Latest News and Updates...

7-27-10

Though we haven’t been diving as much as last summer, we still have had great success in finding new and tagged hawksbills on the days we have been out.  We recently added numbers 142 and 143 to the tally, and are consistently getting reports of small, untagged individuals.  This information is very useful because it reflects what is known as the “recruitment” of young individuals to the area, many of which are expected to remain local residents for a decade or more to come, offering the opportunity for long-term study.  Speaking of which, the small hawksbill I mentioned a couple of postings ago that had died on the reef has now become the latest addition to the project’s educational display in the form of a re-articulated skeleton mount.  I had been wanting to try this for some time, and though it has some minor flaws, it came out really nicely. 

The turtles have begun to hatch at the beach!  It was great to excavate a couple of nests last week while volunteering for the Sea turtle Conservation League of Singer Island.  It has been a couple of years, ahh how I missed the smell.  It seems to be a productive summer so far, there was a small swell generated by TS Bonnie, but otherwise things are shaping up well for the 2010 nesting season. 

8-08-10

I am pleased to announce that the first of two satellite tracking devices has been deployed on one of our resident hawksbill turtles.  We were fortunate to find Ei #10 on Breakers Reef just 20 minutes into the first search dive, a little bit north of the Trench.  I first tagged this turtle back on 2004, then caught it again for re-measurement in 2006, so along with a few additional reportings over the years, we’re confident this is a long-term resident of the area.  We placed the transmitter in the stainless steel attachment tray system that we developed, so I’m anxious to see how it performs over time.  So far, the device has been sending data daily, and upon first examination, they indicate that it is functioning properly.  I will be posting maps soon!  I don’t know how long the link stays active, but you can view the news story that aired on channel 12 at:

http://www.cbs12.com/video/?videoId=441609141001&lineupId=1143359274

We were unable to find the second turtle for the second transmitter due to extremely limited visibility, but we plan to give it another try this week.  Many thanks go to the folks at Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures (JASA) for hosting our group and allowing us to take our time with the procedures.  It was great to have my tray manufacturer Steve Reichard assist with the attachment system, summer intern Susie Nuttal’s help in coordinating the attachment procedures, and camera man Steve Shelb from channel 12 getting everything on film (and spotting the turtle!).  Kay Tennant and Terri Roberts were also there as divers and spotters, so how fortunate I was to have such a great group to help out.  Of course, we also thank the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation for funding one of the transmitters, and Dr. Terry Maple (Palm Beach Zoo) for the other through his work at Georgia Tech.  

Steve Reichard (above), Susie, me, and Ei #10, now known as ‘Althea’ with the experimental attachment system and transmitter

We’re using Wildlife Computers’, Inc. Mk10- AF satellite tags

8-10-10

Here is a summary of what Althea has been up to over the last few days.  The large building in the upper left is the Breakers Hotel, and to give some perspective, she’s about a mile offshore and sticking to the north-south reef line.  Thanks to Chris Johnson for his help in creating the map!  Much more to come...

8-20-10

Another successful week out in the water and back on land!  We were lucky to come across what is now known as Hawksbill # 144 in the last few minutes of our dive, right at the southeast corner of Turtle Mound.  We also saw a couple of our previously tagged ones as well.  Though we didn’t spot her, Althea the transmitter turtle has been sending data, and we’re almost finished incorporating them with our bathymetric reef maps, so I’ll be posting the latest information soon.  Thanks to Kay, Terri, Jay, and Susie for underwater assistance!

I’d also like to again thank the Sea Turtle License Plate program and the Sea Turtle Conservancy for their support, I received our final grant installment this week.  If you live in Florida, get a sea turtle license plate!  It really makes a difference to Florida’s collective effort to protect sea turtles and their habitats. 

Now that’s a flat day!

Susie Nuttall helps some little loggerheads on Singer Island

8-30-10

Here are some of the latest coordinate data from “Althea”, our first sat-tracked turtle.  These include GPS positions from the 4th to the 25th of August, and as you can see, she continues to frequent the 45-60’ reefs along the Breakers chain.  Though I haven’t received eye-witness accounts from divers as of yet, the device and attachment system seem to be performing well.  The green dots/lines represent more recent data than the yellow/red ones, and the big building at the beach that casts the shadows is the Breakers Hotel.  All together, the north - south distance she has covered is only about 1.5 miles.  We plan to deploy another transmitter as soon as the next opportunity arises.  Pretty cool stuff!

