Suzi swam away from the island and hardly looked back.
The loggerhead sea turtle, Anna Maria Island’s entry in the Sea Turtle Conservancy’s Tour de Turtles, was outfitted with a tracking device June 27 after nesting at Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach.
As a crowd gathered on the beach to cheer the turtle on, Suzi crawled back to the Gulf of Mexico.
Then Suzi swam.
And swam.
And swam.
Suzi placed fifth out of 12 hard-shell turtles in the marathon, which began Aug. 1 and ended Oct. 31.
The Tour de Turtles began in 2008 as a fun but educational way to engage people in research associated with sea turtles, especially how often the adult females nest, where they nest and where they go after nesting.
The information collected during the tour helps researchers learn about the behavior and life cycles of sea turtles, which during a summer can travel thousands of miles between nesting beaches and foraging grounds.
Bella, a sea turtle tagged on the Leeward Islands, traveled the greatest distance in the tour — 1,519 miles.
Suzi traveled 1,024 miles.
A map at tourdeturtles.org shows Suzi’s journey from Anna Maria Island into the Gulf. Suzi swam southwest toward Sarasota, then northwest and then south, spending most of the season west of Cuba and north of the Yucatan.
Waterline Villas and Marina of Holmes Beach sponsored Suzi’s entry in the marathon.
— Lisa Neff