Since our last update, the leatherbacks seemed to have taken a small break from Juno Beach! Last week, our night crew had quite a few nights in a row of no leatherback activity. Luckily, things changed for us tonight! We encountered three leatherbacks, all of which were tagged previously.
Biologists encountered the first leatherback of the night just before 11 pm. Shaula was seen nesting on Juno Beach just 10 nights ago! We were happy that she returned to Juno and that we were able to sample her again for our project. The next leatherback of the night was named Mum; she was first tagged by LMC in 2010 and was seen once more in 2012. Mum looked like a healthy leatherback and our crew was excited to see her. Last to nest last night was a familiar (and special) turtle that nested three weeks ago on Juno Beach. If you’ve been keeping up to date with us, you might remember that Savannah needed assistance with digging her egg chamber the last time she nested due to her lack of one rear flipper. Despite her injury, Savannah laid another successful nest on Juno last night!
In other turtle news, loggerhead nesting is steady so far! We are seeing an increase in their nesting numbers night by night, so we are hopeful for a successful season for them this year.