DAILY UPDATES ON COHORT II LOGGERHEAD TURTLES

Noah and Catherine are the STRETCH representatives taking care of the 28 juvenile loggerhead turtles in cohort II of the STRETCH experiment.  They will be providing daily updates on the status of the turtles as they make their way across the Pacific to the area where they will be released into the central northeast Pacific Ocean.  The location of release will be as close as possible to where cohort I was released (~39 N and 146 W),

Noah and Catherine in their STRETCH T shirts during "loading day" when they loaded the 28 satellite tagged juvenile loggerheads on-board the Firmament Ace at the Port of Nagoya.

Graphic of ships location and sea surface temperature.

The latest update will be at the top of this post

7/8/2024

Twenty Eight Loggerheads were safely released from the Firmament Ace between 1410 and 1445 h (UTC-11) at 39°33.4669' N 148°29.7291' W.  The sea surface temperature was 18℃.

See Pictures below of Catherine, Noah and the turtles.

  As of now, all 28 loggerheads are transmitting successfully.  It will be a few days before we get an idea of what they will do.  However, it seems that they are in a water temperature that indicates they may be very near the Chlorophyll Front where their food is most abundant.  They may not/probably will not make substantial northward migrations like cohort I did when they were released in water that was 6 degrees C warmer last year on July 11.   Time will tell if that is true or not.

Stay tuned and be sure to visit loggerheadstretch.org to view the map of their movements.

Catherine and Noah celebrate the release of 28 juvenile loggerhead turtles into the Pacific Ocean at 39°33.4669' N 148°29.7291' W 

Catherine loads a loggerhead into the lowering basket.

Ready for release.

The loggerhead is gently dropped into the water from the basket.

Noah holding one of the 28 beautiful loggerheads released today.

Catherine holding one of the loggerheads that were released today.

7/6/2024

Please find attached today's GPS & Sea water temperature.

2nd cohort's deployment will be conducted tomorrow (14:00 July 7th UTC -11)
The 28 turtles's adventure will begin!!
All of them looked so fine as usual!!
Cheers,
Noah & Cat

Catherine on deck with the loggerheads ... cleaning and adding fresh sea water.

Catherine on deck with loggerhead #53 named "Anacapa" after one of the islands in the California bight.

6/Jul./2024 17:00 (UTC−11) 

ship's location = 40°31.2070'N 157°00.4926'W

Sea Surface Temperature = 16 ℃

7/4/2024

Time (UTC)	GPS	Sea water temp. (℃))
4/Jul./2024 06:00	39°51.6536'N 174°48.1040'E	19

Turtles are doing well the ship is moving along at a good clip.  

Food is great!

Dinner time?

7/3/2024

All is going nicely on-board the Firmament Ace.  Conditions appear to make it likely that the ship will reach the desired location for release of the turtles a couple of days earlier than expected.  Noah reports:

"According to the latest information, Firmament Ace will arrived at releasing point 19:00 July 7th (local time). Because of many factors (ex. weather), there is possibility the date will be earlier."

Ships location and water temperature:

3/Jul./2024 07:00(UTC)  38°08.4196'N 165°48.4799'E 

water temperature = 21 degrees C.

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7/2/2024 - Update

You can see today's GPS & Sea water temperature by attached excel file.

Turtles are fine as usual.

About daily life on Firmament Ace.

Because of the wonderful food, Catherine and I are always so full.

Best regards
Noah

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6/30/2024 - Update

We departured from Yokohama 16:00.
Finally, 2nd cohort's journey has begun!

About daily life in vessel:
I met another crewmate of Galaxy Ace.
He embarked from Yokohama

Vessel location and water temperature:

Departing Yokohama, Japan

The Firmament Ace is a Japanies flagged vessel.

Looking aft across the deck of Firmament ace toward Yokohama, Japan.

You can follow Firmament Ace's progress HERE.

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6/29/2024 - Update

Catherine A Lee Hing	1:48 PM (20 minutes ago)
to STRETCH

Hello Everyone,

Day 3 on board! Noah continues to be an amazing teacher and knows everyone on board :) And I have located a coffee machine, so all is right with the world!

The Firmament Ace arrived in Yokohama this morning at 6:50am. 

The turtles are doing great. They were much more active today.

Please find a few pictures of Noah and the 28!

Until tomorrow,

Cat and Noah

Every day Catherine and Noah carry all of the turtles out onto the deck, drain each carrier, clean it and refill it with fresh sea water... with the carrier, turtle and 6 inches of water X 28 it is a strenuous job.. Thank you Catherine and Noah for taking good care of our turtles.

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6/28/2024 - Update

Firmament Ace Location and Water Temperature

DATE                               GPS                 Sea water temp.

28/6/2024 07:00 34°41.2650'N 139°42.3146E 26℃

28/6/2024 17:00 34°48.8466'N 140°16.8730E 20℃

From Noah

Turtles looks so fine.
I think they are more active than the first cohort.

About daily life on vessel.
I met one of the Filipino crew for the first time in a year.
He was my crew mate on Galaxy Ace last year.

Juvenile loggerhead number 53 (Named Anacapa) is on the Firmament Ace deck while its home is being cleaned by Catherine and Noah.... don't worry, they can't get away:)  Anacapa is carrying a SPOT 6 satellite tag that will give its latitude and longitude once the tags become active (on July 7)
Anacapa is the indigenous name for one of the channel islands in the Southern California Bight.

Catherine taking care of one of the juvenile loggerheads during their cleaning time.

Juvenile loggerhead number 44 (Named Ehnaally) is on the Firmament Ace deck while its home is being cleaned by Catherine and Noah.... don't worry, they can't get away:)  Ehnaally is carrying a Splash10 297 satellite tag that will give latitude and longitude, depth and water temperature of Ehnaaly once the tags become active (on July 7).
‘Ehnaally, means turtle in native Kumeyaay (land stewards of the San Diego area prior to western settlement)

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6/26/2024 - Update

Catherine and I embarked on Firmament Ace (hereafter FA) with 28 turtles.  The crew are intered in the turtles and they are so kind.

The 28 satellite tagged juvenile loggerhead turtles from cohort II are loaded and secured in their carriers on board the FA.  They are in a climate controlled room with about 6 inches of water so that they remail hydrated and can be fed.  Their carrier and water are cleaned and changed daily.