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