53 replies to this topic

[this honey]

dunno...

for all their spinning and diving,

they still have to contend with :



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[this honey]

With all the sadness, hardship and conflict in the world just now; is good to know that these sea turtles are going about their lives; oblivious hopefully.

Was just searching in a drawer in an old cherry desk that my grandfather made; searching for a greeting card to send to a friend, and I knocked a brass apple dish off the desk, spilling the contents: a blue beaded bracelet, with a single silver turtle charm dangling from it. Must've been a souvenir from one of my sisters trips to the Cayman's. Or maybe from the time my parent's went with them. Was nice to find it.

Haven't received today's update yet; but the map updated, and Backspacer looks to have gone three quarters of the way across the line, and then backspaced. According to the legend, she was actually still 40 miles from the finish line at her closest point. Now she is headed back East ! with WaWa Bear heading right for her, AND the finish line. Meanwhile, Nightswimmer, spinning from the big turtle party?/collision?/orgy?, has spun around and is headed Northwest ! ?


http://www.greatturtlerace.com

http://www.conservat...Pages/main.aspx

Edited by this honey, 13 July 2009 - 04:43 PM.

[this honey]

They still don't know where Free Billy is, or what has happened with him; they gave a link to info about satellite telemetry, including some suggestions of what might have happened to Billy's transmitter, but I couldn't find the info. If he already crossed the finish line, but nobody saw it, does he still win ?



Is Backspacer taking too many strokes back?

Rowdy Gaines here reporting live from the Great Turtle Race!

Backspacer continues to dance around that finish line, now heading north. Let’s hope she makes her mind up soon. The suspense is just too much!

Wawa Bear did some more loops, so she must not be ready to lay eggs yet. Estéban is a man on a mission! He’s cruising fast toward the Caribbean, looking to enter via the Windward Islands! He must be ready to find the big party…

If this were a NASCAR race, Cali would be the winner! He seems to have completed a full lap through the Atlantic from the point where he began his migration!

Nueva Esperanza and Seabiscuit have peeled off from the rest of the group, but Nueva is pointed toward the Caribbean Sea and Seabiscuit toward the Guianas — are they finally making their move?

We still haven’t heard from Billy, so it looks like his transmitter has stopped working altogether. Find out what might have happened. Listen to CI Sea Turtle Scientist, Dr Bryan Wallace, as he explains satellite telemetry and what makes transmitters stop working.

With only three days left in the Race, it’s coming down to the wire to see how many turtles can cross the finish line before the end. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family to check in on the Race to find out the winner!

Finally, tomorrow we’ll be announcing which turtle made the most dives into really deep waters! Don’t forget to check back in.

[this honey]

Pearl Jam's thread on the race:


https://www.pearljam...rtle-backspacer

Includes a video of msnbc coverage and interview with Stone Gossard.
(they say the Red Hot Chili Peppers are also sponsoring ?)

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[this honey]

It's official !

Backspacer is first to cross the finish line !


Seabisquit, Esteban, and Neuva Esperanza are close behind.
Nightswimmer seems to be headed off after Cali... they are both green...
hasn't quite aligned her priorities with that of the race, evidently...
You Go Nightswimmer !  Swim to the music you hear, "however measured or far away"?


A great swim by all !!!

Edited by this honey, 27 April 2009 - 09:04 AM.

[this honey]

Listen to Stone Gossard, lead guitarist of Backspacer’s sponsor Pearl Jam, and coach Eric Shanteau discuss the race and how Backspacer prepared for her victorious swim!



daily update
Welcome to the final week of the Great Turtle Race!

I’m Rowdy Gaines, with Mr. Leatherback, and we are thrilled to report that after more than 10 days and thousands of miles, WE HAVE A WINNER!!

Find out which turtle finally ended the suspense by crossing the finish line through the Windward Islands, between St. Vincent and St. Lucia.

Who will be next across the line?

