Increased nesting, good survival and variable site fidelity for leatherback turtles in Florida, USA

•Using 11 years of mark-recapture data, we derive population parameters for leatherback turtles in Florida.•We estimate that 100±41 leatherback turtles nest yearly there.•Annual survival is 88.9% for nesting females; remigration interval was 2.7±1.0 years.•Observed and estimated clutch frequency was 2.1±1.4 and 4.4±1.1 nests/year, respectively.•Leatherbacks may distribute nests up to 463.5km apart within one season.