Sea turtles do not behave as passive drifters: Study

A new research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Central Florida has revealed that sea turtles do not float with the current.

It has been believed that after hatching, sea turtles swim offshore and simply drift with ocean currents until their swimming skills improve. Some reside in mats of seaweed that provide them shelter and habitat.

However, the study claims that they are strong swimmers from a very early age, i.e. from the age of 6 to 18 months. After vanishing for the duration of their very first years of life, they return to coastlines as grown-ups to grow or to lay eggs.

For the study, Dr. Nathan Putman lead author of the study along with Dr. Kate Mansfield of the University of Central Florida’s Marine Turtle Research Group placed solar powered tags on 24 green turtles and 20 Kemp's ridley turtles.

The turtles were tracked for 2-3 months and were caught in the Gulf of Mexico and before the tags came off naturally. Mansfield also tracked small, passive-drifting surface in order to monitor the current.

The buoy tracks were then compared to the turtle tracks, it became clear that the turtles were swimming independently. The turtles’ position differed from the current track by 125 miles after just a few days.

According to Mansfield, the study results will help to better understanding survival and behavior of early sea turtle. This will further help them to find new and innovative ways to protect these animals.

Mansfield added, “What is exciting is that this is the first study to release drifters with small, wild-caught yearling or neonate sea turtles in order to directly test the ‘passive drifter’ hypothesis in these young turtles”.

According to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, all species of sea turtles are currently endangered or threatened. These species are threatened by over-harvesting by humans for their meat and shells. They are also threatened by pollution, loss of habitat, invasive species and climate change.

The study results were published in the journal Current Biology.