It turns out baby green sea turtles don't just drift aimlessly on an Atlantic Ocean current — they're bound for the warm algae oasis of th

Scientists have solved the mystery of where baby sea turtles go after they hatch

submited by

Style Pass

2021-05-23 01:30:05

It turns out baby green sea turtles don't just drift aimlessly on an Atlantic Ocean current — they're bound for the warm algae oasis of the Sargasso Sea.

After green sea turtles hatch from the eggs buried in the warm sands of Atlantic U.S. beaches, they head into the ocean waters, where their whereabouts have remained unknown to scientists until the turtles reach adulthood.

The majority of sea turtle species have these so-called "lost years," according to Kate Mansfield, an associate professor of biology at the University of Central Florida. Mansfield is the lead author of a new study that sheds light on the green sea turtles' lost years.

"If we're working with these endangered and threatened animals, we need to know this information, so we can better plan for conservation efforts and policies to help protect them."

For the study, published in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B earlier this month, Mansfield and her team used satellites to track the baby turtles' movement from nesting beaches in the eastern coastal U.S. into the ocean.