Leatherback Blog
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 Six started off slowly for nesting leatherbacks, however activity picked up rather quickly! We ended the week with 10 individuals to bring our total number of sampled females to 50!! The night crew were able to catch three turtles for the second time this nesting season: Shirleen, Sage, and Kitty! We also encountered seven…
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…
Well, we had an awesome leatherback nesting season! We have 154 leatherbacks nests on the beaches we patrol, which is exciting for us as we only had 97 last year. Of our 154 nests, our nighttime tagging team had 108 encounters! We saw 62 individual leatherback turtles this year, including 24 new mamas and some…
It’s that time of year again! Right now, on Juno Beach, we have all three species nesting on any given night. Leatherbacks are starting to slow down but loggerheads are going steady and green turtles are starting to pick up. A green turtle in a deep body pit while she lays her eggs. Photo…
Did you know that some leatherbacks make a lot noise while they are nesting? Not all leatherbacks are noisy nesters but we get pretty excited when we come across a noisy girl. Parker, a new mama on our beaches, was a very vocal lady! Some of the noises are just loud breaths, but some sound…
Peak leatherback season has come and gone. That being said, we are still seeing leatherback ladies in Juno Beach (loggerheads are also here in full force!). Since our last post, we have encountered 11 leatherbacks on our beaches. Some of these mamas are repeat nesters but some are new! Of the ladies we have already…