Nueva Esperanza is picking up speed. So is Esteban — he almost crossed the finish line! And check out Seabiscuit! He’s oh-so-close to the finish line off Suriname and French Guiana! Maybe he’s waiting for Wawa Bear…

Lindblad the Explorer stopped in her tracks like Billy did before. Perhaps she’s whale watching?

In other news, Nightswimmer has changed course and is now heading west toward the US. Maybe she plans to visit her sponsor R.E.M.’s home state of Georgia?

Watch it all unfold on the interactive race map.

We know leatherbacks are deep divers, so what about our Race turtles? Find out which turtles made the deepest dives during the Race!

And in just two days, we’ll announce the winner of the granddaddy of all swimming competitions — total distance traveled during the race

turtle Profile:

Backspacer

The 2009 Great Turtle Race champion Backspacer began the race from the most northerly point of any of her competitors, deep in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Today, Backspacer’s sponsors, the legendary rock band Pearl Jam, are celebrating her win and thrilled that she’ll be home in time for release of their new album this Fall.

Her coach, Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau deserves the highest accolades for guiding Backspacer to a convincing victory.

Find out more about this year’s champion.

IT'S UP TO YOU

Even though Backspacer crossed the finish line first, the coveted “Pearl Jam Audience Favorite” trophy has yet to be awarded.

Throw your support behind your favorite turtle by taking the Pearl Jam Audience Favorite Challenge. Vote for your top turtle by making a gift to support our conservation efforts.

We’ll announce the audience favorite in just two days — and remember that your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar!

While Backspacer celebrates his first place finish by taking a victory lap in the Caribbean, his sponsor Pearl Jam and his coach Eric Shanteau are toasting their newly crowned champion.

[this honey]

A photo finish for second place!

Hi Race fans! Rowdy Gaines and Mr. Leatherback coming to you live in the homestretch of the Great Turtle Race, and wow, what a day…

Estéban, Nueva Esperanza, and Seabiscuit all crossed the finish line in a photo finish! Check out the race map — it looks like Seabiscuit took second place by a beak!

Nueva Esperanza edged out Estéban for third place, but it looks like the mad dash that Nueva made during the last couple of days has left her exhausted — she stopped to rest not too long after crossing into the Caribbean!

Estéban crossed the finish line and is now cruising up the coast of the Windward Islands, probably looking for mates.

And there’s Wawa Bear! She’s speeding toward her nesting beach in French Guiana, but will she make it across the finish line before the Race ends tomorrow?

Grembo and Searcher are still hanging around in the eastern Atlantic and Nightswimmer seems to be headed straight back to Georgia. They might not be ready to breed this year but they all traveled long distances, which means that they know the way and will be favorites next year!

Tomorrow we’ll announce which turtle covered the most distance during the Race!

In the meantime, the greatest long-distance swimmer of all time, Janet Evans, blogs about what it takes to go the distance!

Also, check out a blog post by professional surfer Hans Hager. He shares his deep connection to the oceans, and how his fellow surfers are leading the charge to protect their “second home.”

It has all come down to tomorrow — the final day of the Race. How will it end? Don’t miss the last day!

[wagtail]

this honey said:

Grembo and Searcher are still hanging around in the eastern Atlantic and Nightswimmer seems to be headed straight back to Georgia. They might not be ready to breed this year but they all traveled long distances, which means that they know the way and will be favorites next year!

meh, who needs parenthood and responsibility when you can have the wide open seas.......good-on-ya Nightswimmer!

I think they should get Susie Maroney as a coach for Nightswimmer next year, Susie's a legend!

[this honey]

Nightswimmer does appear to be into the swimming, and exploring the great sea. She missed the longest distance traveled award by 100 miles, to Esteban, though it may have been closer than that, as it appears her transmitter may have quit just toward the end.

It's funny, I realize I was viewing the event as if those were the only turtles out there at the time; when actually there were many many more turtles taking part in this magnificent migration.

