Arribada

I usually ride the north end of the survey area but last night I rode the ATV south to Singer Island for a change of pace. Kelly has been finding quite a few leatherbacks near the Ocean Mall and I hoped to find one also. Imagine my suprise when I spotted a whole arribada of leatherbacks through one of our night vision scopes!


You can probably tell that they really are not leatherbacks! But - trust me, when you see a big black lump ( or 10! ) through a scope your heartbeat gets kicked up a bit. These are not leatherbacks though, just piles of Sargassum weed that have been raked together for disposal. I do sometimes dream about beaches where leatherbacks nest in large numbers! Maybe Florida will be that place in a few more years??

No leatherback nests were recorded on our survey area last night. The loggerheads seem to be doing pretty good though. I recorded 12 nests on my morning survey this morning!