A rare sighting of a leatherback turtle surfacing off the coast of the Haidi Gwaii islands in B.C. is drawing attention to the reptiles, some of which migrate from Indonesia all the way to the West Coast.
Friends Victoria Bradshaw and Aidan Horne from B.C.’s Lower Mainland were on a fishing trip on July 14 near Langara Island, B.C., when the leatherback turtle breached the waters alongside their boat, prompting Bradshaw to record a video of the encounter, which was widely viewed online.
Jackie Hildinger, the education and communications director at the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS) in Port McNeill, B.C., said the sighting highlighted both the rarity and the remarkable size of the turtles….