The Project Log

Well, the beach is keeping us extremely busy so far this year! So far, on our 7.5 mile stretch of beach we have seen 18,189 crawls. That’s right, you read it correctly! It’s been unbelievably busy for us. By this date last year, we had 9,966 crawls. Broken down, it looks like this:

Juno Beach (6.1 miles)

Loggerhead Nests-4,171; Green Turtle Nests-1,025; Leatherback Nests-133

Jupiter (1.5 miles)

Loggerhead Nests-1,029; Green Turtle Nests-134; Leatherback nests: 35

We have shattered our green turtle record on Juno Beach for as far back as we have records. The last record was in 2002 when we documented 963 green turtle nests on Juno Beach.

In other news, we have summarized our leatherback data from this past season. We identified a total of 113 individual leatherbacks throughout 257 encounters. 66 of those 113 individuals were new to the project, the remainder had tags from previous seasons. We documented turtles originally tagged in each of the nine previous seasons of the project, dating all the way back to 2001. Even though nest numbers were lower than last year, this year was an anticipated “low year” and it was still the highest “low year” on record. If you click the “nest count” graph, you’ll see that the numbers follow an exponential curve and we can only expect that next year will be phenomenal. Our most often seen turtles this year were Deema, Denise, Espina, Prissy, Tempest and Ursa – all seen six times. Riley was encountered 7 times but 4 of these were false crawls. 42 individuals were seen just once this year. As our season winds down, hopefully we will find more time to look at Libra’s tag data. With twice as many crawls as normal and the same staff size, we’ve all been stretched pretty thin.

…from a very busy research crew! We are fully into our loggerhead and green turtle nesting season now. As of now, we have 2,607 loggerhead nests on Juno Beach and 585 on Jupiter. Green turtles have come in strong as well, with 218 green turtle nests on Juno Beach and 19 on Jupiter. Leatherbacks finished the season with 133 nests on Juno and 35 on Jupiter. Compared to the past few years, it looks like we’re going to have an increase in loggerhead nests as well as green turtles. It is still a bit early in the green turtle season to tell where this year will really fall. And of course, as we mentioned, this was the highest “low-year” on record for leatherbacks (the previous was 2008 with 84 nests). When combining all species on both beaches, we have a total of 9,856 crawls (nests and false crawls) with 8-9 weeks of nesting left!! We are still working on all of our leatherback data from this season. Expect some fun things to come!

Well, it appears that our leatherback ladies have headed out for the 2010 season. We are always sad to see them go. Leatherback nesting season is always our favorite time of year. We ran our last night survey on Wednesday night, the 16th. Since we stopped, there has been just one leatherback on our morning survey area so it looks like we finished at just the right time. Leatherbacks typically stop nesting here in mid-June, leaving the beaches to the loggerheads and green turtles that nest into late summer. And this year, they have needed plenty of room! It’s hard to say what the summer-long trend will be but for the past week, we’ve seen daily crawl totals higher than any we’ve seen in a few years. Yesterday, Chris and I counted 391 loggerhead and green turtle crawls on Juno and Jupiter beaches. This is a 8-mile stretch of beach so you can only imagine what it looks like out there. It’s still too early to really predict what will happen for the year but for now, we’re very busy counting and marking nests.

Our leatherback total on Juno Beach is currently 131 nests. Jupiter has 35 nests. We may get a couple more nests in the coming weeks. If you take a look at the current nest count link (upper right), you will see how our trend has been over the years. Leatherbacks on Juno have developed a high-low alternating pattern. We anticipated this year to be a “low” year. It was definitely lower than last year, but on the scale of other low years, it was the highest. This leads us to believe that next year, which should be a “high” year, should be another record-shatterer. Of course it’s too early to predict, but there have been whispers of over 400 nests on Juno. Just optimism maybe, but we can stay hopeful! I am currently working on our database and over the next few weeks, I will post interesting facts and trends (like our total encounter count and the number of individuals seen). We are also working on all of the acoustic and tracking data that we collected from Olive, Libra and Espina. We hope to add a page full of acoustic project information. So, even though nesting season is coming to an end, we will still be updating you with everything leatherbacks! And don’t forget, we still have hatchlings to look forward to!

I am happy to report that the beaches are covered in turtles!!! We have our first green turtle nest – actually our first several green turtles nests – on both Juno and Jupiter tonight. Rebeccah saw at least two on the south end of Juno and I spotted one in Jupiter at around 4:00am. The loggerheads are also storming the beaches. After a late start to the season, they’ve seemed to figure it out. We’ve seen more crawls each day over the past five days then we saw at the busiest time of the year last year (which is usually mid-July). Over our 7.7 mile stretch of the beach that we survey in the morning, we are seeing about 250 crawls each day!

We have put together a map of the four tracks from our transmitter turtles. You can see the differences in each turtles behavior. Even Espina, who was tracked twice, behaved differently on each trip.

