Florida Hawksbill Project

So far, it appears Lyra felt like taking a vacation to the Florida Keys! After leaving Key West, she's been enjoying a free ride back north in the Gulf Stream. Since so few adult hawksbills from Florida have ever been tracked, we're learning something new every step of the way. I wonder where she's headed next! Thanks to the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, Inwater Research Group, and Loggerhead Marinelife Center for their assistance with this project! Some have asked about the colors on the map; it's a timeline, green ones are oldest, red ones are the most recent positions.

Although it was a bit extra-chilly on the reef, our team had success yesterday aboard the Kyalami and the great people at Jupiter Scuba Diving https://jupiterscubadiving.com. We found Hawksbill # 266, as it is known in the spreadsheet, but also now known as "Morgan", named for JSD's Erick Morgan's kids. Though it seems this young hawksbill had a run-in at some point with an unfriendly shark, the wounds were healed and the turtle was in great shape, weighing in at a healthy 50 lbs. with a 57.4 cm long shell. I'm sure we'll be running into this one again as we continue to visit Jupiter's reefs. Thanks to our team and of course the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation www.savetheseaturtle.org for supporting our work!

Of course, we have the appropriate permission from the appropriate agencies to handle hawksbill turtles for research purposes.