In 2021, the New England Aquarium in the U.S. state of Massachusetts began surgically implanting acoustic tags in rescued loggerhead sea turtles before returning them to the ocean. Four years on, these tags are providing a rare peek into where rehabilitated turtles travel. “Surgically implanted acoustic transmitters have been used for many years in many other species, especially fish. But to our knowledge, we are the first to surgically implant them in turtles,” Dr. Charles Innis, a veterinarian and senior scientist at the New England Aquarium, told Mongabay by email. The Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital has been rescuing injured sea turtles that wash ashore in New England for more than 30 years. Some sea turtles get injured in boats collisions or entanglements with fishing gear, Innis said. Many individuals also suffer from “cold stunning, a hypothermia-like condition that causes turtles to become very weak,” he added, which results in them not being able to swim and washing up on the beach. “Many are already dead when they are found. The ones that are still alive often have pneumonia or other serious infections,” Innis said. Conservationists have been rescuing and releasing sea turtles for decades. Yet “there remain outstanding questions on the outcomes of rehabilitated turtles, including immediate and long-term post-release survivorship and integration into wild populations,” Kara Dodge, research scientist at the New England Aquarium, told Mongabay by email. “To objectively evaluate the contribution of rehabilitation programs, we require post-release monitoring data to answer these questions.” Dodge said loggerhead sea…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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