All sea turtle species are threatened worldwide. They migrate long distances in the oceans – often thousands of kilometres – and so fall under multiple countries’ laws and conservation targets. They also have a complex life cycle with changes in habitats and diet at different life stages. These things make it difficult to protect them from threats like illegal harvesting, fisheries bycatch, coastal development, diseases and pollution.
Although they predictably return to the same nesting grounds on beaches where they were born, and the movements of adults have been well studied (mostly using satellite tracking), very little is known about their early life. Once newly hatched turtles enter the sea and disperse, they are gone for several years, also known as the “lost years”.
It’s hard to track hatchlings because they are small (just a few centimetres long), many die, and the survivors grow fast (so tracking devices don’t stay on). But knowing more about where they go during these “lost years” would help conservation scientists to improve their chances of survival and thus ensure recruitment and population viability.
