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Scratchy the Turtle
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The
first time JD Duff ever encountered Scratchy the Turtle,
it was under a ledge, moving back and forth, rubbing its
back on the overhang, totally oblivious to all the divers
watching. Finally one of the divers moved in and started
scratching and the turtle appeared to love it. They
eventually discovered that Scratchy (who had a name by
this time) also liked being scratched on its underside.
This footage was shot in 2002. Scratchy continued to live
on the same South Florida reef through the 2004/05
hurricane season, where it was seen at least 80% of the
time JD’s group dived there. Sometime after 2006, Scratchy
was tagged, but this did not appear to make it leery of
divers. Although not seen as often, Scratchy is still seen
on the same reef
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JD
Duff graduated from Florida Tech with a degree in
commercial diving in 1978. Shortly thereafter he received
a call from The Scuba Club, Inc. in West Palm Beach, FL
with a job offer. That was June 1980 and he has been
there ever since. He is a USCG licensed captain and a SDI
and TDI scuba instructor trainer. In addition to running
daily dive trips in West Palm Beach, he takes groups of
divers to many dive destinations around the world.
JD's photographs have
appeared in publications such as Ocean Realm, National
Geographic World, Sea Frontiers and Outdoor Explorer.
Besides the local networks, JD's video work has also been
seen on National Geographic Television, the Travel Channel
and the Animal Planet.
Visit:
www.JDDuff.com
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