Written by: Cheyanne Durham. March 2022
The 2022 sea turtle nesting season has started and the first ones up to nest are the leatherbacks, followed by loggerheads and then green turtles. On average, adult leatherback turtles weigh between 500-1500 pounds and measure 6 feet long. So far this season, Boca Raton has three leatherback nests. Leatherbacks mainly nest on the east coast of Florida, with Palm Beach and Martin County accounting for nearly half the leatherback nests in the state each year. Recent years have seen around 1,000 leatherback nests statewide. 60-80 days after a leatherback female deposits her eggs on the beach, hatchlings will emerge and make their way to the ocean.
Here at the FAU Marine Lab, we study the leatherback hatchlings to learn about nest sex ratio, baseline health, and behavior. We are the only lab in the world to raise leatherbacks in captivity, to answer these questions. After they are grown to about the size of your hand, we release them offshore. Some of those released turtles will have satellite tags that allow us to track where they are going. Scientists have long been baffled by the “lost years” - the time between a hatchling’s departure from the beach until they return as a mature female to lay their own eggs. Leatherbacks are an open-ocean species throughout their entire lives, making it extremely rare to see a leatherback of any size and very difficult to determine where their nursery areas might be. Stay tuned for updates on our leatherbacks in the lab!
