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Since 2019, Upwell Turtles and the NOAA NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center’s Marine Turtle Ecology & Assessment Program have collaborated to conduct in-water monitoring efforts for West Pacific leatherbacks occupying foraging habitats off the US West Coast. Learn more about the advances of this ongoing collaboration and how it has expanded through the formation of international partnerships and innovative uses of predictive modeling aimed at improving the management and conservation of leatherback turtles.
In January, a collaborative team of researchers from the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation and Upwell motored out into the swift Agulhas Current — the southwest boundary current of the Indian Ocean that runs along the east coast of South Africa — and released 12 tiny loggerhead turtles, each fitted with a satellite tag on their carapace. This was the fourth release the team has conducted together, including one previous release in the Agulhas Current and two off the Cape of South Africa.
Until recently, researchers were unable to conduct satellite tracking studies on juvenile turtles due to their small body sizes and immediate dispersal into the ocean, leaving this period of their lives enigmatic and often referred to as the “lost years.” A new study, “Pioneering insights into the diving behavior of early-stage sea turtles revealed by novel marine miniaturized satellite tags,” published in Scientific Reports in April 2026, provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of vertical diving behavior in early life stages of leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles.