it has been perfect out there on the beach recently and last night was no exception. the waves have been small - barely lapping at the shore and the tides have cooperated in letting us get to the full extent of our survey area. a tremendous amount of sand has also built up along the length of the beach, owing to the small waves carrying it in. so it's a nice easy, clear run of it each time. this week, we begin our survey when the tide is nearly fully out, so in some ways we expect it's going to be a long wait for a turtle. it was.....
this week we we have one of our great friends visiting and volunteering - Mike James from the Nova Scotia Leatherback Turtle Working Group. Mike has an amazing project in Canada and he wanted to come and see some nesting turtles - somehow he is convinced that by his being here, we will find a Canadian tagged turtle (we are doubtful!). Mike also has his friend Scott with him. the NSLTWG captures leatherbacks at sea and they have done extensive satellite tagging work that has answered many of the unknown questions about leatherbacks.
loggerhead nesting was quiet last night but when the tide turned and started coming in more forcefully we started to feel lucky - we were all up at the office having some caffeine - so we headed back out. I was riding along the tideline on singer island when I noticed a large black shape moving along shore in the water - about 4 meters out from me. I knew right away from the sheer size that it was a leatherback. I watched her as she glided along - she paused only occasionally for a breath. I followed her at a distance for about half a mile and finally her shape moved toward the shoreline. immediately in the night scope I saw her ridges break the surface of the water and then she fully emerged. I called the crew right away as the spot would be hard to get to. the turtle began her ascent but as she crawled up the beach but she ran into a large, lengthy deposit of small shells and as she crawled through them, I thought - oh she's not going to stay. the shells were tinkling musically as she crawled over them and we know from previous experience that leatherbacks don't really like this type of beach (the shells are so thick that you can't feel any sand below you). so she departed quite quickly and i called the crew and told them to hold it.
we figured that she might be back and we were right. about 3:50 am I found her at Ocean Mall, digging an egg chamber. our crew arrived in time and Mike and Scott got to see their first nesting leatherback in a long time - one of their first comments was 'oh she's small' - she was actually one of our smaller turtles but Mike catches leatherbacks on the foraging grounds where they are really big and fat so he's used to barrel shaped leatherbacks! still, it was an experience to see her. she's a new turtle so we gave her some tags and took measurements. I think since we wish that Mike's wife Kath was here too, we will name our newest turtle Kathleen. I have a feeling it's going to be another long wait tonight. the tide's not high until about 5:30 am.
one more thing before I post this - 2 years ago today we had the pleasure of hosting Carl Safina here on our beach. He was doing some research for his leatherback book and he got to see several of our turtles. he even posted a great audio blog for us. well Carl's book is coming out in one week (release is May 30) and it's on sale now from Amazon. it promises to be just as great as his previous books (Song for the Blue Ocean and Eye of the Albatross). our very own leatherback project is also featured in the book so please please go to Amazon and buy Vogage of the Turtle: in Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur (it's even discounted!)...
