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In September 2004, a delegation of scientists, sponsors and the press went down to the Azores where they stayed in Horta, the biggest town at Faial Island. The aim of the trip was to catch 10 loggerhead sea turtles and equip the animals with a satellite transmitter at their carapace. The satellite transmitters can tell about their migration behaviour and by this mean the scientist can get important information about the areas that have paramount importance for the sea turtles – their migration routes, foraging areas and their nesting beaches among other things. This kind of knowledge is important to protect the sea turtles as much as possible. In the following, a short narrative/story will be told about how the sea turtles were caught and the way the satellite transmitters were attached to the sea turtles. It is possible to read much more about the loggerhead sea turtles at the Azores on another location of this homepage.

Sea turtle catch

Let’s turn back to the trip. The sea turtles were caught around Faial Island a few nautic miles from land. The scientists spotted the sea turtles by sailing at a leisurely pace while at the same time placing them as high as possible on the boat so they could get the best view of the surrounding sea. Calm sunny days were the best conditions to spot the sea turtles. Here, it was possible to see a much bigger sea surface area and the light penetrated much longer down into the water. "Tartaruga" was shouted with a loud and clear voice when a sea turtle was spotted,. "Tartaruga" means sea turtle on Portuguese. The shouting was followed by a message about on which side of the boat the sea turtle was seen. From the moment the sea turtle was spotted it was necessary to constantly keep the eyes on it until it was caught.

On trip with "Aquas Vivas" off Faial looking after loggerhead sea turtles (Photo: Rune Dietz)

The skipper on the boat slacken the speed and slowly turned the boat toward the sea turtle. At the same time, the other crewmember found a big dip net and placed himself in the stem of the boat. The boat slowly moved towards the sea turtle. It was a very critical phase and even the smallest change in the motor sound could make the sea turtle dive an on most occasion disappear. When it was caught in the dip net, the sea turtle was lifted up gently and placed properly at a shady location.

A sea turtle is caught (Photo: Jesper Møller)

The weather was playing with us at the Azores. It was too windy and too cloudy so we only caught seven sea turtles. Two of them were too small to be equipped with a satellite transmitter on their carapace and another was too injured by the fishing net that it has been entangled in for quite some time. All the sea turtles, however, where weighed and measured and id-tacks were attached to their front flippers. The scientist also collected tissue samples for future use in DNA-analysis. And, of course, four of the loggerhead sea turtles were equipped with satellite transmitters.

Collection of a DNA tissue sample from one of the sea turtles (Photo: Rune Dietz)

Back to freedom

The sea turtles were released from an inflatable boat just south of Faial. The press was turned out in strength and the partners from Shell and the Danish Aquarium were also at the location. All the animals were released safe and intact.

Releasing of the sea turtles after tacking (Photo: Rune Dietz)

A loggerhead sea turtle after the release (Photo: Richard Alwin Martin)

If all the satellite transmitters function optimally and the sea turtles avoid all the dangers that are constantly threatening the population, it will be possible for the scientist to follow the animals for almost 16 months.

Lucky released

A loggerhead sea turtle, Lucky, was also a part of the delegation from Copenhagen. In December 1999, she stranded at the Danish west coast as a very young sea turtle. Lucky has spent most of her life in captivity, but now the time was coming, when she should back to her real sea turtle life at the Azores. Naturally, Lucky was also equipped with a satellite transmitter.

So far, Lucky has been swimming almost direct south and the first weeks she was swimming almost 70 km per day. Three of the other four sea turtles have taken North North-western routes away from their releasing point, while the last one is swimming westward.

Click on the map to see their routes: