It's not about the speed

Last update: January 26, 2008 - 8:25 PM

A leatherback turtle is now recognized as one of the longest of the long-distance swimmers of the ocean world. The female turtle, known by her ID number -- 27957 -- swam at least 12,774 miles from the nesting beaches of Jamursba-Medi in Indonesia to the Oregon coast in 2003, and back out into the Pacific, according to researchers' recent report of the incredible journey. That's more than four times the distance across the continental United States. It's a record for sea turtles, scientists said. The turtle probably swam all the way back to Indonesia, but its tracking device failed before it got there.

Among mammals, humpback whales migrate the farthest, swimming more than 5,100 miles between Central America and Antarctica. The epic migrations highlight the long-distance ecological connections that stretch across oceans and countries, researchers said.

What's so special about the Oregon coast that a turtle would swim halfway around the Earth to get there? Jellyfish. Leatherbacks, though solitary travelers, gather along the West Coast to gorge themselves on jellyfish from about May to November, said Scott Benson, a marine ecologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. Only in recent years have scientists used satellite tracking to learn where the turtles come from.

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