Espina returned to us on Tuesday night! True to her reputation, she nested right here on Juno Beach once again! Chris and I watched her ARGOS location (ARGOS is the satellite system utilized by her transmitter to determine her location) throughout the day. On Tuesday night she was off Tequesta. We picked up her VHF signal at around 10:00 pm and followed her down the coastline to the Juno area. At around 3:00, we got the constant beep that tells us she’s on the beach. She was just north of the Juno Beach fishing pier. Once again, her VHF transmitter worked perfectly. Her harness was in perfect condition and she looked great! We removed the harness and said goodbye to Espina. We would love to get one more transmitter out but sadly, we are reaching the end of leatherback season. Typically, leatherback nesting ends around the third week of June.

In other leatherback news, we are still seeing quite a few of our girls out there. Last night we found six turtles. Alizebra nested down on Singer Island. She was one of the first turtles that we saw at the start of the season so she’s been here quite a while. Based on the dates that we’ve seen her, it’s likely that this was her 7th or 8th nest this year. We also found Autumn, one of two turtles this year that has nested in consecutive years. We saw Autumn twice last year and three times this year. We also found Carrington again, one of the biggest turtles of the year at 167cm. We also found Hillary, Kitty and Midge. Kitty has quickly gained the reputation as one of the prettiest turtles that we’ve seen. She has a gorgeous spot pattern all over her and she doesn’t have a single mark or scar on her! On Tuesday night, there were five turtles total. Corey, the other turtle that is nesting in consecutive years, nested in Jupiter. Xena and Sylvia, two new turtles that nested on the same night ten days ago, once again nested on the same night. We also saw Ursa, one of our favorites from way back in 2001, and of course, Espina.

We are once again tracking Espina’s return. She received her second transmitter and recorder last Saturday night and she should be returning to Juno tonight. Espina was here six times in 2008 and five times so far this year. She has always nested right here on Juno Beach so we expect her to be right here again tonight. We will remove her transmitter just as we did Libra’s. The information we are collecting from the tags on these turtles will tell us about many, many different aspects of leatherback behavior and movement as well as boating and shipping interactions and threats. We have only begun to scratch the surface of data analysis but the volume of information is so exciting. We will begin to post more and more as we sort through it. Below is a map of Libra’s track in the ten days that she wore her transmitter. She behaved quite unlike most leatherbacks that we’ve tracked in the past. She didn’t head as far north between nests and it appears that she spent a lot of time “looking” for her beach. She moved very close to shore on many occasions before finally nesting on Jupiter Island. We witnessed one false crawl and we’ve been able to use GPS data to locate one or two more. More on Espina after tonight…

Wow, it’s been too long! We’ve been so busy over the past week that I haven’t even had enough down time to update the blog! Well, here it is – a nice long update with lots of good news! Our first leatherback nest hatched this morning! It was a nest laid on March 18th. 80 days is a typical incubation period this time of year since it was quite cool at the start of the season. They will drop down to around 70 days as the season progresses. Say hello to baby Kathleens -

We also successfully recovered Libra’s transmitter and recorder. For those keeping track, Libra was tagged here on Juno Beach last Tuesday night. She is one of our 2002 turtles and she’s a BIG girl! Chris and I chased her up and down the Martin and Palm Beach County beaches with her GPS locations and her VHF transmissions. She ended up off Juno Beach on Thursday night. We sat on the beach listening to her swimming back and forth for quite a while. I took a short break to chat with Christy as she finished her run on the north end at around 3:15am. As we sat, we both noticed a large shadow coming out of the water – leatherback! Not just any leatherback – it was Libra and she showed up right at our feet as we waited! Libra didn’t actually stay to nest, she left after crawling around for about ten minutes. We checked that her harness was looking good and watched her head back to the water. We drove back and forth for the rest of the night listening to her but she never re-emerged to nest. Back at it again the next night! We checked her location when we woke up before work and she had headed all the way back up to Hobe Sound. We packed up the van and drove up there to find her. We didn’t get a good signal from her until around midnight and we had started to worry. We finally got her signal around Jupiter Island and followed her south for about 45 minutes. We must look like crazy people driving down the road in the middle of the night! Chris was hanging out the back window of the van with headphones on and a giant antenna in his hand and we drove about ten miles per hour down a very quiet road. Finally he says “she’s on the beach!” We were able to pinpoint exactly which house she was in front of and walked onto the beach just as she was crawling up. Technology is wonderful! We removed her harness and sat to watch her nest for a bit. The data from the tag look incredible! We got over 2,500 GPS locations and should have another map created as soon as we have a few minutes to unwind. Her recorder also worked perfectly! We’ve been slowly listening to ten days of continuous recordings that documented everything Libra encountered. I am going to attempt to attach a .wav file that I found yesterday of a boat that came very close to Libra as she swam. When I looked at her movement data, it appears that she was headed towards the surface but as she came in closer range of the boat, she headed deeper until it passed and after it was farther away, she came up to breathe. It will take a very long time to really uncover everything that she did but we’re having so much fun working on it. I’m hoping that if you click on the link below, you will be able to listen to a short clip from Libra’s travels and one of her encounters with a nearby boat. It’s a scary world for a turtle!
Boat_libra_1

