On Your Mark, Get Set…….Tour de Turtles!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlXdwAREWAc

One, two, three…….they’re off!  Turtles, scooting at high speed (for a loggerhead turtle), swept across the beach on their way to the ocean in the 7th Annual Tour de Turtles this past Sunday.  Hundreds of spectators and fans came out to enjoy this year’s race which took place at the Barrier Island Center in Melbourne Beach on Sunday, July 27.

Melba makes her way to the Atlantic Ocean (Photo: Craig Rubadoux, FLORIDA TODAY 7/27)

Shelley was released first, showing off her satellite transmitter that will track her every move so scientists can study the nomadic habits of the Loggerhead turtle species.  A short while later, Melba, a much larger female loggerhead with a 42 inch long shell, brought cheers from the crowd as she sped her way into the sea.

In past years,  some of the competitors have taken a leisurely stroll down the beach.  This year was different……the turtles were on a mission.  In all, the Tour de Turtles included nine other transmitter-outfitted turtles this year.  As the rules go, the turtle that swims the farthest in three months is declared the winner, and fans can track the turtles’ travels online.

“That’s about as fast as a loggerhead can move on land,” Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) Executive Director David Godfrey remarked to the crowd via bullhorn.

The Tour de Turtles generated publicity for STC – University of Central Florida scientific study of the nomadic habits of loggerhead, green, leatherback and hawksbill turtles.

“We’re looking for migration routes. Because they nest here in Central Florida, but they feed somewhere else. They don’t eat here while they’re nesting, so they travel hundreds, thousands of miles to a feeding area,” said Dan Evans, a STC technology specialist who boasts 14 years of turtle satellite-tracking experience.

“Every year, we discover something new. They go someplace different or unexpected. Recently, we had one go to the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico,” Evans said.

Shelley makes her way out to the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo: Craig Rubadoux, FLORIDA TODAY)

The STC fits the loggerhead turtles with transmitting devices that track their migrations to feeding areas.  Common destinations include The Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s southwest coast and the Chesapeake Bay, where the turtles feast on horseshoe crabs.

There was a slight delay this year, of about 1/2 hour, because the gray epoxy cementing the transmitters to the turtle’s shells was not yet dry.  They worked quickly, in light of the 2 hours it took the team to scrape off a thick layer of algae, dirt and barnacles off Melba’s shell.  “It was almost like its own turf grass,” Evans said.  “It’s basically like a manicure, a little spa day for her.” he joked.

Each of the turtle transmitters costs about $2,000 and they will typically work for about 2 years, or until the antennae fail.  The longest transmission they have had was from a turtle, Ginger, released in July 2007 that transmitted for nearly 5 years.

UCF students count and monitor Brevard turtle nests as far north as Patrick Air Force Base.  It is estimated that 11-12,000 loggerheads will nest in the Brevard portion of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge by season’s end.  This is a huge improvement from the loggerhead’s “steep and serious decline” in the early 2000s.

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