Introducing Ruby, Sara, Isabel, Sir David and Kay
This map shows the track of the leatherback turtles that we helped satellite tag off the coast of Nova Scotia this summer in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada: Ruby, Sara, Isabel, Sir David, and Kay.
Well…it shows the tracks of some of the turtles. There are three others that we tagged whose satellite tags are no longer transmitting. (There are lots of reasons satellite tags stop transmitting. We do not think that these three turtles have been hurt. And, in good news, sometimes the transmitters will suddenly start working again—always a nice surprise!)
I love that we name the turtles. It isn’t strictly scientific practice. In fact, it’s definitely not scientific practice. From a scientific standpoint, the turtles have numbers. The numbers link them to all the data that we get from the transmitters as well as the data that we collected from the turtles when we worked with them here in Canada—and, in some cases, the data that our colleagues in nesting countries have shared with us if the turtles were previously seen on a beach.
The names of the turtles from this year that are no longer transmitting are Zelda, Greta and Coral. “Zelda” was chosen as part of a naming contest we held at the Canadian Sea Turtle Centre this summer. “Greta,” of course, was named after the incredible Greta Thunberg. The children who were part of the second week of our Sea Turtle Environmental Camp last summer chose the name “Coral.”
The maps of the tracks that we have for Zelda and Greta and Coral are below. Even though we can’t follow their tracks any longer, I like to think of those girls way out in the middle of the ocean on their own, continuing those wavy lines.
Zelda, Greta and Coral out in the world
