New Perspectives on the Pelagic Stage of Sea Turtle Development

Abstract

Abstract: An original difficulty in accepting the idea of a pelagic diwelopmental period for sea turtles was to explain bow food could be found in reliable supply in the open ocean The uncertainty that this introduced was removed when I belatedly came to appreciate the prevalence and diversity of convergences where downwelling gathers and aligns buoyant material, including the dispersed food mources of the surface waters. Thus, it now seems clear that an essential factor in the survival of young sea turtles–and of other elements of the epipelagic; open‐ocean fauna as well–is the accessibility of a front; where inanimate debris and any floating animal or plant will be gathered to.This new evidence of complexity in the lost‐year ecology of sea turtles has important implications for their conservation and management. It is now obvious that when young cultured sea turtles are released in so‐called bead‐starting projects, the release sites ought to be chosen with the greatest care. Shores located at a distance from any major current or its eddy ought to be avoided. It is also necessary to avoid release localities where the convergence habitat may carry heavy loads of pollutants.Results of the present work reveal an urgent need for further study of sea turtle life cycles, with special attention to their developmental ecology The growing evidence for a more protracted pelagic stage, during which the juvenile turtles are passive migrants in fronts that are increasingly invaded by debris and toxic wastes, emphasizes the need for a better understanding by marine biologists of the organization of the driftline habitat and the behavioral ecology of its occupants Until these studies of the oceanography and biology of driftlines are done, we are bound to remain peculiarly ignorant of the ecologic organization of three‐fifths of the surface of the earth.