Rare Giant Leatherback Sea Turtle Sighted Along Oregon Coast

(GARIBALDI, Ore.) - Four local fishermen competing in the Oregon Tuna Classic Saturday off the coast of Garibaldi were in for a rare surprise when they came across the most critically endangered sea turtle in the world, the Pacific leatherback.

“We were trolling along when we saw in the distance what we thought to be a sunfish,” states Tim Helmandollar who was fishing off his friend Treb Foco’s boat the “Second Season”. “As we got closer, however, the apparent sunfish raised its head and it was then we realized it was in fact a giant leatherback sea turtle.”

Pacific Leatherback sea turtles are frequent but elusive visitors to the Oregon coast between August and November each year, making a journey of over 6,000 miles from the nesting beaches of Indonesia to come and eat jellyfish in this important foraging area.

They are considered the most critically endangered of all sea turtle populations declining from an estimated 90,000 in 1980 to recent reports estimating that only 2,500 – 5,000 remain today.

“The Oregon coast is considered a very important habitat area for the critically endangered leatherback sea turtle,’ states Karen Steele, Campaign Coordinator for the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, an international organization dedicated to the protection of sea turtles.

“Although we know they frequent the Oregon coast, it is indeed a rare privilege to see one, as they spend all their time in the water eating jellyfish never venturing on shore while they are here.”

Leatherback sea turtles have been known to grow up to 9 feet in length, and weigh over 2,000 pounds. Helmandollar predicts the one they saw came in at about 7 feet. “This turtle was HUGE,” states Helmandollar.

Upon sighting the turtle the fishermen immediately pulled in their fishing gear and sat quietly observing the turtle. “The turtle was calmly munching away on a giant jellyfish, every now and then raising its head to look in our direction, oftentimes with a big piece of jellyfish hanging out of its mouth,” describes Helmandollar.

Currently the Oregon coast provides a safe haven for the leatherback while they forage there. Both industrial drift gillnet fishing and pelagic longline fishing, two big threats to the Pacific leatherback, are banned within Oregon’s Exclusive Economic Zone (the area up to 200 miles offshore).

Although the federal government has attempted to lift both these bans over the past year, strong opposition from the public, environmental, recreational fishing and scientific community has kept them in place.

“The Pacific leatherback is on the brink of extinction,” states Steele. “At this point we need to be ensuring the survival of every single one of these species. Oregon provides role model protections on how we can do this.”

Meanwhile Helmandollar and his friends will be remembering the Oregon Tuna Classics this year not just for the tuna but also as a day they became one of the very few lucky ones to have ever sighted this rare species off the Oregon coast. Helmandollar states, “It was one of the most amazing creatures I have ever seen.”