The Leatherback Project Archives - Loggerhead Marinelife Center

Leatherback Spotlight: “Aussie”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Loggerhead Marinelife Center’s Leatherback Project, dedicated to researching nesting leatherback sea turtles.

2018 leatherback season overview

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…

This beach is getting busy

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…

Noisy nesting mamas

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…

Leatherbacks nesting during the day?

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…

Do sea turtles nest in the rain?

Yes they do. The past week has been pretty stormy, yet we are starting to encounter more turtles each night than we have seen so far this season! During the past week we have surpassed 1,000 nests (including both leatherback and loggerhead turtles). Even with the nasty weather, the nighttime tagging team has encountered 21…

Still getting new mamas

Have you ever wondered how we measure the turtles we see? Our measurement of “shell length” is actually the curved carapace length (CCL) of the turtle. The carapace is the top (or back) part of a turtle’s shell. We measure the carapace using a soft measuring tape and we call this measurement the curved carapace…

Our first three-peat and more remigrants

We encountered our first three-peat (a female we’ve seen three times this season) turtle on April 25. Aussie, a female notably missing a large portion of her front right flipper, nested previously on April 6 and April 16. We are excited to have seen her three times already and are hoping to see her again…

Famous leatherbacks in Juno Beach

We had two famous turtles nest last week. Kelly Clarkson nested on April 21st around 1 am. Recently, the singer expressed her dream of becoming a marine biologist in an interview; thus, this turtle was named after her. She measured 143 cm in shell length. Kelly Clarkson while she laid her clutch of eggs. Photo…

New girls, old girls, and our first loggerheads of the season!

We had a few new girls this week. Kathmandu is one of our new turtles and was one of the first leatherbacks to nest in Jupiter this season. We now have two leatherback nests in Jupiter, just south of the inlet. Kathmandu was larger than average, measuring 161.4 cm in shell length. May was another…