A Sea Turtle picture a day #46

Welcome back to a Sea Turtle Picture A Day. Today we are heading down to Mexico to the state of Colima. I was volunteering at a sea turtle hatchery there last year and had the opportunity to see some amazing things. One of my favorites is to watch the hatchlings as they head down the beach towards the ocean. It is believed that some how the hatchling is imprinted by this process and in 10 to 15 years she will crawl up this very beach and lay eggs.
This picture is of a Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchling making its way towards the ocean
This picture was taken with a 60 mm lens
See you tomorrow

A Sea Turtle picture a day #41

Welcome back to A Sea Turtle PIcture A Day. Today we are heading back underwater and over to the Big Island of Hawaii. This photo is of two Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas). The one that is coming out from under the ledge was resting there and the other was looking for a place to rest. The one leaving went up to the surface for a breath of air and the one doing the swim by then replaced the one that went for a breath under the ledge.
I is always so much fun to hang out underwater with these awesome animals and watch how they interact with each other.
This picture was taken with a 15mm lens
See you tomorrow.

A Sea Turtle picture a day #39

Welcome back to a Sea Turtle Picture A Day. The San Diego trip is coming to a close.We are all loaded up and at the airport waiting on our flight. All in all the trip was a great success. The molding went perfect. So it is back to Vancouver to start the next phase of the project.
Today's picture is of a Green Sea Turtle(Chelonia mydas) that was foraging in the tide pools off the coast of the Big Island.
This picture was taken with a 70-200 mm lens
See you tomorrow

A Sea Turtle picture a day #27

Welcome back to A Sea Turtle Picture A Day. Today we are back on the surface at Koloko State park on the West Side of the Big Island of Hawaii. This Picture is of a Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) That is basking in the sun.It has been out of the water for so long that the sun has given this turtle a dried out look.
To me this turtle looks like it is a dinosaur.It has evolved for over 150 million years to get to what I am taking a picture of.Just that thought is mind boggling.
This picture was taken with a 70-200 mm lens
Se you tomorrow

A Sea Turtle picture a day #23

Welcome back to A Sea Turtle Picture A day. Today we are heading back to Hawaii.I had been walking along the beach at Koloko state park looking for Basking Green Turtles (Basking is a behaviour where turtles crawl out of the water to warm themselves in the sun). The sun was just starting to set when I came upon this pair that was sleeping along the shore line.
This picture was taken with a 70-200 mm lens.
See you tomorrow

A Sea Turtle picture a day #19

Welcome back to A Sea Turtle Picture A Day.Todays picture is of a Green Sea Turtle ( Chelonia mydas). This is a close up of a Sea Turtles face. This turtle was laying out on the beach basking and I really was intrigued with the look of its face.I was thinking to myself that this Sea Turtle has evolved for 150 million years to be able to adapt to its life in the ocean.I hope you like this picture.
This picture was taken with a 28-200mm lens
See you tomorrow

A Sea Turtle picture a day #18

Welcome back to A Sea Turtle picture a day. Today we are heading to the west side of the Big Island to one of my favorite dives in the world. The Turtle cleaning station.In this picture a Green Sea Turtle(Chelonia mydas) is sitting on the bottom at the cleaning station being cleaned. You can see in the picture the algea that is growing on the back and neck of the turtle. Also in the back ground the cleaner fish are at work cleaning the turtle.
This picture was taken with a 12-24mm lens
See you tomorrow

A Sea Turtle picture a day #17

Welcome back to A Sea Turtle Picture a day. Today we are heading down to Tortola British Virgin Islands. This picture is of a Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) hatchling that is just entering the water.As I watched the group of hatching's entering the water I thought that it would make a good picture of one right as is entered the water. There were only a handful of hatching's so I did not have that many chances. This is the best one.
This picture was taken with a 60mm macro lens
See you tomorrow

A Sea Turtle picture a day #15

Welcome back to A Sea Turtle Picture a day. Today we are heading back down to Mexico.This picture is of a Olive Ridley(Lepidochelys olivacea) hatchling that is struggling getting thru some vegetation that is growing along the shore line. I really liked the color of the flowers and the size relationship with the hatchlings. All of the hatchlings made it thru the vegetation and down into the ocean saftely.
This picture was taken with a 60mm lens

A Sea Turtle picture a day #12

Welcome back to A Sea Turtle Picture a day. Today we are off to the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.This picture is of a Leatherback Sea turtle(Dermochelys coriacea)hatchling that is making its way down to the ocean after coming out of its nest.
When I took this picture I was on a trip to video and photograph Leatherback hatchlings as they emerged from their nest. I was following this particular hatchling with both a video camera and my still camera alternating between the two.
The lens I used was a 60mm macro lens
See you tomorrow

