Mystery Monday revealed!

That Monday mystery creature is, as far as I can tell, a green sea turtle. The animal in the Friday reveal is a loggerhead sea turtle. On Searcher trips in Baja we see both of these species regularly and can also spot Pacific Ridley’s and hawksbill turtles, though rarely. Leatherbacks are also possible, but I have only seen them up north. In any case, it’s difficult to identify them at sea and we rely on an ID key created by Seaturtle.org  (http://www.seaturtle.org/documents/ID_sheet.pdf) and good photographs. We look for the number of prefrontal scales as well as the nuchal and costal scute patterns. Green sea turtles lay eggs in Baja’s lagoons as well as in the upper part of the Gulf of California. Loggerheads are fascinating in that they forage in our waters but don’t nest locally. Instead, they migrate all the way back across the Pacific Ocean where the females lay their eggs primarily in eastern Australia and Japan. Paul Jones