Scientists have been using tracking sensors to follow the long treks of individual leatherbacks, then overlaying their routes with sea state data, including near-real time maps of ocean currents gathered by satellites including ESA's ERS-2 and now Envisat. They are working to uncover connections between the apparently meandering routes followed by turtles and the local ocean conditions, and so develop strategies to minimise the unintended but deadly threat posed to leatherbacks by deep-sea fishing.

These giant reptiles - known to reach 2.1 metres in length and weigh in at 365 kg - briefly come ashore to lay their eggs on beaches across French Guiana and neighbouring Suriname, the turtles' last remaining major nesting sites in the Atlantic Ocean. Around nine weeks later the hatchlings emerge en masse and head into the sea, one day to return when they reach maturity and lay eggs themselves.

However each turtle's return is by no means certain. While in open water the turtles have been known to dive as deep as 1,230 metres in search of food, most of the time they do not venture deeper than 250 metres down, leaving them vulnerable to the hooks of long
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Contact: Mariangela D'Acunto
mariangela.d'acunto@esa.int
39 06 941 80 856
European Space Agency
4-Aug-2004