It’s only April 6th but we’re already up to 37 leatherback encounters! That could be a sign of a good year! At this point last year, we had just 12! Several of our turtles have now been seen more than once. Rosa is already on her fourth nest!
Last night we encountered six leatherbacks! That’s quite a bit for this early in the season. None of these turtles had been seen previously this year and one was a brand new, untagged turtle. We encountered Kathmandu and Martha – both turtles that we’ve seen only once back in 2015, and Luz – a turtle that we’ve seen only once back in 2014. We’re glad to see these turtles back after a couple years. We also encountered Estrella, another one of our rock start turtles. In 2016, we encountered her nine times!
In the four nights prior to that, we had thirteen encounters. The best part is that two of these turtles were tagged way back in 2003 and one in 2004! These girls have been with us for quite a while and we hope to see them for many years to come! We also encountered a turtle with tags that we don’t believe were applied on a Florida nesting beach. We’re looking forward to finding out where her tags came from.
Let’s keep hoping for a big year! We need it after the lull in nesting for the last couple years.