Checking in on Peter

Editor’s Note: This year, the STPS Board of Directors has funded two satellite transmitters for Dean Bagley, a researcher with the University of Central Florida’s Marine Turtle Research Group. STPS has supported Bagley’s work researching male green sea turtles for several years. This year, the board has named the two male green sea turtles being tracked with the satellite transmitters. The first is named Everett, in honor of longtime STPS volunteer Everett Tindall who turned 91 in June. The second turtle has been named Peter, in honor of STPS founder Peter Bandre and the 35^th anniversary of the organization in 2021. Dean Bagley will provide periodic updates to STPS as she tracks the turtles this summer.

By DEAN BAGLEY

UCF Marine Turtle Research Group researcher

I’m sorry to say that I haven’t heard anything more from Everett over the last two weeks. There have not been any signals at all from him. Sometimes we receive signals from Argos, even when there are not enough data to acquire an accurate GPS location, but that has not been the case. All transmissions ceased, leading me to believe that the transmitter has truly come off the turtle.
Peter, however, seems to like the area he is in, and is staying true to a smaller area near the north end of his foraging location. For those of you familiar with the Keys, he is offshore, about 3 kilometers, or 2 miles,  south of where Card Sound Road comes back into US 1 (at the Circle K gas station) just north of Key Largo proper. His most recent location was immediately right of the time, in the cluster of red dots between the “pm” and the two light green dots.