Sea Turtle Nesting season is coming to an end (October 31st) and after spending all summer talking about the types of sea turtles, which ones nest on Amelia Island, and other facts related to nesting and hatching, today we want to talk about the sea turtle's life cycle.
The life of a sea turtle starts when a nesting female lays its eggs. About 6-8 weeks later, tiny hatchlings make their way to the surface of the sand and heads toward the water. But what happens then?
As young turtles, very little is known about where they go after they reach the ocean. This period used to be known as "the lost years". However over the past few decades, researchers have pieced together information from ship observations, the pattern of sea currents and other data. Researchers have also studied isotopes from turtle tissue to analyze their diet and past locations. This information seems to indicate that hatchlings head out to sea to avoid predators. Once off the continental shelf, the growing turtle ends up in a current (known as the North Atlantic subtropic), and within a few years, they return to their birthplace. Once the turtle is fully grown, they will return to the place where they were born to mate. Once she lays her eggs on the nesting beach, the cycle starts again.
Want to learn more? Visit www.seeturtles.org/sea-turtle-life-cycle.
-Sabrina Robertson
Public Information Officer