Here's the scoop on the individual turtles. For the rest of the updates, go here: http://blog.conservation.org/

Where are they now: the true stories of each racing turtle
Posted by Bryan Wallace | 04.29.09 | No Comments

All turtles were tagged off Halifax, Nova Scotia, in July 2008, and began their migrations in September. They began to cross into the Caribbean in late January-early February, and the data used to create the Race went through the beginning of March. Therefore, the real duration of the leatherbacks’ migrations was four to six months, but the Race compressed that time into a two-week period. Here we present what we think actually happened to each of the turtles in the Race based on their tracks during the Race and since the Race ended.

Wawa Bear
Turtle Stats
Wawa Bear nested on the same beach she has nested on since 1993 in French Guiana in the early morning of 22 March 2009. She laid 95 billiard ball-sized eggs, weighed 560 kg, and still had her transmitter attached, so the scientists actually were able to track her right to the nesting beach all the way from Nova Scotia.
Listen to Dr. Mike James from the Canadian Sea Turtle Network describe their experiences watching Wawa Bear’s migration to her nesting beach and waiting for word that she had been spotted.

Billy
Turtle Stats
We actually got a faint hit from Billy’s transmitter about a month after it went silent, but after the Race had ended. Although the location was of limited accuracy, it appeared that Billy had crossed the finish line after all, and was hanging out off of Galera Point, Trinidad. This is typical behavior for an adult male in a breeding season (i.e. hanging out in waters off nesting beaches), and Billy’s choice of location was strategic, as Trinidad hosts one of the largest leatherback nesting colonies in the world, with thousands of females coming ashore to lay eggs each year.

Lindblad the Explorer
Turtle Stats
Despite the transmitter ceasing to function while Lindblad was still out in the central Atlantic, the tag kicked on again about a month later, and Lindblad is now northwest of where she was previously, about 500 kilometers off Puerto Rico, but still not in the Caribbean. Our Costa Rican colleagues are waiting for her to come to nest if not this year, maybe next.

Nightswimmer
Turtle Stats
Despite going as far south as the other turtles, Nightswimmer turned around and is still heading northwest, but not very quickly. It appears that Nightswimmer might be in a non-reproductive year. Adult turtles that are not ready to reproduce in a given year still make long migrations to find food, but instead of going into the Caribbean like the other turtles, they often remain in deeper waters far out in the open Atlantic.

Grembo Jones and Searcher
Turtle Stats: Grembo | Searcher
It might look like they are lost and stuck out in the eastern Atlantic, or maybe even that they’re heading to Africa to nest. However, we know from Searcherprevious years that turtles will travel from Canada over to the eastern side of the Atlantic possibly to feed in the Mauritania upwelling off Africa, which supports a productive marine foodweb. These turtles are probably chowing on jellies for a while longer before they’ll make their way toward the Caribbean or the northeast coast of South America. It is also possible that they are in a non-reproductive year and will begin to head back to Canadian waters in the next few months.

Cali
Turtle Stats
It seems that Cali’s run-in with the fishing gear really did have a big impact on him. First, he began his migration much sooner than the other turtles – almost immediately after he was entangled and then released. Then, although it seemed like he was steaming toward the Caribbean, he suddenly hit the brakes and turned around. We think he did this because he didn’t have enough energy to make the full migration to breeding areas in tropical waters, so had to turn around and go back to ‘refuel.’ Although this is just our speculation about what happened, it definitely shows that even a relatively minor, non-lethal interaction with fishing gear can interrupt natural behavior of leatherbacks and affect whether they reproduce in a given year. Cali’s experience is very important for us to understand how influential fisheries bycatch can be to leatherbacks and other animals.

Backspacer
2009 Turtle Race Winner!
Turtle Stats
Shortly after crossing the finish line and doing a few more loops, Backspacer’s transmitter stopped signaling. We hope that she is spotted in the coming months by nesting beach colleagues.

