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, 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.

George Shillinger in Monterey, CA. -- Did commercial fishermen or shark-finners off the Galapagos or Peru accidentally kill Stephanie, Windy, Drexelina or Champira?

George Shillinger in Monterey, CA -- Did the leatherbacks’ harnesses fall off, or have their tags broken?

George Shillinger in Monterey, CA. Did Stephanie and her sister leatherbacks die of old age?

George Shillinger, in Monterey, CA -- Where in the world is Stephanie Colburtle, the leatherback turtle?

Before our big race, TOPP researchers put satellite tags on 35 of us Costa Rican leatherbacks in 2004 and 2005. That proved that we could do our Great Race in April.