[Advanced] The Mystery of the Baby Sea Turtles (1) 2014/08/27

Scientists track the journey of young sea turtles in the deep ocean

University of Central Florida and coastal Floridians have been nursing baby sea turtles into the Atlantic Ocean for a long time and wondering: Where do they go and what do they do in the deep blue?

Unraveling the mystery 
Now a UCF biology professor has some answers, thanks to a tracking instrument about the size of a fig that cost $4,000 and was glued to the shells of 17 young sea turtles released in small groups from 2009 to 2011.

What Kate Mansfield and a team of other researchers have discovered is that little loggerheads may ease into a remote part of the ocean, the Sargasso Sea, where they can spend many years lounging, eating and growing up among floating piles of sargassum seaweed.

A sanctuary for  turtles
"Sargassum provides them with refuge. The turtles are brown, and they blend really well with that habitat, and there are a number of little organisms (crabs and fish) that turtles might eat," Mansfield said].

There's more than curiosity behind the effort to find out what loggerheads are doing early in a traveling life that can last more than a half-century and will include repeated visits to their birthplaces to lay their own eggs, but not until they have been away for more than 20 years.

Some of the most important beaches in the world for loggerhead nesting are along Florida, a state that has worked for decades to document and protect nests and to minimize perils for hatchlings.

"The more we understand about what they do offshore, the more we can understand how important it is to limit impacts to them during that short time we have them under our care on the beach," Trindell said.

Vocabulary Focus
loggerhead n.
a type of turtle

lounge v.
to stand or sit in a relaxed way

Sargasso Sea n.
a part of the northern Atlantic Ocean between the West Indies and the Azores; noted for the amount of seaweed floating on its surface

habitat n.
the natural surroundings in which an animal or plant usually lives

organism n.
a single living plant, animal or other living thing

peril n.
danger, or something that is dangerous.

hatchling n.
an animal that has just hatched from an egg


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