Today was “turtle day”… and I wish every day was “turtle day”!

We dropped the net and it all began! 4 turtles in 5 hours – all female greens, so amazing!
They are such majestic, peaceful creatures, yet so strong and courageous. Poor turtles though…there are endless potholes in their graceful road and it’s all our fault. Global warming, fishing accidents, poaching…we are their biggest threat and it makes me so sad.

But what a wonderful experience it was to be able to try and give back a little to them by collecting data and research! Some cool facts I learned: the top of the shell is called the “carapace”, the bottom side is the “plastron” and their genital area or tail is called the “cloaca”.  Another interesting fact is the temperature of the water affects their sex determination: if the water temperature is below 82.4 degrees it will be male, above 84.5, it will be female, and the perfect range of a 50/50 chance is 82.5-84.4.