I have just posted new data points from the turtles we are tracking in collaboration with Hubbs-SeaWorld and UCF. Mariposa really far out in the Atlantic now! She is over 2500 miles away from Juno Beach now and is swimming in water that is about 15,000 ft deep! Check out the maps on this page

A Great Trip!
Vince, Andy, Niki, and I made the long journey up to Beaufort NC this past weekend to visit Kelly and some other folks from the Duke University Marine Lab. We met with Larry Crowder, and Mike Orbach to attempt to work out an official collaborative agreement between Duke and the MLC. It was not all business though! We visited the beach, went canoeing, and even had a "pig-picking" party.
We had lots of fun visiting and look forward to returning someday (by plane)

Our group after a hard day of work!

Update 8-20-2003 We have received a bit of data from our turtles! Aries, Sierra, Mariposa, and Pesca are transmitting well and have moved away from Florida. Mariposa is way out in the north Atlantic Ocean almost half-way between North America and Europe! I just plotted her location, and it appears that at some time during the week of 8-11-03 she swam right over (of very near) the location of the sunken Titanic.

Back on the beach! Based on the recents points provided by Hubbs, we have learned that one of our satellite tracked turtles (Tina) has been in the area for the last few days. Although quite late in the season, we hope she may nest once again! For the past three nights I have been out on the beach trying to find her unsuccessfully. It is nice to be out there, even though I am only able to survey from the road. At this time of year there are many nests hatching each night and it would be a very bad idea to have an ATV on the beach.
I have been calling other researchers who work beaches to the north and south of our beach. If she nests once again, we will know. Check back for updates!

Not much to report from last night. We spent lots of time trying to hide from the rain. There were no leatherbacks last night but we did get to watch a green turtle nest right in front of the Marinelife Center. After a not-so-good night, we had an excellent morning. Chris and I saw several manatees swimming right off shore and four small green turtles playing in the surf. Hopefully we'll have a better night tonight and if our satellite turtles haven't finished nesting and headed north, they should be in the area over the next couple days. We'll let you know if we see them again.

Niki's update

Midnight update for Friday 6-13-03:
Kelly M, and Kirstin just called to say that they just witnessed a leatherback nest hatch out! The nest was laid on 4-10 laid by "Costa" who happened to be the first turtle we observed this season. This was her second nest to hatch this year and did a lot better than her first. Over 30 hatchlings made it to the water by the time Kelly found it!

5AM Update:
Quiet and beautiful night with only one leatherback. Kelly M and I came across Elaine at 4AM, just as she was heading back into the water. It was sort of funny to look at the datasheet for her last visit 9 days ago. Kelly Stewart encountered her just as she was heading back to the water last time also. It seems she likes to hide from us! Maybe she doesn't like the look of our PIT tag needle! (I think I would run also) I hope she comes back again before she heads off to the north.

Sand in the face!

leatherback hatchlings

Shana checks in

It was a productive and fun last night here on Juno Beach. Kelly M. and Shana ran the beach while I caught up on some things here in the office. I am just now getting used to working at 3AM! Kelly encountered "Big Bertha" down on Singer Island early on and called Niki, Matthew and Kelly to come down and check her out. She is one of our largest and noisiest turtles! Later on in the evening, Shana found a new turtle just 100 meters outside the door to my office. With 65 turtles tagged so far this season, I think it is pretty amazing that we are still getting new turtles so late year. We are expecting our satellite tagged turtles back this evening.....

Bertha's a noisy turtle

We have just received some data from UCF and Hubbs. It looks as if Mariposa and Pesca are done nesting for the season, and are heading north and east in search of food. Tina and Sierra look as if they will nest again this weekend somewhere in or near our survey area. We will post more information about our turtles and the Sat. tagging activities in the near future. Keep checking in. A small map can be found on the tracking page on this site.

Two turtles again last night, seems to be a new trend. Chris and I spotted Sara at around 2 am. She was a really pretty turtle that we've seen once before back in April. Around 4 am, we got our second turtle of the night. This one was a new turtle. She was a very fast nester and she was covered in a coat of slime, which makes us wonder where she's been. We decided to name her Aceita. As the new member to this crew, I'm still trying to adjust to the schedule but I'm finding it easier and easier. Running on no sleep is not as bad as it sounds. However, I am still unable to adjust to the bugs, which were very bad last night, but I'm not sure that anyone can adjust to that. Hopefully tonight will go as well as last night, maybe we can get off this two-a-night trend and see a few more turtles!

