Off You Go!

Ever wonder what happens to the baby sea turtles after the reach the ocean?

There is a lot we don’t know about what happens to sea turtles once they reach the ocean.

Hatchlings

Scientists think that hatchling sea turtles swim continuously for 24 to 48 hours until they find floating rafts of saragassum. Here they will shelter and feed until they are juveniles.

Sargassum rafts are large collections of sargassum seaweed.
Sargassum rafts can be very large.
Hatchling sea turtle in a sargassum raft.
Many other species live in and around the sargassum.
Many species, like this planehead filefish, are colored to be camouflaged in the sargassum.

Juveniles

When the turtles are big enough, they move to their permanent feeding grounds.

Adults

Once a male sea turtle leaves his hatching beach, he will spend the rest of his life in the water. When they grow up, the females will find good beaches and go up onto land to lay eggs. Some females actually return to the beaches where they were born to lay their eggs.