Leatherback Sea Turtle Migration Facts

Location/Distance

• Foraging grounds for leatherback turtles goes as far north as Nova Scotia and breeding grounds as far south as Chile.

• They migrate up to 6,000 miles round-trip.
  
  

Mating

• Their breeding grounds are unknown but are thought to be a short distance off of the coast of the nesting beach.

• Mating occurs in March when the leatherback turtles reach the tropical breeding grounds at the beginning of their nesting season.
  
  

Feeding

• They can dive 1,500 meters deep in order to forage for cyanea capitalla and aurelia aurita jellyfish.

• They forage in temperate waters.
  
  

Migration Cues

• Temperature increase is a cue for the leatherback turtles.

• Increase in chlorophyll-a concentrations which accelerates the life cycle of jellyfish is another cue for the turtles.
  
  

Navigational Mechanisms

• They use the magnetic field to create a bicoordinate map of magnetic field intensities and inclinitations in the ocean.