9-07-10

The second transmitter was deployed on an ideal turtle yesterday, it made for a fine and memorable Labor Day!  Our goal was to find a turtle that has been associated with the artificial reefs that are located near the Lake Worth Inlet, at a dive site known as the “Corridor”.  Over the years, we’ve captured and tagged over 30 hawksbills at or near these structures, and several have proven to frequent the area.  Lucky for us, we came across Hawksbill # 42 at the debris field known as the Brazilian Docks, who turned out to be a perfect candidate.   We’re looking forward to peering into the daily life of this turtle, I know I’ve been wondering for some time if the “wreck turtles” head over to the natural reefs now and then.  I’ll post maps soon!  Thanks to Kay Tennant for spotting the turtle, and Susie Nuttal for assisting with the attachment procedures, and as always Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures Crew for hosting our research.  

9-29-10

Autumn winds have arrived, leaving us little opportunity to get out diving, but we are still getting great data from our satellite-tagged turtles Althea and Bertha.  Both are remaining near their respective tagging locations, though it seems that Althea does a bit more exploring around a larger territory.  Bertha, on the other hand, seems to be finding everything she needs right there in the area we know as the “Corridor”, which consists entirely of artificial reef structures that include shipwrecks and sunken concrete debris.  As I had hoped, these two are providing answers to some long-standing questions, but also raising many more concerning the ecology of hawksbill turtles and the quality of these habitats from the turtles’ perspective.   We have much more to learn, but are putting the right tools in place to do so!

Althea has been cruising around Breakers Reef

Bertha has been sticking to the “Corridor” wrecks just NE of the Palm Beach Inlet

11-02-10

We had a great day diving last week and managed to capture two new hawksbills to add to our database, one from Breakers reef near the turtle mound, the other at the Playpen just outside the Lake Worth Inlet.  Both were relatively small, suggesting they are new arrivals to our study site, and #145 provided some exceptional feeding footage for use in future behavioral analyses.  For those of you in the vicinity, I will be presenting a talk on satellite telemetry in sea turtles at 7:00 PM next Wednesday November 10th at the Jupiter High School Auditorium...  don’t miss it!  We are also busy making plans for the 2011 Sea Turtle Symposium to be held in San Diego next April.  We plan to present two projects, one that summarizes the data we’ve gathered from the satellite transmitters, and another that our Project Intern, Susie Nuttall, has been working on that will compare the hawksbills’ use of artificial (man-made) reefs with natural reefs here in Palm Beach County.  We are looking forward to contributing, and highlighting the Palm Beach Zoo’s commitment to sea turtle conservation among our friends and colleagues. 

12-13-10

For Florida sea turtle people, nothing marks the season quite like the annual Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Workshop at the world-famous Turtle Hospital in Marathon, right in the middle of the beautiful Florida Keys.  The meeting has evolved from a small necropsy workshop to a full-fledged conference attended by nearly 150 people representing all aspects of marine turtle rehabilitation, from facility staff and volunteers to professors and leading veterinarians.   Many thanks go to our hosts Richie Moretti, Ryan Butts, and the rest of the Turtle Hospital Staff for a great conference, and Save-A-Turtle for sponsoring Saturday’s BBQ.  Visit www.turtlehospital.org to learn more about the great work they do. 

We welcomed a new addition to the Melvin J. and Claire Levine Animal Care Complex (ACC) at the Zoo in the form of a state-of-the-art surgical laser, thanks to our friends at the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation (NSTSTF) and Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.   This shared resource will benefit Gumbo Limbo’s efforts to treat sea turtles afflicted with tumor-causing fibropapilloma, and the Zoo’s larger animal collection by virtue of its versatility as a surgical device.  We had a great reception for the NSTSTF’s donation at the ACC, and enjoyed a fascinating demonstration by veterinary laser expert Dr. David Bradley.  This gift highlights the benefit of collaborative efforts between our organizations, and I look forward to many more receptions for many more additions!   

Dr. Terry Norton of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center guides students through a necropsy at the Rehab Workshop to learn about sea turtle anatomy.

Dr. Kirt Rusenko of Gumbo Limbo, Frank Wojcik of the NSTSTF, Dr. Michele Miller of the Zoo, and Dr. Nancy Mettee check out the slick new laser machine.

2-20-11

Though we haven’t been diving lately, there has been plenty to accomplish in preparation for the 2011 field season.  Thanks to the Bay and Paul Foundations, we now have another satellite tag ready for deployment, and have two additional requests pending for more tags.  Unfortunately, Althea’s tag has ceased to transmit (it probably fell off), but we did get about 100 days of data.  On the other hand, Bertha’s tag is still performing well, and has given us a much more complete picture of her behavioral patterns.  Of particular interest, we have learned that she likes to sleep in the same spot every night on the Amaryllis shipwreck, then forages out on the reef during the day.  These preliminary findings are very exciting, and I look forward to presenting some of our results at the upcoming Sea Turtle Symposium in San Diego, CA. 

