The world according to me....

I found this photo wedged in the back of a drawer of an old desk that I scavanged from the NOAA-Beaufort lab on the day they were cleaning out some old storage space. There were some other photos with this one, although not of turtles. Judging from the style of clothes and haircuts of people in the other photos, I think they were taken in the late 1960s.

It is difficult to gauge the size of the loggerhead in this photo. What strikes me is the relatively low number of barnacles on its carapace. I have the impression that most of the loggerheads I see have many more barnacles than this one. Then again I mostly see sick, injured or dead stranded turtles who may be most susceptible to colonization by epibionts than healthier turtles. There is also the possibility that this photo was taken elsewhere, perhaps even another ocean basin.