Why Canada Matters to the World’s Largest Sea Turtle

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One of the largest sea turtles on
Earth travels thousands of kilometers

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every year to visit Canada, and it
comes here for one reason, jellyfish.

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This is the How to Protect the Ocean
podcast, your weekday ocean news update.

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on the ocean every single weekday,

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We're gonna be talking about one of my
favorite things to look at when I'm on

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the coastal shores of any ocean, are
tide pools, especially off the coast

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of the Atlantic Ocean, where you get
the biggest tides in the world, and

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you get to see tide pools along there.

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It's gonna be a lot of fun.

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Hit that follow button so you
don't miss tomorrow's episode.

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But today, we're answering a
question that sounds a little strange.

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Why would a giant sea turtle leave
warm tropical waters and travel all

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the way to the cold North Atlantic?

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That's the big question, and the
answer tells us a lot about why cold

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water ecosystems are so special.

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So meet the leatherback sea turtle,
the largest sea turtle on Earth.

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Unlike any other sea turtles,
leatherbacks don't have a hard shell.

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Instead, they have a flexible
leathery back, so hence the

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name leatherback sea turtle.

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They can grow over six feet long, and
they can weigh hundreds of kilograms, and

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they are built for long-distance travel.

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Some leatherback sea turtles
cross entire ocean basins, and

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that's not an exaggeration.

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Entire oceans.

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Yet every summer, some of them arrive
in the Atlantic Canadian waters,

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including waters off Nova Scotia.

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Why?

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Well, because they're hungry.

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Most people get excited about jellyfish.

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Leatherbacks definitely get
excited about jellyfish.

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To a leatherback sea turtle, a
jellyfish bloom is like finding an

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all-you-can-eat buffet at a Vegas casino.

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And Atlantic Canada often
provides exactly that.

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A 2020 study led by Bailey Nordstrom
found that leatherback sea turtle

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movements are closely linked
to availability of jellyfish.

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In other words, the sea
turtles are following food.

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Now, this is not the only
animal that we saw doing this.

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We heard about the mola mola doing
the same thing on Monday's episode.

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And these guys aren't just wandering.

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They're actually searching for these
food, and they're very good at it.

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Cold water ecosystems support
enormous productivity.

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Nutrients fuel plankton growth.

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Plankton helps support jellyfish.

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Jellyfish helps support the leatherbacks.

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It's one giant chain of connections.

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And the leatherback sits near
the top of that food chain.

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What's amazing to me and a lot of
other people is that many people don't

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associate cold oceans with abundance.

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They imagine cold water as empty water.

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But that's not what the animals see.

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Whales come here to feed, seabirds
come here to feed, ocean sunfish come

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here to feed, as we learned on Monday,
and leatherbacks come here to feed.

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They're all responding to the same thing.

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Food.

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It's what a lot of people are driven by.

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It's food.

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All right, now let's
get back to the episode.

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So scientists have recently learned
even more about what these leatherbacks

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are doing when they arrive here.

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It's pretty interesting.

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A twenty twenty-three study led by
Amélie Migneaux used high-resolution

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tracking data and found that leatherbacks
perform complex diving behaviors

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while feeding in Canadian waters.

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The turtles aren't just drifting around.

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They're actually hunting.

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They're diving.

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They're searching.

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They're feeding.

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And then repeating the process
again and again to get as

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many jellyfish as possible.

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That means Atlantic Canada isn't
just a stopover, it's a destination.

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And like, to be honest, growing up in
Canada, I did not expect sea turtles

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to come here for a destination.

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I just thought every once in a while
they pop up, maybe they just navigate or

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they follow maybe some jellyfish in here.

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But now we know that these leatherback
sea turtles are here, like, quite often.

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It's not only just a destination,
it's one of the most important

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feeding grounds these turtles visit.

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And that's what I love about this story.

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When people think about sea turtles,
they picture tropical beaches.

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But one of the world's most impressive
sea turtles depends on cold water

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systems for part of its survival.

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And that's a pretty good
reminder that incredible wildlife

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exists far beyond the tropics.

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And cold water places
are not empty places.

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These cold water oceans are productive.

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They're destinations worth
traveling thousands of kilometers

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to reach in order to get food.

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And every summer, leatherback
sea turtles prove it.

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Now, just because it's cold
water doesn't mean you're not

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gonna see some amazing animals.

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So far

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we talked about giant leatherback sea
turtles, we talked about the blue sharks,

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and we talked about the mola mola.

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And tomorrow we're gonna talk about maybe
some smaller organisms in tide pools.

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And something that I love to do along
the coastline when the tide goes out,

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you're able to see all these things.

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And I've seen these in tropical
areas, I've seen these in cold

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water, temperate areas, and they're
just wonderful every single time.

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But that's something that I remember
anytime I go on the East Coast, is you

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get to see these tide pools, and you
get to see all these wonderful animals,

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which we're gonna talk about tomorrow.

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So hit that follow button so that you
can get tomorrow's episode on tide pools.

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And you'll hear Friday's interview with
my coworker at Pisces Oceans, Kristi

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Burnett, who's gonna talk about growing
up along Nova Scotia shores and what

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it was like to really enjoy cold water
species above and below the ocean surface.

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Thank you so much for joining
me on today's episode.

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If you wanna get ahold
of me, you can do so.

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Just go to the show notes.

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All my socials are there.

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You can DM me on Instagram,
is where I probably respond.

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That and TikTok I
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But, yeah, get ahold of me.

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I'd love to continue this conversation.

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This has been another wonderful episode
of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.