We are still waiting for data on Sierra, Tina, Mariposa and Pesca, the four turtles that we placed satellite transmitters on last week. We'll keep you posted as soon as we hear something.

Sorry about the late post once again. Kelly M., Niki, and I were out last night and were able see two leatherbacks. Nonamay was the first turtle to nest on Juno Beach way back on 3-19-03. She has not been seen since that night, but has likely nested over 7 times on other beaches here in Florida. She is probably finished nesting now and will head north in search of food! Nima is a turtle that Kelly and I tagged during the 2001 season. She looked great! Nima had lost her flipper tags, but the internal microchip (PIT Tag) was still found in her shoulder and we were able to identify her.
We are feeling lucky right now and expect a few early leatherbacks tonight. We will update more later.

Satellite Update: We have just received the first data points from our turtles! Tina, and Sierra are transmitting well and have moved off our beach and are heading northwest. I will post a map as soon as I get a bit more data. We should receive a bit more information tonight from the other two turtles.

It was a nice night tonight, but I think the excitement of the last few days has caught up to me. I was quite tired when I started out this evening. We did find a few leatherbacks though! Shana found Bess down on the south end of the beach and I encountered a new turtle near the Juno fishing pier. The turtle was scarred up pretty bad and acted sort of funny, but did nest and was tagged by Shana and I. The turtle was named Samantha after a visitor on the beach.
We ended up puting 4 transmitters on our turtles this week! Keep checking in, as we will be posting more information and maps shortly.

Sorry about the late post yesterday--lightning destroyed the internal network at the Marinelife Center so we were without internet access until now. Today was another very rainy day, but luckily it let up enough for us to get out there tonight. It was extremely hazy, with two giant clouds having a lighting battle with each other not far off shore. Loggerheads were everywhere...but no leatherbacks. That's three nights now...somebody must not be living right! Maybe there will be a morning nester today.

Not much to report from last night. There were no leatherbacks and not too many loggerheads on our beach. It rained most of the afternoon once again and it was pretty cold out there. There is something strange about being on the beach in May with sweaters, hats and rain jackets.

Just spoke to the crew for tonight and we are all feeling lucky! I think it should be a good night.

Only one turtle to report tonight. Atria was observed nesting in MacArthur Park a little after midnight. She was one of the six turtle seen on Friday night when she "false crawled" on Juno Beach. Atria had attempted to dig an egg chamber but had a hard time getting through a layer of shelly material in an area of the beach which was nourished two seasons ago. We have seen this activity before with "Sandy" one of our favorite turtles from the 2002 season. Sandy would try to nest in the nourished area only to return the next night on a natural beach.

Lots of loggerheads last night means a long morning survey ahead of me!

Haley, Atria, Big Bertha, Reeves, Sierra, and Tina "the teeny turtle" It was a busy and fun night out there! Six turtles in a single night (3 new) is a record for the project, and we really had to work hard tonight . Shana started the night off with an early turtle at around 9:30, but she didn't feel like there would be any others due to the extremely low tide at around 3:30am. It would seem that she was wrong! We were on the phone and running around all night dealing with both new and returning turtles. The names we came up with tonight are really original aren't they?? Big Bertha ties the record with Georgia as our largest turtle at 170 centimeters! Tina "the teeny turtle" was not that small, but after measuring Bertha anything would look small.

What a great night! We are all so tired from the work and it is time for bed.

Flannel shirts, Axes, & Chain Saws - It can only mean one thing, the loggers are here. Yep, the Loggerheads have arrived on Juno Beach. There were over 30 crawls last night on Juno Beach alone. It did seem like a lot last night, but only a fraction of the numbers we will be seeing in a few weeks time. On any given night in June/July we may have as many as 200 crawls!

No leatherbacks to report though. It was very hot and buggy last night with not much to keep us busy. The water offshore has turned cold once again, and I bet it has a lot to do with the lack of turtles here on the beach. maybe with a bit of luck tonight....

Another great night for the project here on Juno Beach! We found a very small leatherback at around midnight, and only a few minutes later we observed a turtle tagged during the 2001 season! The first turtle was very small (127cm), only a bit larger than some of our loggerheads! Luna was first seen here on 4-12-01, and tagged on 6-11-01. Luna looked huge but measurements showed that although she had grown a bit, she wasn't really that big. I guess anything would look large after the small turtle earlier. She laid a large clutch of eggs, covered it expertly and crawled into the water after about a half hour.
Time for the morning survey. It may take a while this morning, as the loggerheads were out in full force last night.
More updates later....

