Scientists have debunked a long-held theory that young sea turtles spend their early years "drifting" through the ocean.
According to BBC News, authors of a study published in the journal Current Biology found young sea turtles to be strong and active swimmers. Many in the scientific community had believed for more than a decade that such animals drifted along through the ocean wherever the current took them.
"All species of sea turtles are endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act; knowing their distribution is an essential part of protecting them. With a better understanding of swimming behavior in these yearlings we can make better predictions about where they go and what risks they might encounter," study lead author Nathan Putman, a sea turtle biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Southeast Fisheries Science Center, said in a press release.
For their work, the researchers tagged and tracked 44 wild sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico within the first year of their life. They determined the turtles' movements were not consistent with drifting, as they gathered from observing floating buoys.
"The results of our study have huge implications for better understanding early sea turtle survival and behavior, which may ultimately lead to new and innovative ways to further protect these imperiled animals," study co-author Kate Mansfield, director of the University of Central Florida's Marine Turtle Research Group, said in the release. "What is exciting is that this is the first study to release drifters with small, wild-caught yearling or neonate sea turtles in order to directly test the 'passive drifter' hypothesis in these young turtles. Our data show that one hypothesis doesn't, and shouldn't, fit all, and that even a small degree of swimming or active orientation can make a huge difference in the dispersal of these young animals."
