A leatherback nesting in Surinam (Credit Linda Reinhold)
If you’ve ever seen a loggerhead nesting on the beach and thought that a 300-pound sea turtle measuring 3 to 4 feet long is large, then you should see a leatherback sea turtle. They make our loggerheads look small. Here are some facts about leatherbacks:
Leatherbacks can weigh more than 1,000 pounds and reach a length of 7 to 9 feet.
They feed mostly on jellyfish and can consume up to 400 pounds of them a day—the weight of an African lion.
They have a point on each side of their beaks and sharp spines in their throat and esophagus to help keep their slippery prey moving down to the stomach.
Unlike other sea turtles, they don’t have a hard shell with segments. Instead, they have black, leathery skin stretched over seven bony ridges, which gives them their name.
They can dive deeper than 3,900 feet to feed and have flexible internal organs that can withstand high pressure.
Although cold-blooded reptiles, they have a layer of blubber and can generate body heat through muscle movement, enabling them to forage in frigid water as far north as the Arctic Circle.
They are the only surviving sea turtles descended from a different family than loggerheads, green sea turtles, Kemp’s ridleys, and hawksbills.
During nesting season, they can nest every 10 days, laying 60 to 100 cue ball-sized eggs in up to 12 nests per season.
Atlantic leatherbacks mostly nest in late spring in the Caribbean, northern South America, and a few beaches in Florida. They then begin an annual migration to the North Atlantic, feeding on jellyfish floating north in the Gulf Stream.
Some seasons, the Island Turtle Team has found as many as five dead leatherbacks stranded here after being hit by vessels in the shipping channel. Fortunately, this season and last, we did not find any.
In May 2018, a leatherback laid eggs on the beach at Beach Club Villas in Wild Dunes. Imagine our surprise to see tracks that were six feet wide instead of the usual two feet. However, none of her eggs hatched because they were not fertilized. She was out of her normal range and did not find a mate. Our genetic sample matched eggs she also laid at Cape Romain and on Morris Island near Folly Beach—and none of those eggs hatched either.
What an amazing and special creature the leatherback sea turtle is!
Nesting Update as of July 2
Isle of Palms Nests: 22 False Crawls: 10
Sullivan’s Island Nests: 5 False Crawls: 6