Hey all! After last weeks depressing blog post, I'm happy to post something on a happier note. On Wednesday night my patrol came upon the tracks of a turtle that had been mostly washed out by the tide, I followed them up to find a Loggerhead turtle digging her nest chamber with her back fins. Loggerheads are extremely rare on this beach - I have been lucky enough to see one come up the beach once before, but the opportunity to see one nest was something else! In fact, this turtle was the first confirmed nesting of Loggerheads in the history of Cano Palma's turtle monitoring program.
Loggerheads are about the same size as a green turtle, but they have larger heads and shorter limbs. This turtle had a massive head, jaws and 'beak' (to crush crusteaceans) and a raised ridge down the middle of her carapace.
Today I went to Tortuguero to watch the STC (Sea Turtle Conservancy) release a green turtle named "Shelldon" with a satellite tracker. This was part of the "Tour de Turtles" - a race between 15 satellite tagged sea turtles released from various parts of the world. The turtle that swims the furthest on its migration route wins the Tour de Turtles (I'm secretly rooting for the Leatherbacks).
You can track Shelldon's location here!
Mariya and I waiting for Shelldon's debut
(I don't have any pictures of the release but a video is coming soon!)
Shenique is sad that turtles ignore Jamaica.
Not related to turtles, but look! A whale skull!
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