As Hurricane Helene Hit, One Woman Decided To Track the Sharks and Turtles

A woman living in Florida eased thousands of people’s hurricane anxiety by bringing them on a journey with sea turtles and sharks, from the safety of their homes.

Landing in Florida as a category 4 storm on Thursday, Hurricane Helene left over 1 million people without power, as it caused major damage across at least 10 states, President Joe Biden said on a Monday morning press conference.

At least 133 lost their lives across multiple states, according to the Associated Press. In Asheville, North Carolina, where at least 30 people were killed, Mayor Esther Manheimer described the “post-apocalyptic scene” in a CNN interview.

As Helene wreaked devastation on land, in the sea, marine life was getting out of the way, and a series of videos from TikTok user @jesstheprequeldoesmiami tracked the animals on their journeys.

Jessica Peters, a former veterinary technician who lives in South Florida and now works in marketing, told Newsweek she has “had a lifelong interest in the wildlife we share our planet with.”

She immediately thought about the marine animals potentially in the path of the storm, and rushed to website Ocearch.com, which allows users to track tagged animals and monitor their area, with the animal “pinging” their location over a matter of days, months or even years.

Peters, 46, who goes by Jess the Prequel online, had previously used the site to track her favorite sea turtle, Asparagus, the day she married her husband on a Florida beach.

And as she put it, “we didn’t see Asparagus, but I know she was there and she was easily my favorite wedding ‘guest’—sorry to friends and family.”

As millions nervously watched the storm roll in, Peters took to TikTok to share the paths of the sharks and turtles who can often be found around Florida, and noted they were long gone—like turtle Patricia, who was tracked vacationing in the Gulf of St Lawrence in Canada.

Then there was Bootes, who had previously made the coast of Florida her home, but had recently migrated north, and was safely out of the path of the storm.

Hammerhead shark Felix was relaxing in Canún, Mexico, and white shark Breton, who has traveled between south Florida to Canada and back multiple times over the years, was last pinged way up off the shores of Nova Scotia.

One of her videos, shared on September 27, gained over 1 million views and 85,000 likes, as TikTok users were left in awe at the sheer distance the animals can travel, as well as distracting them from the furious storm.

“This is how I want me weather updates from now on,” one user wrote, while one called it “the best thing I’ve seen all day,” and another admitted they “had NO idea turtles went all the way up there.”

Another praised her for highlighting the Ocearch website, writing: “This is something I could see myself spending an unhealthy amount of time doing! Thank you for sharing.”

Speaking to Newsweek, Peters said she never expected her videos to get so much traction: “I am by no means an expert on shark and turtle migration patterns, so I added my uninformed color commentary and figured a few people might get a kick out of it. I was surprised when it immediately blew up, so I started uploading more, and those all blew up as well.”

She said she was “thrilled that so many people are having fun tracking the turtles and sharks with me—it means that they’re discovering organizations like Ocearch, and the important work that they do.

“I love seeing people leave comments like ‘I had no idea turtles traveled so far!’—bringing life to these sea animals helps people feel more connected to them.”

According to SEE Turtles, sea turtles can travel tens of thousands of miles each year. Leatherback sea turtles can travel 10,000 miles or more each year in search of foraging grounds, while Loggerheads born in Japan can migrate 8,000 miles to Mexico to feed and mature.

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