Rare sea reptile seen off NC’s Outer Banks made 5,400-mile journey, tracker shows

Among the rarest of sights off North Carolina’s Outer Banks is a leatherback sea turtle, and a tracking device attached to one is giving researchers a stunning map of how far they swim to get here.

The massive turtle, named Riptide by researchers, appeared off the northern Outer Banks on Dec. 2, and was off Ocracoke as of Dec. 8, according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy.

“Leatherback turtle Riptide ... traveled more than 5,400 miles since nesting this past May in Panama,” the conservancy wrote in a Dec. 4 Facebook post. “It looks like she’s spending the holidays in the Carolinas! ... She could also be starting her journey back down south for nesting season next year.”

Riptide’s “nomadic life” took her as far north as Nova Scotia in September, and she has been steadily working her way south.

Her average speed has been about 1.16 mph, but has picked up to just over 2 mph off the Outer Banks, the conservancy says. She has avoided coming ashore.

Leatherbacks are the world’s largest species of sea turtle and are endangered, with the global population declining about 40% “over the past three generations,” according to NOAA Fisheries.

Riptide’s shell is nearly 5-feet long and 3.5 feet wide, the conservancy reports. The largest leatherback ever recorded was almost 10 feet in length and weighed 2,019 pounds, the National Park Service reports.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the Outer Banks “is at the extreme northern limit” for leatherback nesting, with only a handful of nests reported over the last 20 years, the NPS says.

This story was originally published December 8, 2025 at 5:51 AM.