MooPig Turtle Tracking Department

Wishes to Acknowledge "Premiere" and "Jimmy"
Retrieved by Pat Darnell | Bryan\College Station, TX | 04.16.2010

"In December 2003, turtle researchers were excited to see the first of the 7381 loggerhead hatchlings tagged in early 1975 turn up at a nesting beach as a breeding adult.

They named her Premiere and over the summer of 2003-04, she came ashore four times at Mon Repos and laid four clutches of eggs. Two other loggerheads tagged in 1975 also turned up and laid clutches this season. (SOURCE)"

These clutches are the first ever to be traced from hatchling to mother, laying her eggs in the same sand she is born in. OUTTASIGHT!!! RIGHT ON CATCHYTONE!!!

Atta-GURL, PREMIERE!

"In late December 2003, researchers fitted Premiere with a radio tag and released her for tracking studies. They want to work out the home range for a loggerhead during the nesting period, the path of her migration after nesting, and her home range outside nesting time.

Premiere laid her final clutch for the season 19 days after the tag was fitted, then left the Mon Repos area on 15 January 2004. She moved north about 416km in just 16 days to the Percy Isles north of Shoalwater Bay. By 10 March she was 1426km north of Mon Repos off Howick Island near Lizard Island, but her swimming appeared to be slowing down. Follow Premiere's path."

Boy Loggerheads showed up too ...

Jimmy is an adult male loggerhead turtle who weighs 105kg. He was caught by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service scientists in southern Moreton Bay on 20 May 2003. They glued a radio transmitter to his shell.

Jimmy was named by Olympic swimmer Leisel Jones, after her late grandfather. Leisel joined the research team during the annual turtle survey in Moreton Bay and even helped catch some turtles! (The State of Queensland, Department of Environment and Resource Management. 2010. Queensland Government home page: HERE)

Loggerheads are the coolest! And now we know how long they live until first mating and having clutches of eggs -- 29 years.

NEXT Week: "Where in the Sea are Premiere and Jimmy?"