Bottom Breathers Dive Club meeting 4-Mar-2016

1. Bottom Breathers Dive Club
Meeting: 4-Mar-2016
Today's topics: Club tshirts, Keys trip
info, sea turtle identification

2. 2016 Events
• Next meeting – Apr 1
• Our World Underwater – Feb 26-28
• Pizza Party – Apr 23
• May meeting - May 13 (not first Friday)
• Our "usual" Florida Keys Trip – June 16-20
• Turks & Caicos Liveaboard – July 23-30

3. 2016 Events
• Monthly Club meeting – Aug 12 (not first
Friday)
• Club BBQ – Aug 13
• Mermet Springs Trip – Sep 9-11
• Underwater Pumpkin Carving – Oct 8
• Pizza Party – Nov 12

4. Florida Keys Trip 2015

28. Florida Keys Trip 2016
• June 16-19 (flying on Jun 15 and 20)
• 4 days of diving: 2 morning deep wreck dives,
2 afternoon shallower reef dives, 1 night dive
(maybe)
• Sharing rooms at Ocean Pointe Condos
• 8 afternoon dives + room = $595
• 16 dives + room = $919
• Night dive will be extra

29. Florida Keys Trip 2016
• Air tanks + weights included
• Nitrox tanks = +$7 per tank
• Flights and car rentals extra (can share cars)
• $150 deposit (refundable until May 1st) to
book a spot -> info@bottombreathers.org

30. Sea Turtle Identification
• Terms:
– Prefrontal - area on front of the head - "forehead"
– Postorbital - behind the eye
– Carapace - top part of the shell
– Plastron - bottom part of the shell
– Scutes (aka scales) - bony sections of carapace,
plastron or head

31. Sea Turtle Identification
• Terms:
– Costal scute - large scutes along the sides of the
shell
– Vertebral scute - along the middle of the shell
– Nuchal scute - one scute in the front middle of the
shell
– Marginal scute - small scutes along the edge

32. Sea Turtle Identification
• 7 Species
– Loggerhead
– Green
– Leatherback
– Hawksbill
– Kemp's ridley
– Olive ridley
– Flatback

33. Sea Turtle Identification
• Loggerhead
– Most common in the US
– Threatened status - only species not listed as
endangered
• Green
– Endangered around the world (1978)
– Increasing numbers on east coast of Florida and
Costa Rica

34. Sea Turtle Identification
• Leatherback
– Largest, deepest diving, farthest traveling
– Endangered in 1970
– 22% decline annually in 12 years along Mexico
Pacific coast
• Hawksbill
– Endangered in 1970
– Rarely nest in North America, more in eastern
hemisphere

35. Sea Turtle Identification
• Kemp's ridley
– Most endangered of all sea turtles (1970)
– Only major nesting is a small beach in Rancho Nuevo,
Mexico
• Olive ridley (aka Pacific ridley)
– North Atlantic nesting declined more than 80% since
1967
– Larger numbers in Indian Ocean - 398,000 nests in a
given year
– Smaller in size

36. Sea Turtle Identification
• Flatback
– Found only in north part of Australia and New
Guinea
– Smooth, waxy shell can be easily damaged

37. Sea Turtle Identification

38. Sea Turtle Identification

39. Sea Turtle Identification - FL Keys

40. Sea Turtle Identification
Green
Sea Turtle

41. Sea Turtle Identification
Hawksbill
Sea Turtle

42. Sea Turtle Identification
Green
Sea Turtle

43. Sea Turtle Identification
Hawksbill
Sea Turtle

44. Sea Turtle Identification
Loggerhead
Sea Turtle

45. Sea Turtle Identification
Kemp's Ridley

46. Sea Turtle Identification
Olive Ridley

47. Sea Turtle Identification
LeatherbackGreenHawksbillridley??

48. Sea Turtle Identification
Leatherback
Sea Turtle

49. Sea Turtle Identification
Flatback
Sea Turtle

50. Sea Turtle Identification

51. Sea Turtle Identification
• References:
• http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles
• http://www.conserveturtles.org/seaturtleinfor
mation.php?page=species_id
• http://www.seeturtles.org/sea-turtle-species
• http://www.widecast.org/Biology/Terminolog
y/Terminology.html
• http://allturtles.com/turtle-terms/

52. Upcoming Events
• Next meeting – Apr 1