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Orientation, navigation, and natal beach homing in sea turtles

Abstract:

The lives of sea turtles consist of a continuous series of migrations. As hatchlings, the turtles swim from their natal beaches into the open sea, 1 – 3 often taking refuge in circular current systems (gyres) that serve as moving, open-ocean nursery grounds. 4 The juveniles and subadults of many populations reside in coastal feeding areas that are located hundreds or thousands of kilometers from the beaches on which the turtles hatched. 5 – 7 Adult females, however, periodically leave their feeding sites and migrate to their natal beaches to nest; after nesting, many return to their own specific feeding areas. 8 The itinerant lifestyle that characterizes sea turtles is thus inextricably linked to an ability to orient and navigate accurately across large expanses of seemingly featureless ocean.