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When I was a kid I saw one of the largest Leatherback Turtles ever found in the National Museum of Wales, it had been stranded in Harlech in 1988 and was now an exhibit complete with a deep voiced narration of how it travelled the seas and lived for over a hundred years. Inspiring stuff.
Now, just off the boat and about a hundred yards in front of me was one of these very creatures swimming freely in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
Our journey north up to the waters off North Carolina to find a migrating Leatherback had finally been a success, a bit of a slog with us squeezed into the boat for 8hrs but worth it and shortly after 11am after a few hours of searching, Mark from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources had spotted the tell-tale bulge and ridges of a Leatherback Turtle.
Now for the tricky part as Andy (University of New Hampshire) and Mark with the help of Tony our Boat captain and the rest of us as spotters played a game of cat and mouse to catch it so we could attach the satellite tag.
Leatherback Turtles have to surface for air but in an instant they can dive. What the team had to do was position the boat to be able to sneak up behind the Turtle when it was up at the surface having a breather. Then Andy with his oversized butterfly net, would drop the net in front of it at which point Tony would slam on the reverse so sending the Turtle into the net, sounds easy but much harder in reality.
It seemed we were in a rather good spot as within an hour or so we had seen at least two individuals. The Turtles were canny individuals and would dive as soon as they realized what was happening. This led for moments of high tension as we all scanned the water to see where they had popped up only to be relieved by a shout of “3 o'clock 200 yards!” Oddly it was almost like the topside version of Das Boot but with Turtles.
We had some really close encounters with the Leatherbacks and it was amazing to see them in their natural environment amongst the aptly named Cannonball Jellyfish that they feed on. In the flesh they are elegant and calm creatures and they may look cumbersome but they are agile are strong swimmers (you can see this in the vid clip).
A few occasions we were incredibly close, with the Turtle in the net but somehow they found a way to put a flipper in the way and push themselves back out. This day was to be the Leatherbacks and in the end we weren’t able bring them aboard and tag them.
After the morning purple patch the wind started to pick up and with it the sightings dropped off too. Apart from a few friendly Dolphins and the odd amusing Sunfish the Leatherbacks seemed elusive as ever and come the afternoon we had to head back knowing that today was not meant to be.
Alas, it seems this particular migration has come to a premature end because that was the last chance for Grant and I before we head back to Bristol, UK. Nevertheless, we hope that there will be better news later in the year. Watch this space!
Jody
Further Reading:
Next report: What now for the Team?
Last report: Our video of Dolphins