Researchers have made significant progress in understanding how sea turtles navigate their way back to nesting sites using magnetic fields, a skill that has puzzled scientists for years.
A study published in the Science journal Nature found that loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings can be conditioned to recognize magnetic fields, allowing them to return to the same feeding sites year after year. The young turtles were taken from North Carolina and kept in aquarium tanks with separate magnetic fields replicating actual magnetic signatures from two ocean locations. They learned to distinguish between the fields and returned to the location where they found food.
Another study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences revealed that young sea turtles are active swimmers during their early lives, rather than passive drifters. Researchers tracked the movements of four species of juvenile sea turtles using satellite signals from tiny GPS tags for 11 years and found that they swam back and forth between shallower waters, approaching the shore but then turning away.
These discoveries shed light on how sea turtles use magnetic fields to survive and return to nest on beaches near where they hatched. The findings have implications for conservation efforts and could potentially offer clues to improve human navigation technology.
Source: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/12/dancing-turtles-help-reveal-a-mystery-of-the-sea/78388443007