Jeanette & Kelly in PR

new turtle

We were all rather tired tonight as we began the survey. Things were very quiet with no Leatherbacks and only a few Loggerheads coming out to nest. Check out the post below to hear Kelly talk a bit about the turtles in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Will post more tonight as I feel there will be quite a few Leatherbacks. (Wishfull thinking does help pass the time!)

Kelly in Puerto Rico

Boy, after 90 tagged turtles on this beach it is starting to become hard to think of good names now! So, I am asking for your help. If you have any names in mind for a giant leatherback turtle email them to names@floridaleatherbacks.com Send us a name, its significance to you, and don't forget your contact info. We will pick a few of them and maybe "your turtle" will be swimming around the Atlantic Ocean for years to come!

Some of the themes we have used in the past are; star/constellation names, family members, and descriptive names ("Ridgy", Sandy, Shelly, etc)

Last night was a bit boring! No leatherbacks, and I did not even see a single loggerhead on the beach I was surveying. I was cold and wet and.... (I guess what I am saying, is that it wasn't a fun night).

I have just posted some amazing video of a leatherback swimming off our beach recorded by a friend of ours who runs Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures, a local dive company. It can be found in the new (multimedia section)of the website. The video is just beautiful, and I do not think the web does it justice. Give Jim a call, as I am sure he would love to show it off! Maybe he will even take you to where he saw the turtle?

Hopefully more turtles tonight!

The night has gone by really fast. It wasn't long after we started that Chris finally spotted a turtle. I gatored up north with Brent and Nicky, two of my pals from school, to check out the turtle. This was their first leatherback and they were excited to watch her nest. She was a new turtle and we named her Shelly because she had to dig through a lot of shells in the sand to make her nest chamber (she did a good job though!). We tagged her and took off to survey the rest of the beach. As soon as I headed south again, I spotted a leatherback track leading up the beach. Luckily I caught the turtle as she was dropping eggs and was able to tag her. A tough turtle she was! Her left rear flipper was missing completely and a big chunk of the tail end of her carapace was gone. Her front flippers were quite torn up too. But she did her best to dig a little hole and lay her clutch (she filled the hole right up to the top). A visiting student from Vermont named her Clover, after his home state's flower. Other volunteers helping us out tonight were Maureen, from the Ft. Lauderdale- based National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation, Claus and Ole (sorry if I spelled that wrong). Well, after Clover left the beach, Chris took one more run and we headed for cover. The rain came pouring down, keeping us off the beach for the rest of the night...but at least we got two turtles!

As we enjoyed the holiday this afternoon Niki and I were amazed by the beauty of the ocean as we stood on a balcony of a high rise condo. on Juno Beach. There was a swell pushing 4'-6' waves on to the beach, with surfers really enjoying the day. I really was not concerned about our nests until I got out on the beach tonight. I am afraid we have lost a few nests with the wave action and erosion. I even witnessed a few kids having fun with their skimboards in a shallow pool of water over a nest that was laid last night! I cannot imagine how a turtle could (or would want to) crawl out of the surf to lay a nest tonight, but you never know. Time to get out and check. Updates later...

It was a beautiful night. Just as we started out, the moon rose above the horizon looking like a big fiery orange ball. Chris and I headed north from the Park on the gator. A call from Shana confirmed the arrival of the first loggerhead on Juno Beach. She told us to continue north since she was detained with the turtle. We motored up the beach, expecting to see a loggerhead, when Chris yelled, "Stop!". There was a leatherback, nesting 100 meters away, with her carapace facing us, disguised as a pile of sand. Once she started laying eggs, we discovered it was "Icy," a turtle Kelly tagged on March 31. She was a tough turtle, with lots of scars around her neck and shoulders, presumably from fishing line or rope. We will post a night-vision picture of her soon. The rest of the night was bright and breezy, but no more leatherbacks nested. Two more loggerheads nested on the southern portion of Juno Beach. Guess that means our nights will be busier from now on.

