This weekend was very busy-- upon returning from a week of in-water capture surveys in Rota on Friday night we had the Wing Beach nester return, Saturday night was Magas and Limwamway, and Sunday night was Kumiko.  We had 5 hawksbills captured in Rota in 3 days (we had only captured a total of 6  since 2006!) 

Mark Michael assists with one of  five
Hawksbill Turtles captured during recent
in-water capture surveys on Rota.*

All satellite tagged turtles (and the Wing beach turtle) are safe and ok, their stainless steel wires are intact, however the plastic covering at the base of 2 of them has taken a beating.  I hope they leave soon before the wires are sheered.

Mini TAGS volunteer wows
over one of Kumiko's babies.*

We also did our first nest inventory on Kumiko's first nest the Sunday before we left for Rota and rescued 3 hatchlings while TAGS volunteers watched.  Hatching success for this one was 70.5% and emergence success was 65.4%.

Report Provided by Tammy Summers

*Remember, pictured volunteers were supervised by federally-permitted staff of the DLNR Sea Turtle Program.