Nueva Esperanza
Turtle Stats
She has kept her momentum and is still moving inside the Caribbean. She was moving close to the coast of Colombia, possibly headed toward Panama or Costa Rica. However, the last we heard from her, she was in the into the Gulf of Urabá, Colombia, close to several large nesting beaches! We hope to hear very soon from our Colombian colleagues about her nesting.

Esteban
Turtle Stats
He continues to hang around the Windward Islands, probably still trying to find females to mate with. As demonstrated by some of the turtles in the Race, many females have to cross this area to reach their nesting beaches on the mainland Caribbean, so Estéban has put himself in a great position. He has stuck pretty close to the coasts of St. Lucia and St. Vincent since crossing the finish line. This behavior is very typical of male leatherbacks.

Seabiscuit
Turtle Stats
He is still off the coast of French Guiana, likely still seeking opportunities to mate. The leatherback population that nests on the Guiana Shield (Suriname, French Guiana, Guyana) is one of the largest populations in the world, with thousands of females nesting each year. So, like Estéban (and possibly Billy), Seabiscuit has found a very good spot to spend the next month or so.

Coach Jason Lezak Wraps up the Race
Posted by Jason Lezak | 04.29.09 | No Comments

Hi Race fans! So, I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I’m the blogger on the last day of the Race; I’m a career anchor leg swimmer, after all!

What an incredible Race this has been, don’t you think? I’m proud of my turtles – Billy, Seabiscuit, and Wawa Bear – because they really worked hard in practice and I think it paid off. These turtles have some serious talent when it comes to swimming, but they’ve also been doing it for a really, really long time. I’m a world-class sprint swimmer, so I really wanted to get these guys to move fast, but it wasn’t easy. I guess they are turtles after all, even if they are in a Race! And their slow and steady style was good for me to experience, too. It helped me to remember to take a look around and enjoy the scenery.

We were a little worried about Billy when his transmitter stopped sending signals – and he was doing so well - but we’re thrilled to hear that it seems that he did cross the finish line and was last heard from hanging off the coast of Trinidad, looking for mates. Too bad he couldn’t get credit for his triumphant finish in the Great Turtle Race!

And how about Seabiscuit and Wawa Bear! Amazing finishes! They really covered a lot of ocean in very little time to make it to the winner’s circle. But to be honest, I wish that they hadn’t waited until the last days to blast across the finish line. It was exhilarating, but I was a nervous wreck and lost my voice cheering them on. It’s one thing to be the one doing the swimming, but standing ‘poolside’ here has been really tough. Now I know how everyone must have been feeling during my anchor leg in the 4×100 relay! Sorry about the near heart attacks, everyone! At least it worked out well, right?

But I am really amazed by Wawa Bear. Such a huge turtle, so much experience swimming from Canada to the Caribbean and back again many times…And she just added another by finishing the Race AND nesting at her favorite beach in French Guiana! Listen to Dr. Mike James from the Canadian Sea Turtle Network describe their experiences watching Wawa Bear’s migration to her nesting beach and waiting for word that she had been spotted.

I think her story is so powerful because she is a real-life symbol of the connectivity that her kind represents; connectivity between countries, between cultures, between languages, all separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean. She represents the partnerships between passionate researchers on either side of her migration – the Canadians working with turtles in the water, Caribbean folks working with turtles on nesting beaches – that are absolutely vital to ensuring that the oceans are full of leatherbacks. Wawa Bear reminds us that what we do, wherever we live, has real impacts in other places, so we need to make responsible choices for the environment and our fellow humans.

LEARN MORE: Canadian Sea Turtle Network

It has been a blast to coach some special swimmers in the Great Turtle Race. I’m a little bummed that it’s over, but I’m excited to know that because of all of our (YOURS and mine) conservation efforts the turtles will continue ‘racing’ around the world’s oceans, even if we’re not tracking them online…

much more info here, including videos:
http://blog.conservation.org/

Edited by this honey, 29 April 2009 - 09:14 AM.

