Lost turtle tag turns up in Florida Keys

Mote researchers will receive a turtle tag that was lost in October.

By Nat Kaemmerer
| 1:57 p.m. January 19, 2022

Freda's lost and found tag will be returned to Mote and cleaned up before summer. (Courtesy photo)

Longboat Key
Neighbors

Freda wanted her freedom. A busy and independent lady, she's bucked the idea of communication. No one should keep tabs on her and her private life — not even the Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program associates at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, who tagged the nesting-age green sea turtle in the first place.

She was first observed nesting on Manasota Key in 2015 and tagged in June 2019 on Casey Key. The tag stopped transmitting in August 2019, but Mote researchers tagged Freda again in summer 2021. This time, she kept it on until October. Inexplicably, it started transmitting again in late December, this time from Marathon.

Divers had found the device in Florida Bay and taken it to The Turtle Hospital there. Staffers contacted Mote. Miraculously, the battery had been preserved when it sunk, and the tag can now be used on another turtle this summer.

Safe travels, Freda, wherever you are.