, who was getting ready to lay eggs. Niki drove us all in Chris's wobbly jeep and we were arrived at Sandy and got her transmitter in place. what an incredible thing to see this turtle for the 8th time. she was perfect, and her harness and transmitter went on smoothly. our incredible luck continued and Chris spotted another leatherback coming up 100 m north of us. this was just too good to be true. Sandy's satellite tag was in place and we took some night vision photos and videotape which we will share with you soon as we will be putting together a satellite web page on this site. we took some time and watched Sandy crawl down the beach and get closer to the water. her transmitter was blinking red on her back as she slipped into the water. it was just the most incredible moment, seeing her leaving our beach and knowing that we will be able to follow her for months (provided her transmitter transmits well). we may even see her again in 9 days if she has one more clutch of eggs left. for Niki, Chris, Jeremy and I - this moment was the result of all our hard work and long nights over the past few months. and we still had one more transmitter to go. the next turtle was Bootes, and her transmitter and harness went on more smoothly than either of the others, despite a brief downpour. Bootes covered her nest and then away she went too. we stood on the beach after it was all over and cheered. in just about 3 hours, we had helped place transmitters on 3 turtles and tagged one new turtle as well. we headed home to have well-deserved beer and leftover pizza, totally elated! we really want to thank Scott Eckert, Doc Ehrhart, Dean Bagley, Stacy Kubis, Karen Frutchey, Ann Marie Maharaj and Eliza for coming to share their project with us. it was so much fun to have you guys out with us, and we really did some great work together - thanks! also, we want to thank David for driving us all over Juno Beach and for being such a great sport, and having such enthusiasm for these turtles. we hope you are not too tired today in Columbus, Ohio! we are taking tonight off to relax and enjoy our success. we'll be back on Thursday night. absolutely the most intense and exciting night in my career as a marine biologist.....
