Can turtles go on vacation? 🤔 🐢

In this issue: stranded turtles, hurricane Ernesto finds, some crazy old military buttons, and more!

This week I saw my first loggerhead turtle ever - a juvenile that still belongs in Sargassum at its size. This thing’s head was so thick compared to the juvenile hawksbill sharing its tank - it seemed like the jock of the turtle world compared to how sleek the hawksbill was. It was so much more like a dinosaur than I imagined, with hooked spines going up the back of its shell - and its thick neck, supporting powerful jaw muscles that will be able to crush through the shells of marine snails.

Loggerhead (left) and hawksbill (right)

It’s interesting that sea turtles are probably the only reptile that we think of as ‘cute’. Actually - my dad thought turtles were mammals because they breathe air. I can see how someone would make that jump - and maybe that has something to do with it; we know turtles behave a little like us in the water, coming up to breathe, so they are endeared to us, more than perhaps a fish or an eel - which are so often unfairly denigrated!

I know on some level that turtles are living dinosaurs - the first sea turtles popped up in the Cretaceous period 100 million years ago - but I’ve never been hit with that feeling that they are dinosaur-like until seeing this loggerhead. Loggerheads and leatherbacks are probably the most ‘dinosaur coded’ of all the marine turtles, but it must be the image of the peaceful, bright-eyed, (mostly) herbivorous green turtle that we have co-opted as cute - which now stands in for all species.

This turtle was still cute however, despite its dinosaur sensibilities. It also had a missing front flipper. This will make its life harder, but perhaps being fattened up at BAMZ will be enough to counteract the handicap. A fact that amazes me is: though the majority of turtles die in their first year, once they get large enough they basically become invincible to predators. At some point their hard shell and their size simply makes them un-fuck-with-able.

Anyway, back to the turtles at hand. These turtles are not supposed to be in Bermuda and were probably blown in by a storm. As mentioned above, they belong in Sargassum at this stage - developmental habitat in the open ocean that lets them grow big enough to eventually settle inshore. After turtles leave the nesting beach, many of them swim out to the open sea, an environment where they are less susceptible to predators, and where they can rest atop mats of Sargassum to snack on invertebrates and catch a few rays (really - sunbathing on Sargassum helps them thermo-regulate). Hawksbills may settle in Bermuda - hanging out on mid-water reefs and eating sponges. Of course we are famous for our green turtles - Bermuda supports them in their intermediate stage, where they eat turtle grass, after their stint on the high seas and before they are large enough to nest. Loggerheads in general don’t settle here, and this one might head back to the US, or one of the few Caribbean islands that support the species, when it reaches the inshore stage of its life. That being said - there is a record of a loggerhead nest being discovered in Bermuda in 1990 and again in 2005 - the first evidence of turtle nesting in Bermuda since the 1930s. No adult returning loggerheads have since been observed.

Friends at BIOS tell me that these two turtles had a very special experience - they were taken out on the Atlantic Explorer during a scientific cruise offshore in the hopes they could be released in their proper habitat. However, the cruise did not observe any Sargassum, so the turtles simply came back to shore! Work experience any budding oceanographer can only dream of was sustained by these turtles. Or, to look at it another way - these turtles may be some of the only turtles in the world to have gone on vacation. Evolution from the Cretaceous period has led up to this moment.

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Bermuda Beach Report:

For the period August 14-28, 2024

• Several washed up fish as a result of hurricane Ernesto - including a small soapfish (strangely, I find soapfish to be the most commonly washed up fish in my anecdotal experience). Others included: a squirrelfish, a parrotfish, a red hind, and a reef butterflyfish. Also spotted a pufferfish that was in the process of being ripped apart by laughing gulls - gruesome but interesting - something I won’t include a picture of.

• Birds brought to Bermuda in hurricane Ernesto’s eye - including laughing gulls and other gulls, a few species of tern including a least tern, the world’s smallest tern species, and even an exhausted solitary sandpiper that my friend picked up to be taken to BAMZ for rehab.

• A plastic army man, a glitter rubber duck, what I believe to be one of the three wise men, a super hero, and a lock (does that sound like an I Spy book?)

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Man-made

This is the section where I share significant non-natural finds - entries will probably oscillate between historical artefact and trash.

Not only can hurricanes bring things up from the deep and bring birds to the island from far away - they can also erode land with flooding to expose historical artefacts. As I have learned from my boyfriend - it’s always worth checking around forts after heavy rain for things that have become exposed.

This week I have two very special military buttons to share that we recovered from Achilles Bay. Research courtesy of my boyfriend!

• XX button - 20th regiment of foot, East Devonshire Regiment. It has a crown above the XX and says ‘NUTTING - LONDON’ on the back which you can barely make out in the second picture. The button dates from the early 1800s. The regiment was stationed in Bermuda sometime between 1842 and 1853.

• Cannons button - It has a crown, 3 cannons, and ‘UBIQUE’ in a banner on the bottom. It is a Royal Artillery button dating from the mid 1800s. ‘Ubique’ is the motto of the Royal Artillery, meaning ‘everywhere’.

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Guest appearances

Wendy Frith kindly gave me permission to share this photo she posed on MAJs list last week. This offshore citizen was found on Horseshoe Bay on August 16th, just before Hurricane Ernesto’s eye passed directly over the island.

As resident naturalist Chris Flook helpfully supplied on Facebook, this is a manytoothed conger eel (Conger triporiceps). My Sterrer identification book tells me that they grow up to 150cm (almost 5 feet), but Wikipedia tells me 80 cm (2 feet) is more common. They inhabit deeper water offshore coral reefs, in water 10-60m deep. The South Shore beaches are a great place for finding offshore species, because they open up directly to the open ocean, unlike North Shore. I have been fortunate to find two lanternfish on South Shore beaches, and a small open ocean squid. What could be waiting out there next week?!

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Thanks for reading, and join me next time for more beach bum activities.

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