floridaleatherbacks.com - tagging

At Last

niki1 — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 01:45:43 -0400

Last night was a rewarding night for me! Over the last few weeks of riding the beach at night, I haven't really encountered any turtles. I've been covering the north route, from the Marinelife Center to the Jupiter Inlet, and just haven't been lucky. This weekend, despite the horrible windy, wavy, salty weather, I really enjoyed my nights. On Saturday night, Sandy spotted two turtles on the south end, and I did get to see one (Lyra, first spotted in 2001!).

Last night, was pretty crazy. On my first run I came across a leatherback by the Jupiter Beach Resort; she was just crawling out of the water, which is such a cool thing to see, they look SO big! She turned out to be a turtle named Nashira, tagged in 2003 I think. But she needed new tags, so I worked her up and moved south down the beach where there was another turtle just north of the Jupiter Reef Club! This turtle was new and needed a full work up, metal tags, PIT tag, genetic sample, measurements, and metal scan (for any embedded longline hooks). I was ecstatic, since it has been a long time since I've gotten to tag and name a new turtle. I decided to call her Iris. She was a pretty turtle, hardly any marks on her, no chunks taken out of her flippers (sort of a rare thing to see such a good lookin' turt).

Rosalie and April

leatherbacks — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:16:26 -0500

I am happy to report that Rosalie is still transmitting data after 576 days! She is heading south rather quickly out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and is now at a latitude just below Juno Beach. Do you think she will return to nest this season?
Rosalie has now traveled more than 16,600 kilometers since being tagged on June 7th 2005. She is currently more than 3,500 kilometers away from Juno Beach over the mid-atlantic ridge and will need to start heading towards Florida if she is going to nest this coming season.
A current map of April and Rosalie's travels can be found in the "O

April

chris — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:44:05 -0500

April has now traveled more than seven thousand kilometers since being tagged. Her current location is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean almost due east of Juno Beach.

More information about April and here current track can be found under the research section of the site.