After they hatch, green turtles stay at sea for years—and biologists may finally have found where they spend that time.
After a baby green turtle crawls out of its nest on a moonlit night and makes its way to the surf, it disappears at sea for years until returning to land. Until recently, biologists figured that the turtles drifted on the major currents of the open ocean. But new research, which used satellite tags to track young green turtles for the first time, suggests that the middle of those swirling currents acts as a previously unknown turtle nursery.
The big challenge is attaching solar-powered trackers to young turtles with six-inch-long shells. “At that age, the bony plates of their shell, similar to the bony plates of baby skulls, haven’t fully fused together,” Mansfield says. If the researchers attached the trackers with a tough epoxy, they would end up deforming the turtles as they grew.]
When the researchers were finally able to watch their cohort of 21 tagged turtles swim, they found that while many of them spent some time riding the Gulf Stream north, 14 of the 21 ended up swimming into the Sargasso Sea. “We call it the golden floating rainforest of the Atlantic,” says Tess Mackey, program manager for the Sargasso Sea Commission, a nonbinding conservation collaboration between 10 countries bordering the waterway. “If you look at a photo of a sargassum mat, it’s like a scavenger hunt, seeing the small crabs and shrimp and fish that are living in there.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
James Bond’s Long-Lost Aston Martin DB5 Has Finally Been Found After 25 YearsThe iconic silver ride, which is estimated to be worth $25 million, has been located somewhere in the Middle East.
Read more »
This Nurse Lost 190 Lbs. After Getting Diagnosed with Diabetes and 'Hitting Rock Bottom'After getting diagnosed with diabetes and 'hitting rock bottom,' Emily Gonzales changed her eating habits and incorporated new workouts into her routine — and lost 190 lbs. in the process.
Read more »
4,400 migrants lost at sea bound for Spain in 2021, double previous yearMore than 4,400 migrants, including at least 205 children, were lost at sea trying to reach Spain in 2021, a monitoring group said on Monday - more than double the figure from the previous year and the most since the group began counting in 2018.
Read more »
Black Widow Reportedly Lost $600 Million Due to PiracyDisney reportedly lost over $600 million from piracy on Black Widow, with its Disney+ Premier Access release making illegal distribution of the film much easier.
Read more »
Dakota Johnson on Playing an Overwhelmed Mother in ‘The Lost Daughter’ and Potential for Oscar NomDakota Johnson was caught off-guard by the script for TheLostDaughter: “I never read something so honest... At times, raw, almost to being uncomfortable but still so human'
Read more »
Doctors say lives are lost in hospitals in Ethiopia's Tigray due to dwindling supplies, blame blockadeIn the largest hospital in Ethiopia's Tigray region, a child wounded in an air strike bled to death after doctors ran out of gauze and intravenous fluids. A baby died because there were no fluids for dialysis.
Read more »