BRADENTON BEACH – To the delight of hundreds of spectators at Coquina Beach this morning for a publicized turtle release, loggerhead sea turtle Henrietta stopped several times as she made her way down the sand toward the water.
Once she hit the Gulf of Mexico, cheers erupted among onlookers as she took off swimming.
Commenting on the turtle’s slow walk to the water, one spectator said, “She’s tired because she just had babies.”
Henrietta was chosen for the release after having laid a nest on the beach on Saturday night.
The turtle release was sponsored by the Sea Turtle Conservancy, Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring and Hurricane Hanks.
Henrietta’s name (the female version of Henry) was chosen by Hurricane Hank’s owner, Brian Mathae.
She was outfitted with a satellite monitor and will be tracked by the Sea Turtle Conservancy in the annual Tour de Turtles race. Scheduled to begin on Aug. 1, Tour de Turtles will track individual sea turtles for approximately three months as they leave their respective nesting beaches and race to complete a “marathon.”
The competitors will swim with the goal of being the turtle to swim the furthest distance during the migration marathon.
“Research into the behavior and life cycle of marine turtles has taught us that these creatures do not generally nest and feed in the same area. We now know that sea turtles are highly migratory, often traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles between the beaches where they lay their eggs and the foraging (feeding) grounds where they spend much of their time at sea,” according to the Tour de Turtles website. “Since most research conducted on marine turtles has been carried out on nesting beaches and well over 90% of a sea turtle’s life is spent in the water, feeding, mating, migrating and doing whatever else a sea turtle does when no one is watching, we are missing important information that can help us better protect sea turtles.”
The results of the Tour de Turtles race will be posted at: https://tourdeturtles.org/
The Sun will be monitoring Henrietta’s progress and her results will be posted weekly on The Sun Facebook page.
