25 Years of Nesting on Sandy Point

The  leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting season is finally in full swing. We have been seeing at least 3 nesting turtles per night and have had some nights with up to 5 turtles. We have also been surprised that not only have we had one green turtle nest, but now three separate turtles.   Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) typically nest on Sandy Point National Wildlife Preserve between July and September and it somewhat unusual to see them this early.  We will wait to see if they continue to nest all season.

Leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) leave their nests and move toward the open ocean at the Sandy Point National Wildlife Preserve in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. (photograph taken in 2012)

Leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) leave their nests and move toward the open ocean at the Sandy Point National Wildlife Preserve in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. (photograph taken in 2012)

 

One of the most interesting leatherback turtles we have seen thus far  nested on April 1, 2013. She is a beautiful turtle and fairly large; her carapace, a leatherbacks soft leathery shell,  measures 5 feet 3 inches long.  She arrived around midnight  and remained on the beach almost 4 hours in the pouring rain. After digging four different nest attempts, she finally settled in and laid her eggs around 4:00AM.

 

When we arrived back to the house to enter the data from the night’s turtles, we discovered that this particular turtle was originally tagged April 1, 1988, which is exactly 25 years ago. Our database indicates that during this time she has successfully nested on 63 different occasions on Sandy Point and, on average, lays 77 fertilized eggs. This would mean that she has laid over 4,800 eggs and has had close to 2,800 hatched babies. We look forward to seeing more of this turtle and will continue to write about her as she returns throughout this nesting season.

For additional blog entries on Geographic Consulting’s sea turtle monitoring work at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, click here

Courtney King (who also measures 5 foot 3 inches long)

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