It has been the week of the morning turtles! We’ve had quite a few and I couldn’t be happier! First, it was Ursa on the south end of Juno who stayed with us through a beautiful sunrise. Then, on Tuesday morning we found Vida (remember – the 400th turtle tagged by the project) right at the bottom of our ramp. Today, Rebeccah had Violet, down in MacArthur Park, who was on the beach until sunrise. Quite a week of stories for us! I snapped a few photos of Ursa (top) and Vida (bottom) enjoying the beautiful sunrise with us!

Espina should be back with her transmitter tomorrow night and we’re hoping it worked as well as Libra’s! We’ve got our work cut out for us with data analysis!

It’s been a busy leatherback week as well with 28 turtles since last Sunday night!!! We’ve had three new turtles but the rest have already been tagged. Interestingly, we’re seeing a lot of turtles who were tagged in previous years but have not been seen yet this year. Liz found Hillary (a 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 nester) and Sprinkles (a 2008 turtle) on Sunday night but they haven’t been here yet this year. Rebeccah found Lupe, seen just once in 2006, on Monday night. Andrew found Bella and Vega on Tuesday night. Bella was here in 2004, 2006 and 2008. In 2006, she wore a transmitter to track her locations. Vega was here once in 2001 and once in 2008. Seeing them just once a season makes you really wonder what other beaches they’re using for nesting.

That’s the quick overview of our week. We’ll get working on maps and some more sound files as soon as we can!

Last night at around 11:00 we located Espina! She crawled out of the water and we were able to pick up the distinct “beep-beep-beep” from her VHF tag. She was just north of the Loggerhead Marinelife Center and made things very easy for us. Since she is such a faithful nester here on Juno, we decided to redeploy our tags on her. We removed her old tags so that we can download her data. We attached a new set and she’ll carry those for an additional ten days. In the next few days I will create a detailed map of Espina’s travels. We were able to get over 2,300 locations from her in the ten days she was traveling!

Last night we saw four additional leatherbacks, all that we’ve seen previously this year. Sanur, a turtle from ten days ago, nested first at around 10:00. Espina followed her. Shortly after that, Jessica found Deema and Cocoline. Cocoline was a frequent visitor at the beginning of the season (and one of our first turtles of the year), but we haven’t seen her in about a month. It was good to see her return. Deema is another frequent visitor, this was her fourth nest with us this year. Rebeccah found another recent turtle – Chablis – who was here nine days ago. We’ve been averaging 4-5 leatherbacks a night as we are passing the peak part of leatherback season.

On another good note – loggerhead numbers are up finally! We are now seeing 70-100 crawls a day, similar to what we saw at this time last year. It appears they just came in a little late but they are definitely rolling in now!

No Espina yet. Maybe tonight? She’s still hanging out off Jupiter Island. She’s a pretty faithful Juno nester. Five more turtles last night! Two returning from this year – Corey and Mzazi. We had two new turtles on Jupiter and a 2004 turtle returned to see us! This was Maya – a turtle that nested four times in 2004 and hasn’t been seen since. Chris and I are headed home to sleep! All of this turtle chasing makes us sleepy! Back at it tonight!

As I mentioned, we are still tracking two leatherbacks. Espina nested last Thursday and should be back this weekend. Libra was tagged on Tuesday night. I’ve attached a map of Espina’s track. She traveled to Cape Canaveral as most of our turtles do, but as she has traveled back this way, she has hugged the coastline. Yesterday, she came within 5 miles of Jupiter Island. Her track comes very close to the beach on the map but she hasn’t nested yet. We expect to find her sometime in the next three nights. Any guesses about where she’ll nest??? Click the comment button above or the Read More button below to leave a comment with your guess!

We had several leatherbacks tonight. Christy had a new turtle in MacArthur Park. She also spotted Chara late in the evening. Chara has only been seen by our crew once before, way back in 2003! Andrew spotted Sophie around 2:00am. A lucky class group from the University of Alabama under the guidance of Dr. Thane Wibbles was able to watch Sophie nest. There was a turtle on the south end of Juno and a false crawl on Singer Island that weren’t seen by the crew. We also had a “new” turtle tonight that wasn’t actually new. She had tags from the University of Central Florida’s research group in Melbourne. They are the only other nighttime leatherback tagging group in the state. We often “share” turtles (like Marcella, Starry, Dean, Salty and others) that have been seen on both beaches. This turtle has not been seen on our beach before. When we hear back from their crew, we’ll let you know her history. The turtle attempted to nest in MacArthur Park but left after attempting several egg chambers. The full moon last night made for a beautiful ride!