Young loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) can swim against tides to get to their preferred destination, new research shows.
Katherine Mansfield (University of Central Florida in Orlando) and her colleagues monitored the movements of 19 young loggerheads via satellite-tracking tags. They released the turtles into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil.
In a few months the tiny animals swam some 4,350 kilometres. They mostly followed seasonal currents but would also swim against the ocean currents.
Mansfield, Katherine L et al. 2017. First satellite tracks of South Atlantic sea turtle ‘lost years’: seasonal variation in trans-equatorial movement.Proceedings of the Royal Society B 284 (1868) (6 December).