Sea Turtle Monitoring, Leatherbacks
Kayla Sargent
First Leatherback Tagged in the California ...

In September 2025, the collaborative Upwell and NOAA leatherback monitoring team tagged our first leatherback in the California Current since 2022! The adult male leatherback weighing 438 kg (almost 1,000 pounds) was fitted with satellite and acoustic tags to collect critical data on movements and habitat use. Read more about what Ricky has been up to since he was tagged in September.

First Leatherback Tagged in the California Current Since 2022
Kayla Sargent
Where do you spend your lost years, little ...

In late October, a collaborative team of researchers from Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation and Upwell took a boat into the swift Agulhas Current, the southwest boundary current of the Indian Ocean that runs down the east coast of South Africa. There, they released 12 tiny loggerhead turtles with satellite tags attached to their carapace (top shells) in an effort to understand how these turtles are using this oceanic highway. See where these turtles have traveled over their first weeks in the ocean!

Where do you spend your lost years, little turtle?
Kayla Sargent
Diving Into Underwater Photography with Nuno ...

Nuno Vasco Rodrigues is a Marine Biologist and researcher at MARE IPLeiria. He was named “Conservation Photographer of the Year” by Ocean Geographic Society in 2021. For the past three years, Nuno has photographed Upwell’s work tagging juvenile loggerhead turtles in the Azores Archipelago in partnership with the COSTA Project and the University of the Azores, which is part of Upwell’s Lost Years Initiative. Nuno took some time to chat with us about the highlights and challenges of documenting sea turtle releases underwater. 

Diving Into Underwater Photography with Nuno Vasco Rodrigues
Kayla Sargent
Researcher Interview: Analyzing Data from ...

With a team of collaborators, we tested new specially-designed prototypes of Lotek microsatellite tags on 160 juvenile sea turtles of four species in the North Atlantic. The data from these tags was published in a new article, "Novel Microsatellite Tags Hold Promise for Illuminating the Lost Years in Four Sea Turtle Species." We sat down with lead-author Tony Candela to talk about this article, his process as lead-author, and the important implications of these findings for the bio-logging community.

Researcher Interview: Analyzing Data from Microsatellite Tags on Juvenile Sea Turtles
Bycatch, Sea Turtle Tracking
Kayla Sargent
Leatherback Saved by Fisher-Researcher ...

When fishermen and researchers collaborate, they create opportunities to amplify efforts for the research and conservation of sea turtles. This past spring, Upwell participated in these efforts by providing a satellite tag for Liam Neythan, a leatherback sea turtle that was saved in Sinaloa, Mexico. Our collaborators, the fishers Edmundo Rafael Garcías Burgos and Mariano García Olivas, as well as Dr. Alan Zavala Norzagaray and the CIIDIR IPN Unidad Sinaloa are the key collaborators and heroes in this story.

Leatherback Saved by Fisher-Researcher Collaboration in Sinaloa

Leatherbacks

How much food does a leatherback need to thrive?

How much food does a leatherback need to thrive?

At Upwell, we’re always seeking new ways to mobilize data to power sea turtle conservation—but sometimes data is scarce or doesn’t exist. Predictive models can help us fill in data gaps by using algorithms to explore what we can’t observe directly in the wild through monitoring or tagging. “I’m a big proponent of using models to answer questions that are hard to tackle in the field.” Says Upwell Researcher Anna Ortega. Anna recently created a model that can be used to simulate how changes in ocean temperature and food availability affect a leatherback’s ability to grow and reach reproductive size.

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First Leatherback Tagged in the California Current Since 2022

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First Leatherback Tagged in the California Current Since 2022

In September 2025, the collaborative Upwell and NOAA leatherback monitoring team tagged our first leatherback in the California Current since 2022! The adult male leatherback weighing 438 kg (almost 1,000 pounds) was fitted with satellite and acoustic tags to collect critical data on movements and habitat use. Read more about what Ricky has been up to since he was tagged in September.

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Algorithm Magic: Predicting Leatherback Presence in the California Current

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Algorithm Magic: Predicting Leatherback Presence in the California Current

Nerea Lezama-Ochoa is a marine biologist working as a UCSC project scientist at the NOAA Environmental Science Division in Monterey. Her team is producing daily projections of suitable habitat for 10 highly migratory species (including leatherback sea turtles). Read Nerea’s blog about how these projections are created with accuracy and why they are helpful to conservation efforts.

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Aerial Surveys Result in One-of-a-Kind Finds

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Aerial Surveys Result in One-of-a-Kind Finds

Upwell Research Project Technician Sierra Fullmer shares some of her most exciting sightings while conducting aerial surveys to look for leatherbacks off of the US West Coast.

Why the High Seas Treaty Is Important to Sea Turtles

Why the High Seas Treaty Is Important to Sea Turtles

Most sea turtle species migrate and spend large amounts of their life history in areas of the ocean considered “high seas.” The high seas are the parts of the ocean that are not under the jurisdiction of any nation. In June of 2023, after almost two decades of negotiations, UN Member states adopted the Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty (also known as the High Seas Treaty) to provide a coherent and holistic framework for protecting the high seas. Earlier this month, Upwell Executive Director Dr. George Shillinger attended the High Seas Treaty symposium to learn more about how its implementation may impact sea turtle populations and to seek opportunities to further the protection of turtles at sea.

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Press Release: Novel Research Takes Marine Conservation Tools to a New Dimension

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Press Release: Novel Research Takes Marine Conservation Tools to a New Dimension

The new publication "Incorporating multidimensional behavior into a risk management tool for a critically endangered and migratory species," takes a look at how data on leatherback diving behavior can be used to improve the South Pacific TurtleWatch tool aimed at reducing bycatch.

Using Machine Learning to Understand Turtles’ Lives at Sea

Using Machine Learning to Understand Turtles’ Lives at Sea

What does a researcher studying animal behavior do when the animal they are studying takes off into the middle of the Pacific ocean? In this post, Upwell Researcher Dr. Nicole Barbour breaks down how machine learning can be used to help researchers interpret data from tagged leatherbacks to understand their behavior at sea. Featured image by Juergen Freund.

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Notes From The Field: Monitoring Florida’s Leatherbacks

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Notes From The Field: Monitoring Florida’s Leatherbacks

At the beginning of June, Upwell Executive Director George Shillinger traveled to Juno and Jupiter beaches in Florida to catch the end of the leatherback nesting season monitoring conducted at Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) and participate in ongoing collaborative research projects. Read more about those projects and meet some of the leatherbacks that were monitored this season!

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More Nausea and Curiosity: A research assistant monitoring West Pacific leatherbacks in the California Current

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More Nausea and Curiosity: A research assistant monitoring West Pacific leatherbacks in the California Current

Emeline McMann-Chapman is an Upwell Research Assistant. She assists with collection and analysis of stranding data on cold-stunned sea turtles on the Pacific coast. She recently had the opportunity to assist Upwell and NOAA’s leatherback tagging team in Monterey Bay.

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Meeting your Heroes in a Virtual World

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Meeting your Heroes in a Virtual World

Princeton student Max Gotts recently attended the virtual 40th Annual International Sea Turtle Symposium (ISTS) for the first time to present his research on nearshore mortality’s role in leatherback hatchling evolution. In 2018, Max worked with Upwell Researcher Nicki Barbour in Costa Rica tracking leatherback hatchlings. Find out more about his research and experience at ISTS.