I have the night off the beach tonight so I decided to play around with some of the data we have gathered from Aries. Aries is a turtle we first observed on 4-8-02 on Juno Beach and was our first turtle to recieve a satellite transmitter on 5-29-02. Her movements since then have been quite amazing! It is our hope that she will continue to transmit and send us important data which can help us to protect her species. Check out the video of her movements herel Macromedia Flash is required.

chris gets skunked

Daytime nester! I received the following from Stacy Kubis in Melbourne today:
Lifeguards from Treasure Shores park in Indian River County notified personnel at Sebastian Inlet State Recreation Area that a leatherback was nesting just north of the park at approximately 12:00 today. Park rangers, USWFS biologist and UCF showed up to tag the turtle and mark the nest. A number of beach goers showed up to watch the turtle nest. One of the beach goers reported that he had seen the turtle earlier that morning in the water near that area. She finished nesting and returned to the water around 1:30. Images in the photo gallery.

Squeaky turtle

kelly's first turtle

Two turtle night! At about 9:00PM our first turtle of the season crawled out of the ocean directly in front of me in Jupiter! She was an untagged turtle, and we tagged and measured her as she was laying eggs at around 9:45PM. The night did not end there though...
I learned my lesson the other night and stayed out during the low tide (I missed a turtle at low tide in Macarthur Park on Tuesday) At 3:15AM another turtle emerged right in front of the Marinelife Center. I was waiting patiently for the turtle to start laying eggs to check for tags, when the skies opened up! The rain was very cold and wet, but I wanted to tag the turtle. I sat for a bit in the rain, but in a few minutes, the lightning started and I decided to leave the beach. I first checked to see if she was already tagged- NO, another new turtle!
Unfortunately, I was unable to get back out to tag her. It was very frustrating to sit here in my office knowing there was a turtle on the beach, but I am sure she will be back here in a few days. Check out the audio post below to hear some sounds from a Leatherback!

first leatherback tagged

Doesn't look like I will get out on the beach any more tonight. The weather has turned miserable here in Juno Beach! The weather has given me a bit of time to work on the website though. I have added a mailing list feature, add your name to our mail list and we will send you periodic updates on our research during the course of the season. Link to mail list can be found on the left side of most pages on the floridaleatherbacks.com site.

I am sitting here waiting for the rain to stop once again! Looks like I might be here for a while though as the whole state of Florida is covered by thunderstorms.. No turtles yet on our survey beaches, but of course there is probably a turtle on the beach right now. Will write more later.

at 10:14 pm est... national weather service doppler radar
indicated three to five inches of rain has fallen over much
of the area during the past two hours... with up to eight
inches in the vicinity of jupiter and juno beach. the heavier
rains have moved south to the vicinity of wellington...
west palm beach... and lake worth
As you can see, the night started out very wet and stormy, but turned out to be a very beautiful night with thunderstorms offshore. Check out the picture! The lightning kept me entertained for the whole night. No turtles once again, but maybe tonight!

Quiet but interesting night on the beach. I guess people have no idea that I ride along the beach with a night vision scope?? The night vision gear allows us to see just about anything nearly as bright as daytime. Sometimes you see the wierdest things.....
I do not know where the leatherbacks are, any day now I suppose?
More Northern Gannets were found on the beach tonight, I added an image to the photo album.
I tried out a new feature we have added to the site. Check it out: Unhappy Gannet! We will be adding audio updates as the season progresses, stay tuned!

Unhappy Gannet

"The night of the birds"
Kelly was wrong! No turtles once again, but there sure were a lot of stranded birds. During the course of the night I encountered several dead Pelicans, four Northern Gannets, and one Herring Gull in need of assistance. I am not really sure why the Gannets strand on the beach during the night at this time of the year. I was able to see several floating in the waves and quite a few flying offshore during the night but it is a mystery to me why they strand. The Gannets were taken from the beach and brought to a lake very close to the beach here in Juno. They usually rest for a few hours and take off and head offshore once again. It was quite amusing to see the Muscovy ducks and the swans in the lake interact with the birds. I thought they just wanted to make me bleed, but it seems they do not like ANYTHING to get close to them. Those birds are just plain mean! The seagull will need some medical care and will be brought to our local wildlife rehab. center. Time for bed!!!!!

Turtle season has officially begun! As of this morning there have been two nests recorded in the state, both found on beaches to the north of us (South Hutchinson Island, and Sebastian Inlet) No turtles on our survey beaches yet but we are surveying every morning. Stay updated by checking in regularly!