A Sea Turtle picture a day #10

Welcome back to a Sea Turtle Picture a day.Today's picture is of a Green Sea Turtle(Chelonia mydas) that has crawled out on the rocks to Bask. Basking is a way that Sea Turtles warm them selves.
This picture was taken in Hawaii. One of the things that I like the most about this picture is the algae on the back of the turtle matches the algae that is growing on the surrounding lava rocks.
This photo was taken with a 70-200mm telephoto lens.
See you tomorrow

A Sea Turtle picture a day #9

Happy new year everyone. I hope that everyone is doing well and ready for an exciting new year. Welcome back to A Sea Turtle a day.As I was looking thru my Turtle pictures this morning i was thinking about which pictures moved me the most as I was taking them.In the last 3 years I have been on more then 10 dedicated turtle adventures and have seen a lot of really great Sea Turtle behaviour but the thing that really gets me is watching a nest of hatching's emerge from the sand and get their orientation to the horizon and quickly move towards the ocean.
The photo trip that I was able to see this behaviour was in the British Virgin Islands.I was hired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp to go to the BVI and get some Leatherback sea turtle footage for a special segment that they were working on.I also brought my cameras as well as their video equipment.
I was staying in a beach side home that had known Leatherback sea turtle nest right in front of it.My assignment was to catch the hatching's on camera when they emerged,Sounds easy right? The only problem is that the hatching's usually come out after 7pm or before 7am. That meant that I spent a lot of sleepless night alone with my camera gear on the beach. I am not complaining I was able to get some great photos and video.
This picture is of a Leatherback Sea Turtle emerging out of the sand
Taken with a 60 mm macro lens
See you tomorrow.

A Sea Turtle picture a day #7

Welcome back to A Sea Turtle picture a day. Today we find ourselves in a very unlikely place for sea turtles,Much less the rarest of them all. Vancouver Canada. Yes the Fine city of Vancouver in Canada. I only live an hour from Vancouver and when I found out there were Leatherback Sea turtles there I had to go and find out why they were there and most importantly what were they doing there.
The Leatherback Sea turtle(Dermochelys coriacea)Is the largest sea turtle in the world and has never been raised in captivity where the turtle has lived more than a year. The reason is the Leatherback turtle is oceanic pelagic what that means is that it speands it whole live swimming in the open ocean and knows no boundries. Since it knows no boundries earlier attepts to keep on in captivity failed becouse the turtles would swim into the sides of the tanks and injure themselves. That was until a harness system was designed to keep the turtle from being able to touch the bottom or sides as it swam constantly in the tank,
This photo was taken with a 60mm macro lens

a turtle photo a day: Day #4

Welcome back. Today we are going to be heading back down to Mexico to a little town called Rocky Point.It is about 2.5 hours south of Phoenix Arizona.
The reason I was there was for a turtle release. This was not just a regular release. This female Hawksbill( Eretmochelys imbricata)
was caught by local fishermen 8 years earlier. She has been held at a local school.
The release of this female turtle was a historic one. She is the first adult Hawksbill sea turtle to be released with a satellite transponder in the Eastern Pacific.
As you can tell by the photo there were a lot of people in attendance for her release.

a turtle photo a day: Day #3

This is was a really fun photo to take.It was taken at a sea turtle hatchery in Colima Mexico.I was volunteering there in August of 2008 and as part of my duties I had to release the hatchlings along the beach that had hatched the night before. This photo was taken right after I placed them in the sand.
They are Olive Ridleys(Lepidochelys olivacea)They are one of the most common sea turtle seen in and around Colima Mexico
A 60 mm macro lens was used to get this shot

A turtle photo a day: Day #2

Merry Christmas,

Hopefully we all enjoyed our time spent with family and friends.

This turtle is a Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) that has crawled out onto the rocks as it was looking for food.It was taken on The Big Island of Hawaii with a telephoto lens.

I am always asked when and where my next turtle trips are going to take place. Currently I am In Bellingham Wa with my family,As soon as I am on my next turtle trip I will post photos from the location that I am taking either photos or video.

Have a great Christmas ,I will see you tomorrow.

A turtle photo a day: Day #1

Merry Christmas to all. This is the first post of this my new blog.

I am calling this blog  a turtle a day.I have hundreds ok maybe thousands of sea turtle photos that are floating around in my external hard drives. No one has seen most of these.So this is my chance to share these photos with the world.

I will post a photo a day and give a little history about the location the turtle and anything else that you would like to know about the shot.

This photo is of a Green Sea turtle.(Chelonia mydas).This turtle is being cleaned by cleaner fish. This behavior is a symbiotic relationship . The fish get a meal and the turtle gets the algae cleaned off of its body.

Taken On the Big Island of Hawaii in 2006.

The camera used was an Olympus 5050.My very high dollar underwater camera was broken so I used a friends inexpensive point and shoot camera and ended up with some of my favorite photos.

Check back tomorrow to see what I have pulled out of the hard drive.