the waves seem to be getting bigger and more powerful. unfortunately we have lost several nests. at high tide the beach is completely covered in swirling, rushing water, and it pools in low lying areas. I went out at 7 pm before our survey tonight and there were turtle eggs (loggerhead and leatherback eggs) rolling around all over the beach. the crows were having a feast. once the eggs have been removed from the protective environment of the nest chamber, they die almost immediately so to rebury exposed eggs is futile. these are natural processes on a dynamic beach such as this one. just a pity that these nests we have been following will have no survivors. but the season is only about half over, so we will have some hatch later on in the season.

it has been so hard to do the survey for the past few nights due to extreme weather. it has almost felt like tropical storm conditions here since Sunday night. the waves are huge, and are breaking hundreds of yards out - the force of the waves has been phenomenal. our whole beach up to the dune has been getting completely washed over every high tide and this will take a toll on some of the nests. I think we have probably lost some nests due to high water and erosion. it is really salty, humid, and cold working on the beach. despite the conditions, we have still seen new leatherbacks nesting. last night we had another 2 new turtles! at around 1230 am, Amy (one of our dedicated volunteers) and I spotted a leatherback getting ready to nest on Singer Island. she was missing an entire left rear flipper, but still went through the motions of digging with it, even though it was scooping no sand. luckily, her right rear flipper was in good shape and she was able to construct a fairly good egg chamber with just one flipper. she was tagged, measured (145.7 cm CCL), and sampled genetically. she lay all her eggs in 10 minutes and began to cover them. we left and continued north and I felt sure that other turtles must be up on the beach, we had been with the Singer turtle (Bellatrix) for about half an hour. sure enough, there was another on Juno Beach, high up on sand. she was a smaller turtle (140.2 cm) but had all flippers intact and was a good nester. after tagging Mira, we surveyed a bit longer, but by 315 am, the waves were just getting too big and it was starting to rain, so we called it a night. Jeremy had a quiet night on the north part of the beach, surveying from the road.

last night another new turtle - Caeli nested in MacArthur Park and was tagged by Niki and Chris about 3 am. the waves were so high they were washing into her egg chamber and the eggs were relocated. high winds and seas last night made surveying difficult, as most of the beach and several nests were washed over. the nests should still survive as long as the water didn't pool over them for a long time.

tonight we had 2 new turtles and they emerged within 6 minutes of each other about 2.5 miles apart. we called Jeremy and Honza to tell them we had just spotted a giant turtle emerging from the surf, and were waiting for her to get comfortable. they had just seen one emerge too. I don't think anyone knows what this cue is that makes turtles emerge right around the same time to nest, but it is really amazing to witness. something only they know and we can only wonder about. India (Jeremy's tagged turtle) was a quick nester and was back in the water by 1241 am. the one that Niki and I saw did not nest (Meissa, which means shining - she had a big pink spot), but instead crawled around near the dune, threw some sand, looked like she wanted to go higher on the beach but could not due to the dune, and then she finally left after an hour - without nesting. she was missing half of her right front flipper and had a huge white spot on her head, so she should be easy to recognize should she come back to our beach. she just looked like she could not get comfortable.

I have part of the night off tonight. so far no turtles reported by the rest of the crew. Jeremy decided on the name Bootes (oldest constellation in the sky, according to some astronomers) for the turtle we tagged last night. we will be posting an updated list of turtles and their stories at the following link: (also available from the home page)

2002 Turtles

I really can't believe the luck we are having and the season we are ending up with. another 3 turtle night tonight. Sandy did return around 1030 pm and nested successfully near the old Juno Pier site. there were a few enthusiastic local high school students there to watch her nest. they really enjoyed seeing her. it seems amazing to me that this is the 7th time we have seen this turtle, and the 5th time she has nested on our beach. she is really cool. after seeing Sandy, we headed south to Singer Island and on the way back north came across a new turtle in MacArthur Park. Jeremy did the tagging, and we will post the name we decide on tomorrow. she had lots of little barnacles all over her carapace and flippers. quick nester, she laid all her eggs in 8 minutes. whatever the bugs were that were chewing us up, they were horrendous and we tagged the turtle and ran for the Gator to keep patrolling. Further north, we were lucky to see Zhang finishing up nesting and heading back to the water. another 10 minutes and we would have missed her. she was probably nesting at the same time as our new turtle was. the ocean was so flat tonight, it looked like an ice skating rink. not a ripple and barely a wave at the shore. cool temperature though, it rained a lot this evening before we got started. great night.

3 turtle night! it was a hot, still, humid, buggy night but a good one.

early on, Niki and I got a turtle on Singer Island. we spotted her just coming out of the water, and she went up the beach, hit a wooden deck chair, turned around (we were worried she was going to leave) but then began digging her body pit. when we could approach safely, we found she was a new turtle. Niki did all the tagging, and we measured her (154.3 cm curved carapace length, a mid-size turtle). she had some major healing prop wounds on her carapace, they looked like they had been deep. she was quick to lay eggs and then get back into the water. we continued on our survey, got a little sleepy, made some coffee and then headed back out around 230. just up the beach we found another new leatherback, and tagged her too! at the same time, Chris was watching Sandy come ashore. unfortunately, Sandy didn't nest tonight. she dug 2 nest chambers near the Juno Pier and then left. she may not like the sand (renourishment sand) there, she did the same thing a couple nests ago. we will just hope she comes back elsewhere on Sunday night and we can catch her.

no turtles last night. there weren't even many loggerheads nesting so we will expect it to be busier tonight. On Thursday night, Chris saw Ixchel nesting in Carlin Park. That was her 4th nest on our beach and we will look for her again in 9-10 days. Also we expect Sandy back tonight or Sunday night.

If you have any questions or comments on the project, please email info@floridaleatherbacks.com

will update the site when I get in tonight...

jeremy's turtle is going to be Pisces....

hope we find some tonight....

well, another amazing night. blustery, windy, cold, big waves and lots of turtles! 3 leatherbacks spotted by our crew tonight. we had Jon and Maureen with us from the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation, and were lucky to get a turtle (Hydra) nesting at 1130 pm on Juno Beach. Maureen's fifth time out with us and she finally gets to see a turtle! Hydra (originally tagged by Chris and Niki) nested successfully tonight. On Sunday night, she attempted to nest in Carlin Park, but she dug 2 egg chambers and then left the beach. Part of her problem may be that she has a huge chunk missing from her left rear flipper and was having a very hard time digging her egg chamber with only one functional flipper. She did finally manage.

tonight was pretty quiet on the beach. at first it was still and hot, but the wind picked up later on and it became a little chilly. no turtles except loggerheads until 1 am when I spotted a leatherback from one of the crossovers with the night vision scope. she was already laying eggs when I arrived so I tagged her quickly and recorded her information. she was a small turtle (147 cm curved carapace length) but she had lots of diffuse pretty white spots all over her head. something had happened to her rear left flipper though, it looked like it had been chopped off (but was all healed). I named her Spica, which is one of the stars that makes up the constellation Virgo.