Green sea turtles have swum the longest distance in marine animal migration, according to a new study.
Green sea turtles have swum the longest distance in marine animal migration on scientific record.
A team of scientists from Australia, Britain and the US used satellite tracking on eight turtles to reveal that the reptile can travel 4,000 kilometres without stopping for food.
The study has raised questions about whether marine parks can protect wide-roaming species.
It's a trip similar sized mammals like dolphins or seals wouldn't be able to make without starving to death.
Dr Daniel Ierodiaconou of Deakin University is part of the team who conducted the study.
"We observed green turtles making migrations that have never been recorded in the scientific literature before, they were moving from in the middle of the Indian Ocean to the coasts of Africa."
Dr Ierodiaconou and his colleagues were able to track very fine-scale movement for more than two years.
On the long migration, the turtles rely on their fat reserves.
Green sea turtles are vegetarians and during the epic voyage they fed on the sea grass and seaweed that sits in the shallow coastal waters of the Chagos Islands, an isolated group of islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
The study found that the turtles roamed far beyond the borders of the large marine protected zones.
In the 64,000 square kilometres of protected area, only one of the eight turtles remained in the marine park for the entire time.
"Travelling those 4,000 kilometres, while it sounds like a lot, it's not actually a lot of their time in their life history.
"If you can protect the small patches of where they're foraging, with the areas where they're nesting, you're protecting 90 per cent of their actual life-time."
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