Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Transpacific Journey Story

David M. Barron / Photographer

Tel. (USA) 508.481.3862

A bizarre twist occurred the day before our trip to Yakushima. Nichols received word by e-mail from Baja that a fisherman came forward with a flipper tag from a Loggerhead released in Japan! The result was that a newly hatched loggerhead from Yakushima was brought to Okinawa for approx. 6 months then tagged with a Japanese flipper tag ( by Dr. Teruya & and Dr. Uchida ) and released in 1988. The flipper tag was discovered by a Baja fisherman and kept on his key chain for 6 years before notifying Nichols associates. Nichols had gained the respect & confidence of the Baja fisherman enough to be handed this incredible discovery. The loggerhead was approx. 6 inches long when released according to the Okinawa Aquarium which released the turtle, and was caught 5 years later of the Baja coast in 1994. Ironically, the fisherman knew that Japanese loggerheads were making their way to Baja long before any researches.

After Yakushima, we headed north to Sendai looking for the place where Adelita, the first satellite tracked loggerhead turtle from Baja to Japan, came to shore. It was long believed by J. Nichols that Adelita was picked up by a fishing boat ( most likely a squid boat ) roughly 200 miles of the Japanese coast & brought to port near Sendia. Using a GPS & by the aide of local authorities, we journeyed along the coast until we found the exact position of landfall. After one large fishing port, and one smaller more likely location, we ended up at a third fishing port at Isohama, where we found exactly what J. Nichols had suspected. Roughly 10 Squid boats rested on this rainy day at port. This is were Adelita was brought.

The reason for the Japan trip was a result of research by J. Nichols and his colleagues Antonio Resendiz and Jeff Seminoff. They had proven that the newly hatched loggerhead turtles of Japan make their way across the pacific to Baja where they feed until maturity and then return to Japan in a ~ 10 month journey to nest. The journey back to Japan has been documented using satellite tags attached to loggerhead turtles, which has resulted in real time tracking of the loggerhead transpacific journey. The first of these turtles was 'Rosita and Adelita'.

School age children tracked the loggerheads journey using their computers in the classrooms. The course was plotted from the information sent to the satellites from the satellite tags on the turtles back as it made its journey.

Below is map of the plotted points from Baja to Japan of one of the tracked turtles, as well as photographs from the Baja research site.

Transpacific Journey

Go To Other Sea Turtle Photographic Page

Go To Other Sea Turtle Photographic Page

Adelita's Track

Other Maps of the Journey From Baja To Japan