Sea turtles are considered one of the oldest living species on Earth, but it's been a mystery where their babies go after heading out to sea — a period known as their “lost years.”

@katemansfield.bsky.social and her team of marine scientists at UCF are working to change that.

John Yang reports.

A small, salad bowl-sized juvenile green sea turtle before release. Turtle has the number 11 painted on its shell. On day 3 of our sampling, we will drive around our study area and visually re-sight (or ‘recapture’) the turtles we caught over two days as part of a mark-recapture study.

Juvenile green sea turtle resting in grass with sea turtle research boat on a trailer in the background.

Two small juvenile green turtles in bins. One turtle has the number 11 painted on its shell, the other turtles has the number 12 on its shell. On day 3 of our sampling, we will drive around our study area and visually re-sight (or ‘recapture’) the turtles we caught over two days as part of a mark-recapture study.

Group photo of the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group including smiling undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff.

It’s time again for our semi-annual turtle “round-up” at Port Canaveral. Fun day of controlled chaos. We caught 34 turtles. 🐢 we will be back at it again tomorrow.

Permits: MTP-231/NMFS 26268.

Migrations through the eyes of a sea turtle | Current Conservation Current Conservation Migrations through the eyes of a sea turtle

🐢❤️
www.currentconservation.org/migrations-t...

New insights on sea turtle behaviour during the ‘lost years’ | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Several marine turtle species spend their first years of life in oceanic habitats. This early life stage is referred to as the ‘lost years’ due to the difficulty of accessing individuals for study off...

🚨 We have an exciting new paper including the largest tracking dataset for WILD-caught dispersal stage sea turtles. This was part of @katrinaphillips.bsky.social‘s dissertation work funded in part by the Florida Restore Act Centers of Excellence Program.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

TBH dead marine mammal is worse than sea turtle to me. Though a soupy leatherback is up there.

Congratulations to #UCF PhD student Callie Veelenturf for being recognized as one of the 2024 Future for Nature awardees!

futurefornature.org/future-for-n...

New paper 🚨:

By lab alum Dr. Chris Long! Part of his PhD looking at the impacts of harmful algal blooms on sea turtles in Florida.

www.int-res.com/abstracts/me...

One of my PhD students, Callie Veelenturf was on #CBSNews, interviewed about her rights of nature work ❤️:

youtu.be/F8K4raQ5pY8?...

UCF Marine Turtle Research Group: Endangered Species Act 50th Anniversary UCF Marine Turtle Research Group was recently highlighted for the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with a visit from U.S. Fish and Wildli...

m.youtube.com/watch

*Cowabunga*

The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge is experiencing an extraordinary sea turtle nesting season so far. We have recorded >12,100 loggerhead and >11,300 green turtle nests so far this year.

12 THOUSAND and 11 THOUSAND. 🤯

(The beach is only 13 miles/20km)

📸: A.Crowder

One of our lab members, Dean Bagley, has been satellite tagging male green turtles for about 10 years. The second male of the season was tagged last Friday with the help of Inwater Research Group.

Look at that TAIL!

This satellite-tracking research was conducted under FWC permit MTP-051A.

A green sea turtle crawls back to the ocean after nesting. The moon reflects on the water and the turtle’s tracks in the sand are shown behind her.

A green sea turtle crawls back to the ocean after nesting. The moon reflects on the water and the turtle’s tracks in the sand are shown behind her.

A green sea turtle crawls back to the ocean after nesting. The moon reflects on the water and the turtle’s tracks in the sand are shown behind her.

Another gorgeous night on the Archie Carr NWR. We hosted USFWS, NOAA & FWC personnel in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act.

This never gets old. 🐢

📸: a green sea turtle returns to the water after nesting. Long exposure photo taken without lights.

Green sea turtle covered her nest at the base of an eroded dune that is covered in vegetation. Turtle shell is covered in sand that she flung back over herself while camouflaging (covering) her nest.

Loggerhead sea turtle track leads from the ocean up the beach to where she tried to nest next to wooden stairs. Turtle was attempting to dig her nest next to the stairs.

Full moon on the Archie Carr Refuge. The turtles did not disappoint.

Green turtle covers nest at base of dune. Loggerhead turtle attempts to nest alongside done crossover stairs (she returned to water without nesting). 📸/🐢Permits: MTP 186/171; pics taken with long exposure, no lights were used.