Another new turtle tonight!
Kelly and I were out tonight - the first time "the leatherback unit" has been out patrolling together. Hard to believe we have been doing this since 2001! At around 3am I spotted a turtle near the Jupiter Reef Club. She was a new turtle and I decided to name here Yerba (pronounced yairba) after my newly formed addiction to the Caffeine in Yerba Mate tea. Yerba left beautiful tracks in the sand and I am going to be bringing the camera out this morning at sunrise to see if I can get a few images. I will post them here later today or this evening.

We are going to introduce a section of the project log dedicated to "The wierdest things we saw last night"
The wierdest thing that I saw last night was a group of people sitting under the dune crossover watching TV at 3:30am! Go figure??

What a fun night! We started the evening off with a dinner gathering at our good friend Andy's house. Kelly along with her parents, Niki Desjardin, Jeanette Wyneken, Mike Salmon, Denise and Marie joined for a nice Italian dinner to kick off the summer. After dinner, I headed out on the beach alone to survey for turtles. At around 12:30am I spotted a new turtle in Carlin Park. I tagged, measured and took a genetic biopsy sample from her and headed north a few hundred meters and found another turtle. It was "Georgia"! Georgia was first observed nesting during the 2002 season nesting on Jupiter beach - no more than 2 kilometers from where she was found tonight! "Georgia" is our biggest turtle (giant) at 168.0cm.
I met up with Kelly, Niki and Kelly's parents at the first turtle and we named her Rhoda after Kelly's mom.

Patience pays! Chris reports from the beach. powered by audblog

Although it is still really rough out there, the wind seems to be calming down a bit now! No turtles though. Maybe tonight they will arrive en masse??

Morning update: No turtles last night. I really hope this wind dies down, although there are lots of neat things washing up on the beach this morning. I found a paper nautilus (argonaut egg "cradle") a bunch of Janthina shells and lots of Man o Wars. I understand there is also a very large (550ft) ship washed up on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale!

Raining quite heavily once again out there. I am completely soaked and cold! The rain is providing me the opportunity to get some much needed office work done though... Expect some new things on the website soon!

Sounds like fun, doesn't it??

MODERATE TO SEVERE BEACH EROSION ALONG EAST COAST BEACHES THROUGH

STRONG EAST WINDS OF 25 TO 30 KNOTS WILL CONTINUE TO RESULT IN
MODERATE TO SEVERE BEACH EROSION THROUGH FRIDAY...MAINLY AT THE TIME
OF HIGH TIDE WHICH OCCURS BETWEEN 11PM AND 1AM TONIGHT AND AGAIN
BETWEEN 11AM AND 1PM ON FRIDAY...ALONG THE SOUTHEAST FLORIDA COAST.

The surveys must go on though! I will report back in later.

Late morning leatherback turtle

Erik Martin, a beach surveyor working with Ecological Associates Inc. of Jensen beach reported a daytime nesting leatherback turtle to us yesterday! The turtle was observed on Hutchinson Island at 8AM on Monday 3-22-2004 and was on the beach for about 2.5 hours. As you can see from the photo the turtle attracted quite a crowd! Daytime leatherback nesting is not such a rare event, it has even happened a few times in our survey area - although I have not been fortunate enough to witness such an event. The turtle was checked for tags and none were found. What an amazing event to witness!





Thanks to Carrie Crady, Ecological Associates, Inc. for permission to use this image

No turtles to report from last night. I hope the weather calms down soon.... Although it looks like the wind will be blowing at around 25mph until at least Sunday.

Quite a lot of wind driven rain out there right now. Going to take a little break from the survey until it blows over....
It has been a very quiet night with hardly a soul on the beach.

No turtles last night. It was another cold, windy and rainy night that was not at all pleasant! I pressed on though until about 5:30am. Then it started to rain heavily and I went in for a brief nap. Heading out now for another pass and to do the morning survey.

The turtle from the other night will be named "Alice" A nice young girl from Jupiter Florida named Sandy was the first to email me. There were lots of good suggestions! We will be looking for more names soon, so get ready to send them in.

Happy to report that the turtles have arrived! Last night at about 1am, the first turtle to visit our beach was spotted. It was very cold and windy and I was having a very hard time riding the ATV along the beach. The sand and salt spray were just too much. At around midnight I decided to leave the beach and survey from the road with one of our night vision scopes. This method was used with decent results during the first two years of the project.
At the first stop. I spotted a huge black shape down the beach - looked good! Only half convinced that it really was a turtle, I drove a bit closer and I saw the "happy face" of a leatherback turtle!
When looking through a night scope head on at a leatherback the shape created by her head, carapace and long flippers looks like a happy face. I know it sounds stupid, but I will try to snap a photo some day and post it here.

