Another successful night on the beach! Last night, as I mentioned, we saw two turtles. Tonight we saw another one. It just so happens that last night was the first night for one of our new crew members, Liz. Tonight was Sonja's first night. Both of them were lucky enough to spot a turtle on their first night! However, the night started out not so lucky. Sonja and I made our way to the south end of our survey area. As we attempted to pass a large sea wall, an unexpected wave crashed into our atv and drenched us! We hurried to get around the sea wall and then realized just how bad the tide and swell were. Normally we're pretty careful to take note of the high tide but this was an unusually high tide and a very large swell. We turned around and realized that we were definitely trapped by the sea wall. Up ahead of us was another one - we were stuck! So there we sat, in between two sea walls that were just too risky to drive around, soaking wet! We were forced to wait for the tide to roll out again. And eventually it did - two and a half hours later :( We were a bit chilly and ready to head back to the office but the only direction we could head was south, away from the office, because the north sea wall was still too risky to pass. It's a good thing we headed south - we found a new turtle all the way down at the inlet on Singer Island! She had just finished digging her egg chamber when we found her. Sonja was ecstatic! Her first leatherback ever! This turtle had no tags so we gave her two new flipper tags and a pit tag. She has been through a rough ordeal, she has a large gash over her left eye and multiple scrapes on her carapace and left rear flipper. Most of these were superficial and should heal well on their own. Sonja named her Teresa, after her mom. We watched Teresa return to the ocean and then headed back to the office for some much needed dry shoes and warm food!

What an eventful night! Our turtles have finally returned! We encountered not one, but two turtles last night! About 2 minutes after venturing onto the beach, Rebeccah and Andrew called to say there was a turtle just north of the Loggerhead Marinelife Center so we all went out to see her. It was Starry, a turtle that was originally tagged back in May of 2003 by the research crew at the University of Central Florida. She was tagged in Indialantic, FL. They are the only other organization that does nighttime tagging of leatherbacks in Florida. Starry was also seen on Juno Beach in April of 2008. She returned to visit with us again tonight on Juno Beach. The entire crew ventured out to see the first turtle of the year. We have several new crew members this year (Tommy, Andrew, Liz and Sonja) and after 17 nights without seeing a single turtle, we were all ecstatic to see her! Tommy, Rebeccah, Chris and I have been working since March 1st in search of our girls and this was a much appreciated reward for those of us working tonight. We were all very happy to have seen one turtle for the evening and headed on after watching Starry return to the water. A short time later, Rebeccah called again to say she was watching yet another turtle emerge. This time, she was in Jupiter. Liz and I, who had been covering the south end of our survey area, headed back down the beach to meet our second turtle of the night. Rebeccah and Andrew were standing with Kathleen, a turtle that has only been seen once before, in May of 2006. Chris met us all there and we watched Kathleen for about an hour. Many people ask why we name our turtles. We give names to our turtles because it makes it easier for us to remember their history and important information. Trying to remember a turtle by a code or ID # becomes difficult but having a name allows us to recall them quickly. This is helpful when we need to recall how many times we've seen a certain turtle or other specific aspects about that turtle and we don't have access to our computer database immediately. Overall, it was a beautiful (but cold) night out there and a great "first turtle" night!

Last night was very, very stormy! We had a crazy line of storms passing over us all night! We are right under the cross in the image. Normally we don't like surveying when it's that bad but Tommy was a trooper and stayed out there all night! We still haven't seen any turtles on our surveys. We were limited to the nourishment area last night because of the weather so we couldn't venture into our regular survey area to look for them. Soon!

We still haven't seen any turtles. We've been out there for ten nights now and we're all getting very eager. We really miss these girls when they're not here! The temperature has finally warmed and it is quite pleasant for riding the beach at night. As promised, we are working on adding some features to the website so that you can view histories of all of the turtles that we've seen over the last ten years. We hope to have it up and running soon!

I am happy to report that the first nest was laid in our survey area!! The nest is at the very southern boundary of our regular morning survey area and only the third documented crawl in the state. It just so happens to be 11 days after the nest that was laid in Ft. Pierce on the 22nd (which happened to be eleven days after the crawl reported in Miami on the 11th). My guess is that it's the same turtle. Leatherbacks typically nest every 10-12 days and some of them have been known to nest all over the east coast. It was a frigid 37 degrees here last night! While our survey crew sat shivering, the weather didn't deter this determined leatherback. Unfortunately we are only monitoring a small portion of beach right now to ensure that we are closely watching the nourishment activity so we didn't see this turtle. We hope to catch our first turtle soon though! Stay tuned as the season heats up!

