We made it to our last day of the Twelve Days of Turtles! Today, we encourage you to follow us next season as we track some leatherback turtles around St. Croix and through the Northern Caribbean. Last year our turtle Enid Fern (a new nester at St. Croix) ventured over to Maunabo, Puerto Rico where she was outfitted with a transmitter that lets us know her GPS location as she travels through the North Atlantic. This study was done by collaborators with Amigos de las Tortugas Marinas (ATMAR) and scientists at the New England Aquarium Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. We were so excited to share this turtle’s history!
Recently, Enid Fern has moved south and is near the mid-Atlantic ridge, while her neighboring turtle ExploraDora is near the Azores. We will continue to track them as long as their transmitter batteries last!
Next season, we hope to outfit several turtles with GPS trackers to see how they are using St. Croix beaches. We’ll be posting regular maps for each turtle. Please follow along!
The St. Croix Leatherback Project is supported by the Sea Turtle Census Initiative, which is sponsored by The Ocean Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3) organization, based in Washington, D.C., but working globally to protect our oceans.
The St. Croix Sea Turtle Project 