I recently had an interesting opportunity to assist the Sea to Shore Alliance with their manatee conservation work here in South Florida.  The Alliance takes on the responsibility of monitoring manatees via satellite and radio tracking that have undergone some sort of rehabilitation or time in captivity.  Being social animals, its important that manatees, particularly young ones, re-acclimate themselves after they are released from captive care.  In this case, we were searching for “Glades”, a young manatee that had been found entangled in marine debris in Port St. Lucie.  After its release (transmitter in tow) in Ft. Lauderdale, it had made its way to Biscayne Bay, and we’re glad to report it has found a bunch of ‘friends’, and seems to be eating well.  Learn more about the Alliance at       http://public.sea2shore.org/.

Brendan Beard of the Sea to Shore Alliance and Jay Hamm closing in in “Glades’” signal... there she is!

3-24-11

Springtime is here again, and how busy it has been!  We had the Project’s educational display booth set up at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s Sea Turtle Day, followed the next Saturday by the Safe Harbor Celebrity Dogwash in Jupiter.  The weather was great on both days, and I thank everyone who stopped by the booth to say hello.  I am also getting geared up for the upcoming sea turtle symposium in San Diego.  I will be presenting the results we’ve gotten so far from the satellite transmitters, and my student assistant Susie Nuttall will be presenting her work on detection probabilities and site occupancy of our project hawksbills among various local habitat types.  Speaking of transmitters, many thanks go to the Bay and Paul Foundations and the Florida Sea Turtle License Plate Grants Program for recently providing funding for two additional satellite tags.  As the sample size grows, so does the strength of the conclusions we can make about local hawksbill behavior patterns.  These additions will bring the total to five satellite tags; half way to our goal of tracking 10 Palm Beach County turtles.  After that, we can expand the effort to surrounding areas as we seek to characterize Florida’s larger hawksbill population.  I plan to deploy the new transmitters over the next few months as the opportunity arises, and will post updates as we go. 

Support Sea Turtle research and Conservation in Florida!  Buy a Sea Turtle Plate!

Me and my Mom puttin’ in the hours!

Thanks to Safe Harbor for a great event.

4-24-11

What a great week we had in San Diego at the 31st International Sea Turtle Symposium!  Every spring, the global sea turtle society meets for a week of sharing new findings and new ideas, and of course forming and building friendships among colleagues.  This year’s symposium focused on the “next generation” of sea turtle conservation and research by highlighting the remarkable work of students in all parts of the world and the contributions they’ve made to our understanding of sea turtles and their environments.  As a long-time attendee of these meetings, it was nice to see a general shift from a rather pessimistic view of the plight of sea turtles (which was prevalent in the ‘90s), to a considerably more optimistic outlook.  Though challenges remain enormous, words like “increases” “recovery” and “success” are more common than they used to be.  There is now considerable evidence that, at least in some parts of the world, the work we’ve been doing is just starting to be reflected in greater sea turtle abundance.  Thanks go to this year’s president, Jeff Seminoff and his entire team for organizing a great meeting, and Jen Homcy for organizing a fun auction that raised $23,000 to support student travel expenses. 

6-09-11

We are getting geared up for a busy summer field season!  Now that the project is partially affiliated with Florida Atlantic University, there are a number of requirements concerning diving certifications and animal use protocols that must be met as we move forward.  To our benefit, these certifications significantly boost our ability to handle any potential mishaps or emergencies, and remind us of the importance of safety in the field.  Once approved, we will be deploying three more transmitters over the summer, and hopefully retrieving the currently-functioning unit that is still attached to “Bertha”.   The more transmitters we can deploy, the better will will understand the ecology of our local hawksbills, so any and all help in finding the resources to buy more units is greatly appreciated!  We are also utilizing the data that come from casual observers to map out hawksbill territories, some of which are very surprising.  A photographer recently captured some images of a hawksbill offshore of Boynton Beach that bore tags originating in a Cuban hawksbill tagging study, and just a couple of weeks ago, a local diver saw a turtle that I had captured over 2 years ago foraging on a site at which we rarely have seen hawksbills before.   Once accumulated, these small bits of information can be powerful tools for the conservation of the species and their habitats.  Finally, many thanks to Callie, Jocelyn, and the rest of the staff and volunteers for inviting me to speak about the hawksbill project at the Loxahatchee River Center in Jupiter, the audience was great and I appreciate the opportunity. 

