Katrina

Conservancy of SW Florida Keewaydin Island Turtle Tracking Project

A project of Conservancy of SW Florida Keewaydin Island Turtle Tracking Project.

click map for full-size version Katrina (Loggerhead) is 29 km SE of the coast of United States and 75 km from Tallahassee

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Species: Loggerhead
Life Stage: Adult
Gender: Female
Release Date: 2011-06-07 06:00:00
Release Location: Keewaydin Island
Last Location: 2012-05-16 06:30:50

Background

Katrina is named after Katrina Phillips, an intern who worked for us on Keewaydin Island in 2009. At the time, she was a M.S. student at the University of Miami with a healthy interest in sea turtles. At the suggestion of her committee member Kate Mansfield, she incorporated the satellite tag data from the loggerheads that were tagged in 2009 (4) and 2010 (7) into her research for her thesis. She completed her degree this year and, though she is currently working the Washington, D.C., hopes to come to Naples for a couple of days this summer for a turtle fix and to help us put some more satellite tags on Keewaydin turtles. We are looking forward to her visit.

As for Katrina the loggerhead, she is a nice big turtle with a straight notch to notch length of 104.9 cm. and a large head (width 25.1 cm). She was first seen on Keewaydin in 2003 and was somewhat of a ninja turtle as we only observed her nesting once. She laid 141 eggs which resulted in 132 hatchlings reaching the Gulf. She then disappeared until 2007 when she was seen nesting twice. She was not as fortunate with her nesting efforts in 2007. One of her nests was destroyed by the feral hogs that depredated so many other nests that summer; 50 out of 149 nests. Her other nest contained 130 eggs; however, waves and tides from tropical storm Dean inundated that nest in August so only 56 hatchlings emerged. We certainly hope her fortunes change in 2011.

Update on Katrina:

We we alble to document only one of Katrina's nests this summer. She remains a stealth turlte as far as Keewaydin Island is concerned. After nesting on Keewaydn, she migrated further north along the SW coast and, based on data from her satellite tag, nested several more times before heading to the waters off what is known as Florida's arm pit. Her lone nest on Keewyadin successfully hatched and resulted in 124 of her offspring reaching Gulf waters.

This project has been made possible by donations from supporters of sea turtles from inside and outside the Conservancy of SW FL and also by funding provided via The Marine Turtle Grants Program, which is ably administered by The Sea Turtle Conservancy. Thanks to all of you!