[Mary Alice]

awwww Nightwimmer wants to go to Georgia :D  

And Billy could've really won it but the transmitter went off, this race is fixed :D

Congratulations backspacer.

[this honey]

[quote name='Mary Alice']awwww Nightwimmer wants to go to Georgia :DQUOTE]

Of course she does! she's heard the music. If they'd equipped the entire bunch with R.E.M. loaded ipods, they'd have ALL headed for Georgia.

[stiperules!ok]

Maybe she also wants to say "Thank you for sponsoring me!"

[this honey]

stiperules!ok said:

Maybe she also wants to say "Thank you for sponsoring me!"

And she would like to be able to say that to each of us.

We enjoyed the Great Turtle Race

but the race to save the turtles continues:

The Great Turtle Race Wrap Up

The support of Great Turtle Race fans — like you — is critical to our work. Please make a gift today.

Dear (Turtle Enthusiast),

Whew — we just finished two weeks of the Great Turtle Race.

Eleven leatherback sea turtles raced from Canada’s Atlantic coast to the beaches of the Caribbean, with Backspacer — Pearl Jam’s pick — earning the win.

But the Great Turtle Race is much more than a race.

It showcases the work Conservation International is doing with partners in the field to protect sea turtles, the oceans they call home, and people around the globe who depend on healthy oceans for survival.

The support of Race fans — like you — is critical to this important work. Make a gift to Conservation International today.

https://secure2.conv...xhywisfb1.app8b

Sea turtles are a bellwether of marine health. And unfortunately, their numbers are rapidly diminishing in many parts of the world.

The health of animals like sea turtles and the unique and precious places they call home is directly linked to the survival of people. Healthy ocean ecosystems provide half of the oxygen we breathe, regulate our planet’s climate, and are the source of food on which we depend.

If every Race fan made one gift of $100, we would have the resources to support scientists in the field for the next FIVE YEARS at both ends of sea turtles’ life cycles — on nesting beaches and on feeding grounds — as they protect turtles in their natural habitats, and strengthen connections between local communities and governments and ocean stewardship through sea turtle conservation.

So if you enjoyed cheering on your favorite turtle to the finish line, please consider make a gift to help Conservation International protect Planet Ocean and all of its beauty — for the good of people everywhere.

Stay tuned for more updates on CI’s sea turtle conservation work!

Sincerely,



Rod Mast
VP, Sea Turtle Flagship Program

P.S. Make your gift today and support your favorite turtle in the Pearl Jam Audience Favorite Challenge. Your gift will be matched dollar by dollar by our Race sponsors.

[this honey]

http://getinvolved.c....0&dlv_id=29501

Thanks for following the Great Turtle Race.
You and thousands of other turtle fans made this Race one for the history books.

Dear Friend,

You’ve met the turtles. You’ve followed the action. And you’ve learned a thing or two along the way.

The Great Turtle Race may have ended, but the journey towards healthy sea turtle populations and healthy seas isn’t over yet — both still need your help.

Show our leatherback champs that you care by taking the following steps:

    * Find out what you can do at home to make a difference for sea turtles and the seas
http://blog.conserva...-aint-over-yet/

    * Tell a friend or two — or three — about Conservation International’s work protecting turtles. Ask them to sign up to get important and fun updates from our scientists and experts in the field.
    * Bookmark www.SeaTurtleStatus.org and check in frequently to keep up with what’s happening with sea turtles around the globe.
    * Learn more about what conservation groups are doing to save leatherbacks in the Atlantic at www.FreeTheLeatherback.com, and in the Pacific Ocean at www.leatherback.org.
    * Of course, keep on the look out for the latest news and stories from Conservation International. Stay in touch with us via Twitter
http://twitter.com/ci_features

and Facebook.
http://www.facebook....iewas=552201332

Thanks again for all of your support! We couldn’t have done it without the cheers of fans like you.

Sincerely,


Rod Mast,
VP, Sea Turtle Flagship Program