Leatherback Sea Turtle's Migratory Routes Identified

Leather-back  sea turtle's migratory routes were identified according to the research published in the first week of January 2011. The migratory routes included 7563 km journey from Gabon in Central Africa to South America across the South Atlantic Ocean and to food rich habitats in the southwest and southeast Atlantic and off the coast of Central Africa. Gabon, recently, has been identified as the world’s largest breeding colony of leather-back turtles.

The research, done at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter, is to find out more about leather-back turtle and step up the conservation efforts of these rare creatures. The number of leather back turtles has shown steady decline in recent years.

Leatherback turtle is the largest sea turtle. Unlike other sea turtles, the leatherback turtle does not have a hard shell. Leatherback turtle is the most widely distributed of all sea turtles. These are found in Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Indian Ocean, mainly in tropical regions.