I watched the turtle for over almost three hours as she dug an egg chamber. She wasn't a very good digger and the sand would collapse back into the hole after each dig with her giant flippers. After a while she decided she had had enough and left the beach. I made some quick measurements and gave her a pair of flipper tags. I am sure we will see her again soon and we will let you know when she is back!

I was unable to come up with a good name for her. The first person to email us at info@floridaleatherbacks.com gets to name her! Hurry up!

More tonight...

Checking in from the beach with the first turtle! (audio post)

I am sorry for not reporting to you guys since Saturday morning. I decided to take the night off Saturday night - body needed a recharge... Happy to say that we did not miss anything!
Last night started out great! We had a little gathering here at the Marinelife Center before I headed out. Sandy, Sue, Niki, Stacy, Dean and I had a BBQ before the survey began. It was nice to get everyone together and I hope that we are able to do it more often! I headed out on the beach at around 9pm expecting to find a turtle, guess I was wrong. The night turned very cold at around 1am (58 degrees here at our weather station) I had a very hard time passing a group of people on the beach with a large fire and what looked to be a very warm tent. I should say that both the fire and sleeping on the beach are against the rules in Juno Beach, but I was very cold and both seemed inviting!
We will have to take a photograph of us before we head out one night. It is a funny sight. A bunch of sea turtle researchers wearing gloves, hats, fleece, and rain jackets.
More later....

Question: How many people check this log first thing in the morning? If you are enjoying our posts, please let us know by emailing us at info@floridaleatherbacks.com

Many folks are waking up right now and getting ready for a beautiful saturday. I am rubbing my eyes to try to remove the sand that was blown into them all night! It was WINDY last night. The wind started off rather nice, but really cranked up at around 2AM. It turned out to be a rather unpleasant night on the beach. A few brave fools were on the beach last night/this morning celebrating the equinox?? Maybe just a good reason for a few drinks - I guess

Oh, yeah. No turtles last night either.

Yep, you guessed it. No turtles last night. I really did not think there would be one, but tried anyway! The stars were amazing though and I spent a good part of the night taking pictures of them. I also took a few images of lights shining on the beach from houses and condos. These lights often disorient turtles and we will try to get them turned off before the turtles start arriving en masse. Maybe I will post a few later today.

No turtles to report from last night. It was a long night made even longer by a broken ATV. Our main bike used for surveys broke a shock support way down the beach on Singer Island. It took 2 hours to drive it slowly back home! I am sending it out this morning for repairs which I hope are not too expensive. If you have not shown your support for the project, now might be a great time! Make a donation today

I know you all are probably sick of hearing it, BUT I really thought tonight was the night for the first turtle. There was a nest recorded 9 nights ago on the south end of our survey area. We expect that turtle to come back and nest once again after an internesting interval of 9-10 days. I will post again in the morning. Back to the beach...

Really quiet out there tonight! When I started out tonight at around 9pm it seemed very "leatherbacky", but no turtles to be found anywhere.

Definition:
Leatherbacky ADJ.

1 - Pleasant night, Nice night for a leatherback turtle to nest.

2 - Of, or pertaining to a leatherback sea turtle

3 - Having characteristics similar to a leatherback turtle. (black with pretty white spots, snorts loudly, smell like fish)

Nothing yet, I think I might need a nap!

from the road powered by audblog
....chris calls in to report Marinelife Center success today at the grants decision meeting...

Nothing on the beach on Friday night. Still think it is too rough for the turtles.
Tonight is the night! It has to be, doesn't it??

Not much to report from last night. We were expecting a returning leatherback, but I think it was too rough for her. The waves were giant once again and completely flooded the beach. Check out the link in the post from last night for a view of the waves.
Maybe I will find a leatherback tonight?
I have been told by several people now that I sound like Mel Fisher. Mel was a treasure hunter who spent a good part of his life searching for the shipreck Nuestra Senora de Atocha. He would start the day off by saying "todays the day!" It took him 15 years to find the wreck, but I guess it paid off.
Tonight is the night!

It was another cold and wild night out there. We decided to quit early (4AM) last night when the large waves arrived. At around midnight a large swell from the northeast arrived and made driving along the beach dangerous. Check out a live view of the beach here: Live View
We will be back out there tonight and are expecting a turtle tonight or tomorrow!

Maybe it is a bit too cold for leatherbacks??
It was very cold 51 degrees on the beach last night. I really did not like being out there all night, but a bonfire started by a group of kids on spring break eased the pain! I guess the turtles thought it was too cold to nest. Maybe tonight?
There are now two nests recorded in our survey area. We will be out every night for the rest of the season.....

I think I am starting an old wives tale! Check it out here If all goes according to plan, we should be starting our surveys this weekend. Be sure to check back here often for up to the minute updates from the beach.