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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.
The 44th International Sea Turtle Symposium was hosted in Kona, Hawaii from February 28-March 6, 2026, with more than 700 participants from around the world. The Symposium is a unique opportunity for the sea turtle conservation community to come together and engage with complex and sometimes contested questions, and critically examine how sea turtle conservation is evolving in a rapidly changing world. As in past years, Upwell Researchers were excited to participate.
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.