1 km     N

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Above:  These are Bertha’s positions since February, yellow are daytime, red are nighttime.  She hasn’t gone far, and she seems to prefer to sleep at night on the Amaryllis shipwreck.

On the right:  You can compare how this turtle looked at the end of 2009 and now, see some changes?  Thanks to Jeri Curley for the top photo. 

May 21, 2011

October 9, 2009

7-28-11

The 2011 summer dive season is in full swing.  We had the good fortune of tagging one of several small hawksbills that divers have been recently encountering in the Breakers reef area of Palm Beach.  From what we’ve learned so far, these small (shell length approx. 40 cm / 15”) turtles are likely new to the area and should stay around here as residents for perhaps 15 years or more.  These “newbies” will provide us the unique opportunity to follow their development for the majority of their sub-adult years through successive photographs and re-captures.  We are also planning to start sampling the hawksbills that reside on the reefs of Jupiter over the next few weeks.  Until now, we have focused our efforts on the hawksbills from Juno Beach south to Lake Worth.  Though we will certainly continue our ongoing work in Central Palm Beach County, it is well-known that Jupiter’s reefs in the northernmost part of the County are home to many hawksbills, and we know from our tagging data that young ones generally don’t ‘mingle’ much with those outside their home range.  The individuals we sample up there will provide a great opportunity to compare the aggregations, and will represent the first step in expanding the Florida Hawksbill Project beyond the current site. In due time, we will turn our sights south in the pursuit of our larger goal of eventually documenting the hawksbills of the whole SE Florida coast.  Thanks go to the divers who’ve been sending  great photos of tagged individuals, its been great to watch them grow and change over time.  We will be actively seeking out “Bertha” (the current transmitter-carrier) over the next month in hopes of retrieving the unit.  At the beginning of September, it will have been deployed for a full year, so we are extremely pleased with its performance and anxious to get it back so it can be refurbished and re-deployed. 

Happy Birthday to dive assistant Terri Roberts, who conquered the current to help me bring  #147 back to the boat. 

Here’s an example of one of the great shots provided by Mr. Doug Kahle.  This one is project hawksbill # 141.

9-14-11

Some very interesting things have happened with the Project over the last month!  To start, we are now up to 152 captures after a flurry of diving activity and some good fortune.  The new captures have been mostly smaller individuals that likely have more recently moved into the area.  We expect that, over time, we will be seeing less of the larger tagged individuals and more of the smaller ‘new’ ones as the older individuals depart for breeding grounds and new young recruits move in.  During all of this, we have been actively seeking “Bertha”, whose transmitter has now been working for just over a year.  She has been recently seen by divers at or near the Corridor wreck site several times, but I haven’t come across her myself to retrieve the device, which will provide additional data and can be re-used with new batteries.  One of the turtles we did come across, however, turned out to be a former patient at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach.  Found at the end of December 2010 in Fort Pierce, it spent about six months in rehab for various health issues.  I am happy to report that it has remained near the release site and appears to be doing well, and has even grown a bit!  On the sad side, one of the project turtles was recently found deceased and apparently drowned from entanglement in fishing line.  Of particular interest was that when I first tagged it in 2007, I noted a healing constriction wound at the base of the front left flipper, consistent with the effects of monofilament line, then again late in 2008 I noted how the wound had nearly completely healed.  Its very disheartening to know that the same thing happened again to this animal, unfortunately ultimately causing its death.  Discarded fishing line is a hazard to all marine life.  Nonetheless, for the most part, the hawksbills seem to be doing pretty well around here, and we’re learning new things about them all the time.  Many, many thanks go out to my diver volunteers, the crew at Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures, the other dive boats like Narcosis and Wetter the Better, and all the photographers who send me such great pictures of the project animals. 

“Mimosa”

“Bertha” with her transmitter

photo courtesy Jim Abernethy

11-03-11

Though the weather has recently changed over to the more windy wintertime pattern, we had good turtle capture success and interesting dives this fall.  In total, we’re now up to 154 captures, 8 of which were added to the ‘list’ this year.  Of interest, the capture rate we still enjoy has remained constant throughout the project, indicating that our resident hawksbill aggregation remains robust.  Because hawksbills are so dependent on coral reefs for sustenance, the fact that our numbers remain high tells us that our local habitats remain desirable to the turtles, which is of course great news!   We also explored a dive site we hadn’t visited before off of Jupiter’s shores that features a series of shipwrecks known as the Esso Bonaire, Miss Jenny and the Zion Train.  Though we didn’t encounter any turtles there, we were amazed by the massive goliath grouper aggregation and the thousands of baitfish swirling everywhere.  Not to mention receiving major harassment by a gang of pesky amberjacks!  Thanks to Kay Tennant, Nicole Ordway, Jay Hamm and the JASA crew for all their support!  Back on land, we’ve been busy organizing the data, working on manuscripts, and preparing for the next ‘wave’ of transmitter deployment.   We plan to present the results of our work at the Southeast Regional Sea Turtle Conference in the spring, and perhaps also at the International Symposium in Mexico.  I did a presentation about the Project for the Palm Beach Zoo’s Big Cat Society lecture series at the Gardens Hilton, which was very well attended and a good time for all -- sloths included!  It was great to see such a nice mixture of old friends and new in the audience, and I hope to get more opportunities like this one to spread the word throughout the community.  Don’t forget, we need your help to keep this project going!       

