Scientists have filled a long-standing gap in knowledge about the early life stages of young sea turtles by tracking them with satellite tags. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, involved attaching GPS tags to the shells of young wild turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. The research challenges the idea that young turtles passively drift with ocean currents, showing that they are actually actively swimming and making their own decisions about where to go. The study found more variability in their locations than expected, with turtles moving between continental shelf waters and open ocean. The development of flexible solar-powered tags was crucial to collecting the data, allowing scientists to better understand how young turtles use the critical region of the Gulf of Mexico. The findings provide valuable insights for the conservation of endangered sea turtles and highlight the importance of tracking their movements to protect these vulnerable species.
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