Over the past two weeks, SCCF’s night-tagging team added two more loggerheads to our Sea Turtle Tracking Portal.

Reina del Marisol

In the late evening on June 3, the team encountered a female adult loggerhead (pictured above) nesting on the east end of Sanibel that had previously been encountered twice on the island. She was first tagged in June of 2016, and then was seen again nesting in June of 2022.

Her satellite tag was generously sponsored by the students of Naples-based Parkside Elementary School through its Parkside Everglades Week, which was launched four years ago. By sponsoring the tag, they were given the opportunity to name the loggerhead Reina del Marisol.

“We use the Everglades Foundation teacher toolkit lesson as a base and have built a weeklong program around it. Starting in year two, our staff and students decided to add a ‘give-back’ portion to our program, where our 5th grade students lead a fundraising effort to benefit a local agency that works to protect an Everglades animal,” said David Ware, Science Content Area Coach at Parkside.

Last year, Coastal Wildlife Director Kelly Sloan visited Parkside and met with the students to share the work of SCCF’s sea turtle team. Her presentation helped inspire the 5th-grade students to lead a school-wide focus on sea turtles to raise funds for the satellite tag this year.

Aidan

Late in the evening on June 10, the team encountered a female loggerhead nesting on the west end of Sanibel. It was the seventh time she had been encountered on Sanibel. First tagged in June of 2024, she was later seen twice again in July of 2024. She returned this season and has been seen four times so far!

Aidan’s satellite tag was generously sponsored by John and Kathy McCabe.

Learn how you can sponsor a satellite tag and name the turtle>>>

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