Last year we tracked one of the Sandy Point nesting turtles for over a year – she swam more than 6,000 miles since leaving the beaches of Sandy Point and Maunabo, Puerto Rico (she got her satellite tag there!). This spectacular journey took Enid Fern north through the Atlantic to the Azores in the middle of the Eastern Atlantic Ocean! This amazing technology lets us follow the turtles in real time to see how they interact with ocean currents and they lead us (virtually) to their favorite foraging areas where they fill up on jellyfish! The battery in Enid Fern’s transmitter lasted just over a year – maybe she will be back to next this summer! (She was first seen and tagged two years ago).
Like our Facebook page and you’ll be able to follow the tracks of the turtles we tag in 2020! Our partners in this work include The Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium, and ATMAR (Amigos de las Tortugas Marinas – Maunabo, PR). Funding was provided in part by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation, a US Fish and Wildlife Service grant, the Propeller Club of Baltimore, and generous donors!
The St. Croix Leatherback Project is supported by the Sea Turtle Census Initiative, which is sponsored by The Ocean Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, based in Washington, D.C., working globally to protect our oceans.
All photos on this website were taken under appropriate Endangered Species Permits during the course of approved research. No photos may be reproduced, or copied and used without permission. Thank you.
The St. Croix Sea Turtle Project 