'Lost' sea turtles don't just go with the flow (BBC)

By Jonathan Webb
Science reporter, BBC News

A tracking study has shown that young sea turtles make a concerted effort to swim in particular directions, instead of drifting with ocean currents.

Baby turtles disappear at sea for up to a decade and it was once assumed that they spent these "lost years" drifting.

US researchers used satellite tags to track 44 wild, yearling turtles in the Gulf of Mexico and compared their movement with that of floating buoys.

They reported their findings in the journal Current Biology.

"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," said the paper's senior author Dr Kate Mansfield, who runs the turtle research group at the University of Central Florida.
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more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32237231