Rihanna...
Remember last week when we were so happy about Rihanna nesting?
And we were waiting for her to nest a second time so our Trinidadian friends could hopefully find her and take her satellite transmitter off and see how she was doing?
Here’s the update from Mike:
“Normally about 10 days pass before a leatherback returns to the beach to nest. We confirmed from the satellite tag data that there was no nest on Night 9 or 10. So we were feeling pretty confident Rihanna would show up on Night 11. We have received locations from this turtle’s tag every single day since we first tagged her off Nova Scotia last July. But…you guessed it: Night 11, no locations at all. And, what’s worse, we haven’t received any further satellite transmissions since.
What has happened to Rihanna?
Well, maybe nothing serious. It’s possible that her tag was dislodged by a male turtle during mating. But what makes us perhaps more concerned is that Rihanna was as close to shore as we’ve ever seen her in the hours before her tag stopped. This makes us worry she could potentially have been accidentally caught and drowned in fishing gear.
This same story has unfolded in the past with a happy ending in some cases. Those turtles—minus their satellite tags—were encountered nesting later in the season. (They are usually identified by their flipper tags.)
We’re holding out hope that Rihanna successfully nested a second time undetected. There are at least two more months of her nesting cycle remaining when one of our nesting beach colleagues may encounter her on their patrol.”
So, please keep your fingers crossed someone finds our amazing Rihanna again.