Anyone know about any markings engraved on a turtle carapace ? The one i saw had HB engraved in about 1-1 1/2" letters on both sides of the carapace.
carapace engraving????
- Thread starter smitty71
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
OP
Jack'sDivingLocker
Contributor
I'm not 100% sure...but I think that researchers only put marks on turtles rather than carvings or engravings. They try to do things that will fade over time rather than be permanent. I wonder if it could be someone having some unfortunate "fun"? DAR (Dept. of Aquatic Resources) or DLNR (Dept. of Land and Natural Resources) would be good contacts to find out what this might be.
CaptFlyingDutchman
Contributor
Best guess HB means Hawksbill Turtle.
Probably Scientific Stuff since they are so rare.
Probably Scientific Stuff since they are so rare.
I sure hope so.
It's sickening to think that this might be some sort of "Turtle Grafitti" done by some jerk who thinks it's "cool."
cinder4320
Contributor
There are carapace engravings done as permanent ID (scientifically acceptable protocol). Usually those involve notching specific scutes in a pattern which an be "translated" to specific numbers. I have not heard of engraving letters just the tick marks.
Miranda
Miranda
OP
These were definitely engraved, there is even some algae growth in the letters.
Charlie99
Contributor
- Messages
- 7,966
- Reaction score
- 166
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
It looks too neatly done to be just some freehand grafitti. It looks like it was engraved with a pantagraph sort of device -- way more effort than a vandal would go to.
OP
I agree that it does not appear to be graffiti. I have found several references to HB meaning hawks bill, however all of the policies and protocols are from the Kingdom of Bahrain, and refer to Indian Ocean "leather back" turtles.
Missdirected
Contributor
Very odd. I too did a search - everything translates to numbers for identification, as someone mentioned. Having just HB... very strange indeed.
Similar threads
- Question
