The Research Team has officially kicked off the 26th year of our leatherback project. Through mid-June, we’ll be surveying between Jupiter Inlet and MacArthur Beach State Park, identifying and collecting data from every leatherback we encounter. Our “leatherback of the week” was Windy, a returning favorite first documented on our beaches in 2003. When we encountered her, she still had her 2025 satellite tag attached, though it was no longer transmitting (track her 2025 movements here: https://marinelife.mapotic.com/turtle/windy-55). We attached a new satellite tag, which you can follow here: https://marinelife.mapotic.com/turtle/windy-74.
Interestingly, Windy is an “annual remigrant,” returning in back-to-back years rather than the more common two-year cycle. Windy typically arrives with injuries consistent with tiger shark predation, and this year was no exception, as she presented with fresh shark bite wounds on her front right shoulder. Her history even inspired a study on the forensic analysis of shark predation on sea turtles using tooth mark characteristics and jaw measurements (read the study here: https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/52487). Her tracking data will help us better understand clutch frequency (how many nests she lays in a season) and foraging site fidelity (whether she returns to the same feeding areas after nesting). Hopefully we’ll see Windy again this season and if she returns to the foraging grounds off South Carolina.
Katie Fowler, PhD | Research Scientist