Posted on 07/28/2013 8:58:01 PM PDT by shove_it
MELBOURNE BEACH -- It’s a race like no other where 11 athletes are tracked as they swim through the ocean over the next three months.
The athletes are sea turtles and the 6th Annual Tour de Turtles got underway Sunday morning in Brevard County.
Two female loggerhead turtles -- Ripley and Johnny -- began their trek from the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.
“I just liked watching them go back to their natural habitat and back in the ocean,” said Winter Park resident Dalton Joseph.
Early Sunday morning, the Sea Turtle Conservancy captured the two turtles after they finished laying their eggs.
Satellite transmitters were attached to their shell to track their every move.
The goal of Tour de Turtles is to see which turtle can travel the longest distance over the next three months.
These two join nine other turtles in the competition.
“It was amazing, just to think they nested last night and now they’re going to be out there for everybody to see and track. It’s amazing that they come right up to our beach too,” said Kelly Hedgespeth.
Brevard County is home to more loggerhead sea turtles during nesting time than any other place in the Western Hemisphere.
But not a lot is known about their migration.
Scientists want to know where sea turtles go and why. After laying their eggs, they travel hundreds, if not thousands of miles to feeding areas.
“We know that a lot of them go around the tip of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico. And that’s really important, especially as we deal with the oil spill. It’s still been a number of years, but we’re still making up for the harm that was done from the oil spill,” said David Godfrey from the Sea Turtle Conservancy.
The Sea Turtle Conservancy hopes their findings from this race can help redirect some of the oil spill money from the Gulf coast to the east coast to help nesting turtles here.
ping
I live down in Juno and the the Loggerhead Marine life Center is just down the road from me. I’ve been to many releases. Seen many nightime nestings. They really are incredible creatures. Good to see it isn’t just Juno Beach that takes care of these guys.
Snuffy the Seal?
More waste of our $$$ by government “scientists”.
The Sea Turtle Conservancy is not a government agency, check us out, Conservaterian ...
http://www.conserveturtles.org/support.php
Maybe next time I’m on DU I’ll check out the “green” sites.
Brevard County, Florida ping.Thanks for the “ping”. It is nice to know what is happening there while I am away.
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