In 2021, Upwell formed a partnership with the COSTA Venture, Aquário do Porto Pim, and Okeanos Middle at the College of the Azores to tag juvenile loggerheads and gather valuable information. This collaboration aims to answer important questions about the behavior and habitat of these young turtles.

The loggerheads tagged in the Azores are estimated to be between six months and two years old. Some of these turtles are rescued and brought to the aquarium for rehabilitation, while others are collected through partnerships with local fishers and whale watch companies. Before being tagged, the turtles are cared for at the Porto Pim aquarium, where they also play a crucial role in education and outreach within the community. By releasing both wild-caught and rehabilitated turtles with satellite tags, the aquarium can assess the success of their rehabilitation practices.

Dr. Frederic Vandeperre, Coordinator of the COSTA Venture, states, “The first thing we learned is that it is possible to take these little turtles, and that’s already a huge step forward in our research because it is just something that was never done before at this scale. Now we know how we can improve and how we can better structure our experimental design and target questions more clearly and more precisely.”

Upwell’s goal is to identify important habitat hotspots for juvenile loggerheads through this collaborative research. The open ocean habitat around the Azores is not considered a highly productive environment for young loggerheads. This research helps us understand more about how they find food, avoid predators, and optimize growth during their long oceanic stage.

To date, Upwell’s longest transmission period recorded by a micro-satellite tag is 192 days. This tag was deployed on a juvenile loggerhead inhabiting cooler waters, which scientists believe may slow growth rates. In the graphic below, you can see how turtles from our most recent release in June 2023 spread out across the islands, with many heading north during the monitoring period.