Kay vs. amberjack...but she’s outnumbered!

Nicole and hawksbill # 153

Party with the animals at the Big Cat lecture!

Photos:  Kathie Comerford

1-22-12

Happy New Year!  We are looking forward to an interesting and productive 2012, and it looks like there is plenty on the agenda!  Overall, this year will be focused on the behavioral aspects of the hawksbills in our study site.  Though capture data from ‘new’ turtles remain important, the sample size we’ve achieved so far (n=155) has pretty well described the basic demography of the hawksbills of Palm Beach County.  In fact, our manuscript is nearly complete that contains a summary of the abundance, growth, seasonality and genetics of the turtles we’ve tagged so far.  We hope to have the paper published within the next few months. 

The ‘event’ season kicked off down in the Florida Keys in December with the annual sea turtle rehabber meeting.  It was the 25th anniversary of the Turtle Hospital, and a number of ‘old-timers’ gave some great retrospective talks.  Many thanks to Ritchie Moretti and his great team for hosting yet another successful meeting.  This last weekend was the fabulous Palm Beach Zoo Gala at the beautiful Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, many thanks go out to the attendees and Mr. Andrew Aiken for mentioning the value of the Hawksbill Project (and of course the other Zoo conservation projects) to the audience at the event.  Next, we  have the Southeast Regional Sea Turtle meeting in Jekyll Island, GA coming up in early February and the Florida Sea Turtle Permit Holder Meeting in Gainesville, where I’m looking forward to presenting a summary of our results to the attendees of both. 

Many thanks to Nikole Ordway and Force-E Dive Shop for hosting a great PADI “Project AWARE” sea turtle event!  We had 14 students who learned all about sea turtle biology, conservation, and identification through slideshow programs given by Nicole and myself followed by two dives with Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures on Breakers Reef.  The weather was great, and although the visibility left a little to be desired, we still had good luck finding turtles.  We had the pleasure of encountering two loggerheads, an unusually small green turtle for being out at that depth, and a hawksbill that had not been previously tagged.  Overall, a great success, and we hope to have another sometime soon.  Thank you to all the participants!  Watch the video at http://vimeo.com/35506334

4-04-12

The spring meetings were a success!  The first ever Southeast Regional Sea Turtle Meeting took place in beautiful Jekyll Island, Ga. on Feb. 2-4, and hosted more than 400 participants from throughout the region.  I was pleased to have the opportunity to give a short talk on the most recent findings of the hawksbill project, and serve as the ‘auctioneer’ at their main fundraising event.  Then, a few weeks later, it was off to Gainesville for the Florida Marine Turtle Permit Holder Meeting, where I again spoke to the audience about the project, but presented some different results (to keep things interesting!).  Many thanks to the Sea Turtle Conservancy for inviting me to speak and administering the support the project has received from the Florida Sea Turtle License Plate Program.  Finally, to cap off the meeting schedule, the 32nd Annual International Sea Turtle Symposium was held in Huatulco, Mexico, where over 600 participants from around the world came together to talk turtle.  All in all, the trip was a great success; the weather was great, the venue was beautiful, I again had the opportunity to speak about the project, and was followed up by an excellent presentation by Susie Nuttall, who spoke of her statistical analyses using hawksbill data I’ve collected over the years.   Congratulations and thanks to the organizers for a great meeting, and to all those who gave such informative talks and posters.   In addition to the meetings, we held two more PADI AWARE sea turtle specialty courses in partnership with Force-E dive shop in Riviera Beach.  Both were a success in that we were able to encounter and identify at least two sea turtle species each day, including a large green turtle who was flattered by having its photo taken!  We encountered one of our tagged ‘residential’ hawksbills that has been seen numerous times lately in the north breakers/turtle mound areas, and fortunately added to the study’s sample size by encountering two more untagged hawksbills.  A milestone to come:  March 31st was the 199th field day for the Florida Hawksbill Project!  Let’s keep it going!