LONG JOURNEY ENDS

This sea turtle's long journey (and life) has ended. He/she was found about a month ago on our stretch of beach and may have succumbed to a shark, old age, or a combination thereof. It's shell markings were severely washed out by the elements and death, but this writer's best guess is that it was a Loggerhead - probably a good bet, since they are the most common in this area. The shell seems to be more elongated than what I remember a Loggerhead's shell to usually be, but it is hard to tell without better markings on the shell. Unfortunately, this sea turtle - which may have been a female that returned after 20 or 30 years to her original beaches to lay her eggs, will no longer be a part of the several million year-old cycle of sea turtles' lives that we are privileged to observe from time to time on our beach.

This writer was away on vacation in Michigan for a vacation, so my many readers of this blog may have noticed a lapse in the coverage. I hope that you are now back in the "blog mode" with me for the duration of the turtle nesting season.

CURRENT TURTLE NEST STATUS MAP

The map included with this blog shows the approximate locations of sea turtle nests to date that we have strong suspicions are actual nests with eggs (red pins). The green pins represent the locations of nests that were documented by us as having been hatched. We documented these by either observing multiple tracks leading from the nest or actually seeing some straglers who were still in the process of traveling to the water from the nest.

Also, after seeing a report that a green sea turtle was being transferred from the Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) in Juno Beach, FL to the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart, FL, I e-mailed the LMC to adopt a sea turtle under their care. I actually adopted "hatchlings" rather than one of the named adult turtles, since I am partial to hatchlings. I also asked if I could post their link in my post, so that readers of my blog (yes- there are people who actually read my blog!) could hook up with their link and see the many interesting things that they are doing in support of sea turtles. Their link is www.marinelife.org. Why not adopt a Loggerhead today? It's a great cause!