Nova Scotia’s waters are home to giant leatherback sea turtles this time of year.
The underwater creatures are still unknown to many Maritimers but a new exhibit in Peggys Cove is looking to change that.
The exhibit belongs to the Canadian Sea Turtle Network, a group that studies and tracks the nomadic sea turtles.
“This is a satellite transmitter, we put this transmitter out on a leatherback last June and tracked it on its way down back to the breeding and nesting grounds,” says Kathleen Martin of the Canadian Sea Turtle Network.
A few years ago, the network tracked a turtle for 918 days, following it to its breeding ground 3,800 kilometres away in Trinidad and Tobago and then back to Nova Scotia.
“They’re here because we have an abundance of jellyfish in Nova Scotia,” says Martin. “They eat and feed on jellyfish and what this does is, the spikes shred the jellyfish on their way down the leatherback’s stomach.”
The exhibit strives to teach visitors interesting facts about leatherback sea turtles, which are immune to jellyfish stings, can grow up to two metres long and can weigh as much as 900 kilograms.
Leatherback sea turtles are an endangered species. Commercial fishermen often cross their paths off the coast of Nova Scotia and play an integral role in the conservation effort.
Fishermen alert the network when they identify turtles and free the sea creatures, should they get tangled in a fishing net.
“Fishermen are critical, they are critical to the work that we do,” says Martin. “We could not do what we do unless we had the partnership that we do.”
