07/10/2024
How satellites are mapping the future of turtle conservation
Marine turtles spend almost their entire lives at sea – but little is known about the paths they take. Now, satellites are helping scientists map their movements during the "lost years".
In early June 2024, Donna Shello, an adult female leatherback turtle, was hanging out on a sandy beach along the Caribbean coast of Panama. After laying about 80 eggs, and with a satellite transmitter attached to her back, she was ready to start competing in the Tour de Turtles, an intense oceanic "marathon" organised by the Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC), a US non-profit. This year, she is up against seven other leatherback females, and the winner will be the one who swims the longest distance.
"[Donna Shello] is at least 20 years old, but may be as old as 80 to 90," says Daniel Evans, a research biologist working at the STC. "There is currently no way to age a live sea turtle."
Although the "competition" only lasts three months, a full migration from nesting season to the next nesting season could take two years. From what they know so far, she has been laying between 70 and 90 eggs each time she nests, and could be nesting between four and seven times in a nesting season. "Based on three nesting seasons, she could have laid between 840 and 1,890 eggs since we first encountered her nesting in 2020," says Evans.
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