Reclaiming the ocean
Photo and caption by Jeanette Wyneken
This loggerhead turtle gets her first splash of the Atlantic after nesting during a stormy day in Florida. This turtle is one of the first of a generation of neophyte nesting loggerheads to mount Florida's beaches signalling the start of a species recovery. The numbers of nesting loggerheads plunged for nearly a decade, a trend attributed to accidental capture and death in coastal fisheries. The management of those fisheries to prevent the accidental deaths of large juvenile and adult sea turtles enabled the loggerhead and other large marine species start recovery.
Location: Hutchinson Island near Jensen Beach, Florida USA, Northwestern Atlantic