NAGOYA: An aquarium in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, has begun a joint study with foreign research institutions to uncover the mechanism behind the migration of loggerhead sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean, Jiji Press reported on Sunday.
Little is known about the exact route and mechanism of the endangered loggerhead’s migration from the coast of Japan, where the turtles hatch, to the west coast of North America.
In the project, 100 satellite-tagged juvenile loggerheads will be released into the ocean over four years. The first batch of 25 turtles, which were around the age of 2 years, was released into waters to the north of Hawaii last month.
It is the second time that the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium takes part in a loggerhead migration tracking study. Previously, it released some 230 juvenile loggerheads from the coast of Japan and other locations as part of a project conducted from 1997 to 2013.
Most of the turtles travelled to the central North Pacific Ocean on the Kuroshio Current flowing along Japan’s east coast, but only six were confirmed to have reached the west coast of North America, due partly to the limited battery life of transmitters, which lasted for only about a year. (ANI/WAM)