Canada is a leatherback sea turtle country
June 03, 2026
A large mass lumbered up onto a beach in Trinidad in 2010. It’s leatherback sea turtle nesting season, and on this night, this large female is joining the dozens of other turtles digging a nest to lay their clutch on the beach. A female leatherback […]
Dina the leatherback sea turtle versus the Canso Causeway
June 10, 2026
On August 19, 2024, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' Sea Turtle Unit captured and tagged a large female leatherback sea turtle while working in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. She was named Dina. DFO is interested in the turtle species, as in 2003, Canada […]
DFO on leatherback sea turtles and the Canso Causeway
June 24, 2026
Dina, the leatherback sea turtle, died on Christmas Day, 2024, in the waters off Sydney. She spent August in the Gulf of St. Lawrence eating jellyfish. When she tried to head south in September, she was stopped by the Canso Causeway. She tried nine times […]
The Canso Causeway: its history and impacts, both economic and biological
July 01, 2026
If the request to build the Canso Causeway were made today, it would be denied. “If you look back in the paperwork and the history of the Causeway, it was originally supposed to be a bridge because it never makes sense to block the ocean,” […]
The challenges and opportunities to fixing the Canso Causeway for Dina
July 08, 2026
Dina was not the first leatherback sea turtle to die because she couldn’t get through the Canso Causeway, and she won’t be the last. It has only been since 1998 that leatherback sea turtles have even been on the Canadian radar. That was the when […]
Down with the Causeway!
August 05, 2026
It’s been a month since the completion of the series about Dina, the leatherback sea turtle who died trying to navigate out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence but was blocked by the Canso Causeway. Since then, we have heard from those who say they […]
© Beverley Phillips
Content courtesy credited sources