The temperatures have plummeted here in South Florida. Tonight's lows are expected to be in the mid-30s in northern Palm Beach County and tomorrow may dip down to 32!! We're doing our best to stay warm out there. Still no turtles to report. The nourishment project is moving along well. Right now our nights consist of driving up and down the project area and making an occasional stop for coffee and snacks. Our beaches are visited not only by leatherback, loggerhead and green sea turtles every year but many species of seabird and shorebird as well. Tonight, we noticed two Brown Pelicans resting side-by-side on the beach. After driving past them a second time, Chris caught the reflection from fishing line on one of the birds. Upon closer look, he discovered that both pelicans were wrapped in line and that they were tangled together. We brought both birds back up to the center (which is not an easy task on an ATV!) and removed the line. Both birds were scraped and a little dazed but otherwise ok so we sent them on their way. We want to remind everyone to dispose of fishing gear properly. We often rescue birds and turtles from hook and line entanglement.

We're just wrapping up our second survey night. Tonight was about 20 degrees warmer than last night so it was quite pleasant out there. No turtles though :( It's supposed to get cold again for the rest of the week. Most people don't believe us when we say "cold" because after all, this is Florida. But, it is really, really cold! When we're driving on an ATV at 10-20mph into the wind and we're damp from the humidity, 40 degrees feels unbelievably cold! We're all wondering if our unseasonably cold winter will delay the start of leatherback nesting here. On February 11th, there was a leatherback crawl in Miami and on the 22nd, a leatherback nest was reported in Ft. Pierce. We're hoping that we're next!

Tonight is our first night out on the beach!!! It is a bit early for us to begin but Juno Beach is currently undergoing a 2.5 mile nourishment project and we are responsible for monitoring the entire project area for nesting activity. We work closely with the dredge company to ensure that turtles are not disrupted by the construction activity. Any nests laid in an active project area will be relocated by our staff the night they are laid to prevent any impact from the nourishment activity. The project is expected to wrap up soon. We will begin our normal leatherback surveys around March 15 but we are hopeful to see one or two of our girls before then! Last year, there were three leatherback nests on Juno Beach on March 3rd but since we weren't surveying that early, we missed them. It would be nice to see a turtle or two in the next two weeks to keep our minds off of the cold!! With nightly lows expected in the 40s all week, we are layered up and trying to stay warm! We've all got our bets placed about how many nests there will be on Juno this year. Last year, we were stunned by the phenomenal year and no one even came close to guessing 277! We're hoping this year will be the same! Keep checking back for regular updates!

Last season brought us several exciting turtles. We observed our first Canadian-tagged turtle nesting on our beach! The turtle, named "Christie" by the Canadian research group that tagged her, was originally tagged during an in-water capture off Nova Scotia on September 19th, 2007. Satellite tracking data have shown that our turtles typically head to North Atlantic waters after leaving the nesting beach for the summer. Dr. Mike James and his team then take over to learn more about leatherback behavior after nesting season. To learn more about their research project, visit www.seaturtle.ca.

We also tagged two new turtles that were observed nesting on other beaches in southern Florida and Georgia. "Alli", who was our third observed turtle last season (and our first new turtle of the year), was observed by a morning survey group in Boca Raton. "Imani" was tagged on Juno Beach in April and observed nesting on St. Simon's Island, Georgia in June. Each turtle really has it's own distinct behavior. Unlike Alli and Imani, "Eleanor," who was first tagged on Juno Beach in March last season, was observed nesting seven times last year - ALWAYS on Juno Beach.

Keep checking back. The season is fast approaching!

The research team has been busy lately helping with the recent cold stunning event in the state of Florida. Over the past two weeks, state wildlife officials and rehab organizations have been collecting turtles affected by the cold weather that stretched across Florida. When severe cold snaps hit, turtles are affected by the decrease in body temperature, often becoming immobile and floating to the surface. Many turtles needed extended care at rehab facilities for conditions like pneumonia while others simply needed a day or two to warm up before they were ready for release. Juno Beach served as a primary release site for the first few days and our crew assisted in the release of several hundred turtles over a three-day period. Our modified ATV trailer worked nicely when hooked to the back of one of our research ATVs and we drove loads of turtles down the beach all day long. Our hospital staff members have been busy treating over 80 turtles that required extended care in our rehab facility. Everyone has been putting in extra time and this work would not be possible if it weren't for the help of dozens of dedicated volunteers. Check out a few photos of the events from the past few days:
On another note, we are gearing up for the fast approaching leatherback season!! We are all a little bit antsy to get back out there. We miss those big girls during the winter! We should start our nightly patrols in early March. Everyone is placing their bets on how many nests we are going to get this year and we're curious to see if we can top last year! Stay tuned! As we get into full-swing we will update regularly and let you know who we are seeing this year!