Turtle 204 continues to transmit locations very reliably. It has been transmitting for 208 days now and has traveled roughly 8000 km. Given that 208 days represents 4992 hours, 204 has been traveling/swimming at a rate of approximately 1.6 km/hour. Below is a short animation of the water currents and 204's track indicating where 204 is as of March 27, 2024.
2/29/2024
Turtle 203 stopped transmitting on 2/3/24 but 204 continues to transmit. Below is the current location of 204. It appears that 204 is riding around in a small current eddy that has branched off of the main Kuroshio current. These eddys tend to concentrate food items and are know to be areas preferred by loggerheads.
Above is an animation of the travels of #204 in the Eddy shown above from 1/13/24 to 2/29/24.
2/2/2024
Here is an animation of 203's and 204's trajectories after their release in September until February 2, 2024.
12/11/2023
While 204 remains if the "Kii Channel", 203 has moved further offshore out into the Kuroshio current and is currently in waters that are 20+ degrees C. Below is an animation of the tracks of the two loggerheads and tracks of each slowed down a bit.
Loggerheads 203 and 204 current locations and approximate sea surface temperature (SST) are shown above.
Loggerhead turtles 203 (Red) and 204 (blue) trajectories and locations as of 12/6/2023.
Earlier, Tomomi Saito (STRETCH team member) indicated that he thought Turtle 203 would have to move out of the Suo-Nada area of the Seto Inland Sea and it has done just that. The water temperature in Suo-Nada is somewhere between 12 and 13 degrees centrigrade. Turtle 203 has moved out of that area and is now moving into waters that are warmer (around 15 degrees C). Perhaps she will continue to move in a southerly direction into warmer waters.
Turtle 203 has moved out of Suo-Nada and is moving along the coast into warmer waters.
11/20/2023
Tomomi Saito, Professor at Kochi University and STRETCH team member, has intitiated a satellite tagging study of two adult loggerhead turtles (203 & 204) retrieved as bycatch from the Muroto Point net fishery in Japan. The two turtles were transported from Muroto Point to Kochi University where Dr. Saito and his students attached the two Wildlife Computers satellite tags that were graciously donated to the project by the STRETCH Project. The two adult loggerheads were released off of Kochi, Japan on Sept. 1, 2023. Below is a video of their track from 9/1/2023 to 11/13/2023.
Dr. Saido wrote recently: "Both are not in the open ocean where the Kuroshio Current flows, but are located on either side of the inner bay area called the Seto Inland Sea area.
The water temperature in the Seto Inland Sea area will eventually drop. In January, the temperature can drop to 10℃ in Suo-nada (where 203 is) and 15℃ in Kii Channel (where 204 is). I think it will be too cold for them."
The implication is that they will probably move out of their current foraging grounds as the temperature drops.
11/17/2023 Below is a detection and trajectory map of the two loggerheads satellite tagged and released by Dr. Tomomi Saito of Kochi University on Sept. 1, 2023.
The map below gives the daily updated map of turtles 203 and 204.
AUGUST 8, 2024 POST NESTING LOGGERHEAD SATELLITE TAGGED KOCHI BEACH, JAPAN The post-nesting loggerhead is now meandering around an area that appears to be very favorable for her. Loggerhead turtle 571 has begun to remain in the same vacinity which indicates that she has found an area that provides a bountiful foraging area. 571 has moved a little off shore and may be moving out into the Kuroshio current. Stay turned to see where she goes! Above is an image of loggerhead #571 nesting on Kochi Beach taken by Noah Yamaguchi with a drone mounted IR camera at 0200 hours on August 6,2024. A team from Usa Marine Biological Institute was able to capture her after she finished laying eggs. 571's eggs (110 in number) were retrieved and placed in the protected hatchery on Kochi Beach. If these eggs hatch successfully, they will constitute the fourth cohort of STRETCH turtles scheduled for release in 2026! Post nesting loggerhead turtle #571's locations an...
visit the Usa web site 3/24/2025 Update of tracks for 581 and 583 after 78 days at sea. 581 has become entrained in the strong north-northwest flowing Kuroshio current running and ~3 kts/h. Turtle 583 is just about to enter the Kuroshio current also... we will see if 583 begins to move northwest also. 3/6/2025 Loggerhead turtles 381 and 583 continue to transmit after 60 days. They have moved into the same general area ( see map ). Below are two graphs showing the SST that the turtles have experienced during their travels. I have created an overlay of Chlorophyll a concentrations on the tracks of 581 and 583 and note that they are in relatively productive waters at this time. SST for turtle number 581. SST for turtle 583 2/13/2025 Turtles 581 and 583 continue to transmit after 39 days at sea. 581 has followed the meandering Kuroshio current to the north while 583 has broken out of the Kuroshio current and headed to the south. Both remain in waters that are 1...
Noah and Catherine are the STRETCH representatives taking care of the 28 juvenile loggerhead turtles in cohort II of the STRETCH experiment. They will be providing daily updates on the status of the turtles as they make their way across the Pacific to the area where they will be released into the central northeast Pacific Ocean. The location of release will be as close as possible to where cohort I was released (~39 N and 146 W) , Noah and Catherine in their STRETCH T shirts during "loading day" when they loaded the 28 satellite tagged juvenile loggerheads on-board the Firmament Ace at the Port of Nagoya. Graphic of ships location and sea surface temperature. The latest update will be at the top of this post 7/8/2024 Twenty Eight Loggerheads were safely released from the Firmament Ace between 1410 and 1445 h (UTC-11) at 39°33.4669' N 148°29.7291' W. The sea surface temperature was 18℃. See Pictures below of Catherine, Noah and the turtles. As of now...
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