East Pacific Sea Turtle Tracking Project (1996-1997)

During this time the turtle migrated across the Pacific Ocean, covering more than 11,500 km between Santa Rosaliita, Baja California, Mexico (28 40N, 114 14W), and Sendai Bay, Japan (37 54N, 140 56E). The average speed during migration was 1.3 km/h and the maximum recorded speed was 1.84 km/h.

These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that loggerheads feeding in the eastern Pacific eventually return to nest on western Pacific beaches. Baja California loggerhead turtles have been shown, through molecular genetic analysis (Bowen et al. 1995) and flipper tag returns (Uchida and Teruya 1988, Resendiz et al. 1998), to be primarily of Japanese origin. We conclude that loggerhead turtles are capable of transpacific migrations and propose that the band of water between 25 and 30 degrees North latitude, the Subtropical Frontal Zone, may be an important transpacific migratory corridor.