The TOPP sea turtle team is excited to announce the publication of our leatherback tracking manuscript just released in the open source scientific journal, PLoS Biology on July 15, 2008,  Persistent Leatherback Turtle Migrations Present Opportunities for Conservation.

Mr. Leatherback, GTRII Race Central --     Billie II takes the silver medal in the trans-Pacific marathon. There's a turtle pile-up at the finish line as Amban and JK Turtling battle for third place with Shelby finishing strong. It's also a close contest for second place in the twirling competition with Drexelina II, Jingjing, and Amban separated by just three twirls.

Check it out!

Mr. Leatherback, Hopkins Marine Lab, Pacific Grove, CA -- And they're away... the 2008 trans-Pacific marathon to the international dateline has begun!

Jane Stevens, in Berkeley, CA - Check out "Tagging of Pacific Predators" on KQED-TV's QUEST!

George Shillinger, Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, CA -- We're keeping our eyes on the four remaining Great Turtle Race leatherbacks whose satellite tags are still transmitting: Turtleocity, Genevieve, Freedom and Billie. In case you're new to TOPP, we co-sponsored the Great Turtle Race last April, in which eleven leatherback turtles "raced" from Playa Grande, Costa Rica, to the Galapagos for 14 days.

George Shillinger, Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, CA -- A couple of weeks ago, Flat Ava and Flat Joe arrived at the Hopkins Marine Station safe and sound after their long journey from the 4th grade class at Catherine Cook School in Chicago.

Jane Stevens at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab - This weekend, former TOPP principal investigator Randy Kochevar will be the guest speaker at Camp Ocean Pines 2008 Marine Science Series. Randy developed "Mysteries of the Deep" for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and was the first outreach coordinator for TOPP. He'll talk about TOPP's history, the 22 species of animals that our researchers have tagged, including elephant seals, white sharks, turtles, squid, and albatross.

George Shillinger, Hopkins Marine Station, CA. -- It's hard to believe, but the winning turtle in the Summer-to-Summer Solstice Super Swimathon stroked 4,770 miles since she left Costa Rica 10 months ago! Bet you forgot there was even a race going on. That's turtle-racing for you. They move so slowly that the rest of the world forgets about them. But not leatherback fans, right?

George Shillinger, Monterey Bay, CA. Something that most folks don’t realize is how difficult it is to track turtles, notes TOPP researcher Scott Eckert.

George Shillinger in Monterey, CA -- Mistaking them for jellyfish, Stephanie, Windy, Drexelina and Champira ate a bunch of plastic bags.