A death

     In late July, 2014,  a Hawksbill  sea turtle washed ashore just south of False Bluff either dead or dying.  There was no indication of 'foul play' and no indication it had been wrapped in the debris that washes around in the Caribbean...the turtle was just dead.
     A neighbor found the carcass on a walk down the beach and salvaged the shell.  When I showed up at False Bluff he brought me something else he'd salvaged: tags from the front flippers that showed that the University of Florida (UF) at Gainesville had tagged the turtle.
     I reported the tags to UF and have been told this female sea turtle was tagged while nesting in the Pearl Cays in 2008.  I followed up by sending UF photographs and additional information with my own request for input from them on specific conservation practices I can institute at False Bluff, more specific than what's outlined in the booklet mentioned in the previous post, and in English.  (To date I've not had their promised response.)

     I asked the neighbor who found the remains if he would bring me the skull and a few bones if there was anything left on the beach - and he did.  The skull and one of the bones are shown here.

     And he also brought me the two sections of the very thick tail shell, shown both right side up - and upside down.