Terrible carapace damage

On Sunday night May 14 2006 Kelly, Sara and I watched in disbelief as a leatherback turtle nested successfully with horrible carapace damage. She is a turtle that we tagged during the course of our research at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. This turtle had been hit by a boat recently and was beginning to heal. I have posted a few images here and on the www.floridaleatherbacks.com website. Please share these images with others!


All marine turtle images taken in Florida were obtained with the approval of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife (USFWS) and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commision (FWC) under conditions not harmful to this or other turtle