It has already been a very busy season here along our survey area. Since we started surveying back on March 6th, we have found more than 44 individual turtles using our beach! This is a LOT for so early in the season. We are all expecting a record season on our beach and along the entire state of Florida. There is about a 50/50 mix of turtles that are untagged and older recaptures. Turtles that were tagged in all prior seasons are nesting this year, and we have seen two turtles from our first season of tagging back in 2001. It is nice to see those girls and wonder what they have been doing and where they have been travelling for all of those years.

There were two leatherbacks that nested along our beach last night and one nutty turtle that drove along the beach looking for them. One of our crazy field crew drove around all night in her awesome Leatherback costume! She even tagged a new turtle (now named Althea) wearing it. It was really fun to watch a little Leatherback (91 centimeters) measuring a much bigger Leatherback (151.5 centimeters)

On the other end of the beach, the crew found a turtle we have known since 2004. Sedna is a fairly regular nester here along Juno and we last saw her in 2007. She is one of the turtles that is mentioned in the Florida chapter of Carl Safina's book, Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur.

One of our dreams is to work a full night where we do not find balloons washed up on the beach. Whenever there is a wind from the east, balloons, plastic debris and assorted garbage wash up along our beach. The bits of plastic will often end up eaten by all species of sea turtles and other marine life. A few years ago, we removed a large mass of plastic from one of our leatherbacks named "Sara" Hopefully, all of the plastic was removed, but she has not been seen since that season.

On a better note, the streak continues - two more turtles! Last night, Bunny (the easter turtle) tried to nest near the Jupiter Reef Club but hit the seawall and turned around. She came back an hour or two later and also tried to nest, but was unsuccessful. There was also another new turtle that nested down south in Lost Tree Village.

It was another rainy night here along Juno Beach. The rain started at about 3am on Wednesday night and as of this AM, has not let up. The weather station here at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center has recorded more than three inches of rain in the last 24 hours! It was cold and wet, but the crew was on the beach and we encountered another new leatherback turtle. The turtle was caught as she was covering up her nest in John D. MacArthur Beach State Park at about 1:30am.

Five turtles in four nights! This is, by far, the most turtles we have encountered so early in the season. Stay tuned.

Well, here we go again! We have been surveying at night for about a week now and we are doing pretty good! In the past few nights, we have already encountered four nesting leatherbacks. This is an amazing start to the season and it looks like it may continue. Around the state morning survey crews are finding nests just about every day now.
The first turtle we encountered on 3/16 was named Abigail and she has not been seen since she was first tagged way back in 2003. The next night we found Clover nesting in MacArthur Park. Clover (yes, she nested on St. Patricks day!) has been nesting every two years on our beach and is really not in the best shape. Both of her rear flippers are missing and she makes a terrible mess when she tries to nest without our assistance. We have have dug nine egg chambers for her since she was fist tagged back in 2003!

Be sure to check out this months issue of National Geographic! One of "our" nesting leatherbacks is featured in a story on light pollution. In May, the leatherback crew assisted world renowned photographer Jim Richardson, as he captured the image on Singer Island.

This turtle was new to our beach and Jim captured images as she was measured, tagged, and sent on her way. We named her "Kathy" after Jim's wife, and we are excited that Kathy has become an ambassador for creating awareness about this important issue facing wildlife and those of us who appreciate a dark sky filled with stars.

The image can be seen in the print magazine and here:
Jim Richardson photography

The last leatherback nest in Juno Beach hatched three nights ago. We excavated the nest this morning to determine hatch success. The clutch did alright, we even pulled out three live hatchlings. Since we missed this turtle nest, we are sending one of her unyolked eggs to Brian Shamblin for genetic analysis. We take genetic samples of every turtle we encounter so Brian will have something to compare the egg to and will get back to us with who the turtle was.

Here is an image that Chris took of the last leatherback hatchlings this season going into the ocean. Click the image for a larger view.

No leatherbacks the past two nights. We have had a couple reports of some of our turtles nesting up in Melbourne Beach. Seems like they are slowly making the migration back north. The morning did turn out kind of interesting though. On my last pass back to the office I found an upside down male green turtle near the golf course. I first thought he was dead but he eventually moved a flipper. He was probably mating and then got tossed off and turned upside down. When we got him turned right side up again he didn't move. He stayed on the beach for one hour before going back in the water and was around for a beautiful sunrise. First we thought something was wrong with him because he wasn't going anywhere, but then all of a sudden he freaked out and went back to the ocean super fast. It was all kind of strange but really awesome to see a male up on the beach at sunrise.

Last night was pretty busy. Thank you to the turtle walk volunteers for spotting the first leatherback of the night, Sugaree, right by the office! We first tagged Sugaree early this season and we have not seen her since. She is probably one of my favorite turtles this season since she is named after one of my favorite songs.

We had a new turtle in Lost Tree Village that was already tagged, but not by us. We think she was tagged in Melbourne by the UCF crew. The turtles in Melbourne aren't given names unless they wear a satellite harness, so I named this turtle Olive. We also saw Ridgey and Musca, both Juno Beach regulars this season. As well as Joy, who was first tagged 10 nights ago.