Each year, a mature male loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) undertakes a precise journey between Belize and Honduras, timed not by the calendar but by the courtship season. Thanks to satellite tracking, we now have a complete annual cycle of his movements, revealing how one turtle’s consistent route offers insights into marine connectivity, habitat use, and the quiet urgency of transboundary conservation.
Most satellite tracking of sea turtles focuses on nesting females, for obvious reasons – they’re easier to find on land. Males, by contrast, are rarely observed and harder to study, but no less essential to the population. This male’s track provides rare insight into how long males remain at breeding sites, where they feed the rest of the year, and how consistent their migrations are. This also helps refine models of population dynamics, reproductive effort, and habitat use, and allows for a better understanding of the full life cycle of sea turtles.
The 2024–2025 Migration Cycle
In May 2024, during the loggerhead mating season, our team tagged this male sea turtle off Northern Two Caye, part of Lighthouse Reef Atoll, Belize. Like most adult males, he lingered just offshore, waiting for females to arrive. Loggerheads don’t nest in groups or stick around long – they get the job done, then move on. By early June, having completed his reproductive duties, he began his journey south.
Within a week, and after traveling over 200 kilometers, he arrived near the Cuero y Salado Marine Reserve on the north coast of Honduras, likely his main foraging grounds. There, he stayed until early February 2025, when our science team realized he began heading back north.
He reappeared near Northern Two Caye in February, just in time for the next mating season. Three months later, he departed again, arriving in Honduran waters by June. The route was almost identical to the previous year – efficient, direct, and highly faithful to the same two sites.
Why This Routine Matters?
This loggerhead’s movements highlight a significant aspect: strong site fidelity to both breeding and foraging areas. He’s not exploring the region – he’s operating on a schedule shaped by evolutionary precision.
This turtle doesn’t stay within one country’s waters; its route crosses international boundaries, underscoring the need for transboundary conservation strategies. Marine protected areas, enforcement, and monitoring must operate beyond national jurisdictions if they’re to reflect the actual behavior of the species that rely on them.
Conservation Without Borders
At MarAlliance, our work with satellite tracking is helping uncover these kinds of movement patterns, essential for improving the management of migratory marine species. This loggerhead’s journey may not make headlines, but it demonstrates why regional collaboration in the Mesoamerican Reef is so important. His life depends on the health of specific locations, both of which must remain viable if he’s to keep returning year after year. Species like him ignore our lines on maps. Conservation strategies need to do the same.
