- Explore Research -
In addition to sea turtle nest monitoring, the LMC research team spearheads a variety of sea turtle health and behavior studies, including a saturation tagging project focused on leatherback sea turtles and related sample collection.
Night-time leatherback surveys began in 2001 with a saturation tagging project and associated sample collection efforts on LMC's monitored stretch of beach.
In 2017, the Research Department expanded these efforts to include nesting loggerheads and green turtles, with over 2,200 turtles tagged since the night-time program commenced. Research topics on our local aggregation of nesting turtles include analyses of migration patterns, clutch frequency (i.e., how many nests does one turtle lay in a single nesting season?), health, toxicology, injury and disease prevalence, nest temperatures, and other human-related impacts.
The Research Department collaborates with dozens of individuals and agencies annually, as our nest numbers allow us to collect a multitude of samples for robust research projects. Our goal is simple - we want to better understand the sea turtle and the coastal ecosystems they call home. From our research data, we hope to increase our understanding of how to best improve sea turtle populations, their health, and the ecosystems they call home.
The Leatherback Project
“The Leatherback Project” is a saturation tagging study that LMC has been conducting for more than 25 years on their monitored stretch of beach in South Florida. A saturation tagging study is an approach where our team aims to tag every leatherback individual encountered within a specific project area during nesting season. That area is Juno and Jupiter beaches for the LMC team. This type of study allows the team to estimate the population size, clutch frequency (how many nests they lay), remigration intervals (how many years between nesting events), and site fidelity (loyalty to a certain area).
The LMC research team works tirelessly during a 10-week period to collect these data, starting the first week of April and wrapping up the second week of June. At least two teams drive the 7+ mile stretch of beach from the Jupiter Inlet to the northern boundary of John D. MacArthur State Park every 30 minutes starting at 9 pm until at least 3 or 4 am. Sometimes, the crew is on the beach until sunrise and end up greeting the morning nest survey team when they arrive. The team looks for these nesting leatherbacks emerging from the water or for their “tractor trailer width crawls” as Dr. Perrault likes to describe it.
Once the team encounters a leatherback, they spring into action. The team has between 10–20 minutes to gather their information while carefully avoiding influencing the turtle’s behavior. First, she is identified using a PIT tag, which is a passive integrated transponder (similar to the microchips used in domestic pets) and external flipper tags. Then the turtle is measured, sometimes weighed, and sampled for numerous internal and external (student-led, collaborator-led) research projects. Complete physical assessments are conducted including her body condition (how thin or robust is she?), documentation of all injuries, and any other abnormalities noted. If the team happens to encounter a new leatherback with no previous tags, they also tag (and name) the animal for future studies.
Sea Turtle Endocrinology Lab
In 2025, Loggerhead Marinelife Center's Research Department launched a sea turtle endocrinology laboratory with support from the Foxwynd Foundation to better understand the hidden biology of sea turtles. By measuring hormones in both wild and rehabilitating turtles, we can gain valuable insight into their health, development, and behavior. Our current work focuses on determining the sex of immature turtles by measuring the hormone testosterone, which is important since the temperature in the nest determines if sea turtles develop into males or females. We are also evaluating stress hormones to better understand how turtles interact with their habitat and cope with changing environments.
Satellite Tagging Sea Turtles
There are still many things unknown about sea turtles. Details like migration patterns and preferred feeding grounds are not well understood. Using satellites, LMC researchers are tracking sea turtles in the open ocean and making new discoveries. The LMC research team outfits sea turtles with satellite tags, typically designed to fall off the turtle over time.
Satellites track the turtle’s location for up to one year or more before the battery runs out or the tag falls off—providing a peek beneath the surface, into the secret underwater world of sea turtles.