This Saturday while enjoying some fun, two-to-three foot surf in Encinitas, CA, a friend of mine on a stand up paddleboard (one of these days I’ll blog about something else?but don’t worry I was riding a shortboard) spotted a sea turtle of all things! With the water as clear as I’ve ever seen it in 25+ years of surfing this same spot, there was no arguing what Allen had spotted. I find it amazing that after all these years I was mere yards away from an animal that is classified as “Critically Endangered.” Too bad I couldn’t track it down…

I don’t know about you, but despite the naysayers, I really believe that the ocean around SoCal is teeming with life, more so than I’ve ever seen. Dolphins are spotted daily, leopard sharks are literally everywhere, seal populations are increasing, and yep, there are Great White sharks around as we know from the Solana Beach attack.

After a bit of research, I’m pretty sure it was a leatherback turtle, one of the only turtles that doesn’t have a bony shell, but instead the turtle’s back is covered with oily skin.

A huge leatherback sea turtle, much bigger than the one spotted in Encinitas last weekend.

Other cool facts regarding the leatherback turtle (courtesy of Wikipedia):

  • As a sea turtle, the leatherback is the largest and heaviest
  • Instead of teeth the Leatherback turtle has fangs
  • The leatherback has a backwards spine to help it swallow food
  • It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell
  • The largest leatherback ever found was a little over three meters (roughly nine feet) from head to tail and weighed over 900 (nearly 2000 lbs.) kilograms
  • It is the world’s fourth largest reptile, behind the larger crocodile

Anyway, don’t say you never learned anything here…