The Leatherback Project

The final week of the 2019 leatherback nesting season for the LMC night crew has come to a close. We’ve had an absolute blast working with these magnificent creatures over the last 11 weeks and we’re all sad to see it end. The season has definitely started to wind down, as we only encountered one…

The second to last week of the night crew’s 2019 leatherback season is complete. Even though the calendar says their season should be winding down, the turtles definitely did not receive that message. We encountered 10 leatherbacks, bringing our total number of sampled females to 92, and we have seen all but two of them…

Even though we are getting close to the end of monitoring, leatherbacks are still on a roll! Night crew encountered 11 turtles this week, 5 of the them were 1st encounters and the other 6 we have seen throughout the season. One of the encounters was also a day time nester! We had the lovely…

This has been a special and extremely exciting week for our night crew on Juno Beach.  In collaboration with Upwell, a California based marine research and conservation 501(c)3 nonprofit, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, we have been able to help weigh nesting leatherback turtles!!  Our goal is to examine and score the body condition…

Night crew is now past the half way point of the season, but is still keeping up with the momentum. There were 8 encounters this week! We saw two leatherbacks for the second time, Katabatik (tagged in 2008) and Angie (tagged in 2012). The other five ladies were first time encounters this season. We encountered…

Week five is a wrap! Leatherbacks are now up to 78 nests. Night crew encountered 9 individuals this week, some returners and some new nesters. The first encounter was Kitty. This is our first time seeing her this season, but was originally tagged in 2010. Her carapace was 143.2cm (4.69 ft) long. Virginia was the…

Juno Beach and Jupiter are teeming with activity, which is keeping the night crew quite busy into the early morning hours. Week Four brought ten leatherback nesters onto the beach, bringing the total number of sampled mothers to 32!! Some turtles of interest in include a pair mothers who were first tagged back in 2003,…

Another successful week has gone by, on about 9.5 miles of beach, we are up to 41 nests. We have encountered 7 individuals this week. The first lovely lady we saw was named Buttercup, who was first tagged in 2012 and we last saw her in 2016. Her carapace length was 150.3 cm (4.93 feet).…

A new leatherback season is upon us and there has been no shortage of activity on Juno Beach.  Nightly beach patrols have been underway since April 1, and we were lucky enough to see some turtles that very night! Our first encounter of the season was Shirleen, who was first tagged a few years ago…