Loggerhead Sea Turtles make a very difficult journey from Japan to Mexico that has puzzled researchers for quite some time. New data show how they’re able to make this journey. Amazelab’s Johana Restrepo has more.
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00:00 (music)
00:03 Loggerhead sea turtles make a very difficult journey from Japan to Mexico
00:08 that has puzzled researchers for quite some time.
00:11 The epic migration is known as the Lost Years,
00:15 but what's interesting about this is that the waters of the Pacific Ocean
00:18 seem too cold for turtle crossing to researchers.
00:22 Now, researchers at Stanford University in California
00:26 found that there are pathways with warmer water
00:29 that they travel through, which they've named thermal corridors.
00:33 They travel thousands of miles and with climate change making the ocean warmer,
00:37 the species faces new threats.
00:40 The likely cause of the thermal corridor
00:42 could be related to El Nino and other warming conditions.
00:46 While this incredibly long and treacherous journey is fascinating,
00:50 researchers believe it should also be concerning
00:53 because it is driven by global climate change
00:56 and could have catastrophic consequences for many species.
01:00 Locations once considered impassable to some species now aren't,
01:04 which means that there is now a shift in migratory pathways
01:08 for creatures ranging from seabirds to white sharks.
01:12 Loggerhead sea turtles also face being accidentally caught
01:15 in fishing nets in the North American area.
01:18 Researchers did warn that their study only represents
01:21 a portion of what is happening with sea turtles at the moment
01:24 and that they would need to create more satellite tags
01:27 and do more tests in the region to fully test their hypothesis.
01:32 (upbeat music)