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