R.E.M., Pearl Jam Sponsor Racing Turtles

R.E.M. are sponsoring a 440-kilogram female leatherback sea turtle named Nightswimmer as part of the Great Turtle Race that began today (Thursday) along various parts of the coast of Atlantic Canada.

The 6,000-kilometre race, which will conclude on nesting beaches in the Caribbean, is sponsored by National Geographic and Conservation International in an effort to help protect sea turtles and raise funds to preserve their nesting and feeding habitats.

"Nightswimmer will swim head-to-head against ten other turtles with sponsors ranging from surfers, sea turtle biologists and schools to fellow rockers Pearl Jam (whose 375-kilogram female entry is named Backspacer)," says a post on R.E.M.'s website, which adds that five-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Janet Evans is Nightswimmer’s coach.

"At R.E.M. we are always looking for different and interesting ways to bring the environment into people's consciousness, and I can't think of a much better way than with these beautiful and majestic creatures that drift around and look so at home in the ocean," says bassist Mike Mills. "Our turtle, Nightswimmer, is huge and beautiful, and it is going to be very exciting to watch the progress of this animal as it goes along its merry way... and of course with Janet Evans as coach I really don’t see how we could lose."

R.E.M.'s 1992 Automatic For The People album included a song called "Nightswimming."

You can follow the turtles' progress and learn more about the creatures on the Great Turtle Race website.

R.E.M. are preparing to release a live album culled from their 2007 Dublin, Ireland working rehearsals and a deluxe version of 1984's Reckoning. They'll follow Nightswimmer's progress before they regroup in a few months to begin work on "exploratory demos" for a new album.