Green turtles are back on the Space Coast

Posted on July 21, 2025

A field team led by co-Principle Investigator Dr. Kate Mansfield of the Marine Turtle Research Group at the University of Central Florida kicked off the second year of tagging for our “Kemp’s Ridley and Green Sea Turtle Tagging for Availability Bias Analysis” project. Dr. Manfield’s team comprised of graduate researchers and undergraduate interns successfully deployed seven satellite tags on adult nesting green turtles on the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Melbourne Beach, Florida during the 3rd week of June.

Supported by co-PI Andrew DiMatteo of CheloniData and collaborating staff and project partners from the Jekyll Island Authority in Georgia, these turtles will continue our exploration of green turtle 3D space use, logging how they dive both during the interesting period and on their post-nesting migrations afterwards. One of the many reasons tagging sea turtles at the Carr Refuge is special is this beach is part of Florida’s famous ‘Space Coast’, where rocket launches regularly occur. Sea turtles have been around for over 110 million years; using these ancient creatures as platforms to explore our ocean and their ecology as rockets lift off to explore space is truly an incredible combination!

A nesting green sea turtle has been tagged with a Wildlife Computers SPLASH10 Argos satellite tag and awaits release as a rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center. (Photo credit: Bailey Yarbrough; MTP-25-171/-186).

This week of tagging also served as an important training and collaboration opportunity. Staff from the Jekyll Island Authority in Georgia, one of our project tagging partners, participated in tagging, sharing valuable knowledge between organizations, and ensuring methodological consistency among tagging partners. Look forward to more tags being deployed by our partner organization and by the University of Central Florida team as the summer progresses. Based on past nesting records we anticipate a strong nesting year for green turtles in Florida, making this species and age class a high priority for tagging in year two.