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Great Leatherback turtle race: Pearl Jam's Backspacer wins!
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by Amy Judd | April 17, 2009 at 02:06 pm
1009 views | 31 Recommendations | 8 comments
Backspacer - the turtle sponsored by Pearl Jam has won the 2009 Great Leatherback Turtle Race!
She actually had the most northerly start of all the turtles, coming from deep within the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but she was the first to reach the Caribbean waters, traveling 6,268 kilometers. Perhaps part of her success can be attributed to the fact that she only made 2 dives over 60 minutes during the race.
Second place was Seabiscuit, then Nueva Esperanza, Esteban, and Wawa Bear.
The rest have yet to reach the Caribbean.
Original story:
Eleven endangered leatherback turtles are making their way from feeding areas off the Atlantic Ocean to the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean, and they are racing to see who gets their first (well they are not aware they are racing).
They left the waters around Nova Scotia yesterday and will reach near St. Margarets Bay in about two weeks, and some have famous sponsors like R.E.M or Pearl Jam.
This race is hoping to highlight the importance of protecting these highly endangered animals from becoming extinct. The Leatherback Turtle is the largest in the world and can grow up to two meters long and weigh over 500 kilograms.
“Waters off Atlantic Canada are one of the most important feeding grounds for leatherback turtles,” Dr. Mike James, director of science for the Canadian Sea Turtle Network, said in a release. “Canadians share their leatherbacks with the international community, and this race highlights how important it is we work together to care for this species.”
They are being tracked by satellite, by the Canadian Sea Turtle Network.
R.E.M's turtle is called 'Night-swimmer' and Pearl Jam's is called 'Backspacer'.
Day 2 of the race:
Billy is in the lead:
All the turtles except for Lindblad have exited the Gulf and appear to be heading south. Cali is taking advantage of his head start and is near the front of the pack. Billy is heading for the east coast of the U.S., and Nueva Esperanza is starting to pick up speed. Seabiscuit spun out once he got out of the Gulf, but he has his bearings and is making progress. Wawa Bear is making a big turn and is the farthest east of any turtle in the race.
Day 3:
Billy is still in the lead and it seems that Grembo Jones has fallen really far behind.
Lindblad has left the Gulf and is hot on the trail of the other ten turtles. Nueva Esperanza and Wawa Bear are making waves, but Cali is spinning in circles, maybe getting his bearings before making his move south. Billy continues his zigzag southward; he is closer to the U.S. than the others—will that help him save time?
We're now up to Day 8 and it looks like 'Backspacer' is in the lead (the one sponsored by Pearl Jam) although Billy is having some technical problems.
Backspacer is edging closer to the finish line, but will she cross? It appears that Billy hasn’t moved over the last two days, but we now know why: His transmitter stopped sending signals, so we can’t track him right now. Wawa Bear did a loop, and Seabiscuit looks like he might try one too. They’re in the North Equatorial Current now, which is likely like a snack bar for leatherbacks.
Videos
Photos
"Great Turtle Race" - Let the Race begin! - The turtles are off and swimming
uploaded by MGODET
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (8)
at 14:11 on April 17th, 2009
Okay, that's pretty much the cutest story of the day. Since they don't know that they're racing, does the daily "winner" wonder why s/he keeps getting drug-tested?
at 14:11 on April 17th, 2009
The tracker is hilarious. My bet is on Cali. Seems like wawa bear is wandering off too far east.
at 14:55 on April 17th, 2009
Great story. This is a great way to get kids involved in the fight to preserve wildlife and their habitat.
National Geographic GREAT TURTLE RACE interactive map link
Do you think Las Vegas was taking bets?
at 15:18 on April 17th, 2009
haha. I won't be surprised but I highly doubt it.
at 17:37 on April 17th, 2009
The injured female leatherback turtle in my three photos reached the shore of Playa Grande in Costa Rica at dawn in January 2006. Without the protection of darkness, she struggled to dig and lay her nest for hours before slowly returning to the sea. She was likely injured by a longline fishing accident, like thousands of other leatherbacks worldwide.
courtney.mattison has contributed a photo to this story.
at 16:22 on April 20th, 2009
Campaigns, News, PartnershipsGigantothermy Lets Leatherbacks (and Dinosaurs) Go Where No Other Reptiles Dare to Go Posted by Dr. James R. Spotila | 04.20.09 | No Comments
When you think of a turtle, you probably think of those hard-shelled, slow-moving, reptilian relics whose ancestry stretches back hundreds of millions of years. What you probably don’t think of are turtles that can live in cold water and dive down to several thousand feet in the ocean.
In the Great Turtle Race, you are watching leatherbacks making half-mile deep dives and swimming in water so cold that a human in a life jacket would be dead in 15 minutes. So how do they do it?
In 1965 Sherman Bleakney found out that leatherback turtles were often seen by fishermen along the coast of New England and Canada in late summer. A few years later, Wayne Frair and colleagues measured the body temperature of a big leatherback turtle (417 kg- 920 pounds) captured in the Atlantic off Nova Scotia as being significantly warmer than the cold water that the turtle was in. These researchers figured that leatherbacks were doing something special to stay warm, but weren’t sure what it was. Read more…
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at 17:07 on April 21st, 2009
We saw at least 10 leatherbacks preparing holes for egg laying, laying eggs, and lumbering out of the ocean to lay eggs in the span of about 1 hour the night we were at Matura Beach in Trinidad. It was quite impressive to see so many.
DrSAT has contributed a photo to this story.
at 09:44 on May 5th, 2009
That's wild. Will Backspacer end up with some endorsement deals?