The wait is finally over for Triton, Neptuna, Bartoleme, and Santiago, their big trip has begun. In September these 5- and 6-year-old green sea turtles were returned to Hawaii to be released to the wild. About a month later, they got their flippers wet in the clear blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. Even though they have moved to the islands for good, the turtles started their trip to Hawaii like any other tourist: exploring the islands, seeing the sights, and even popping into Pearl Harbor for a while. After a swim out to sea, researchers even expect them to return to laze around on the beach sunning themselves!

Turtle Tourists
Brookfield Zoo Sea Turtles Successfully Released to the Wild

Two of the turtles, Neptuna and Triton, were fitted with tracking devices, which are being monitored by the National Marine Fisheries Service (see the maps below). During the first few weeks following the release, the two were hanging around the release site near Sea Life Park. One visited Hanauma Bay for a few days then swam into Kaneohe Bay, while the other swam into Pearl Harbor and stayed for more than a week. But, by the second week in November, both turtles set sail to the south out into oceanic waters.

Unlike other green sea turtles that spend their adult lives in the deep sea and only return to the beaches to lay eggs, those indigenous to Hawaiian waters spend time basking in the sun on the black beaches. Researchers monitoring the progress of Neptuna and Triton are not sure why they both left about the same time. However, some other turtles released from Sea Life Park have carried out a similar sort of swimming pattern by taking an exploratory voyage into distant deep waters prior to settling into shallow coastal algal habitats.

The young sea turtles arrived at Brookfield Zoo from Sea Life Park Hawaii when they were one and two years old to allow them to grow to a larger size in a protective environment. Turtle hatchlings are snacks for a very wide variety of animals, so the State of Hawaii hatches eggs and collects hatchlings from beaches so they can be raised in a protected environment. While at Brookfield Zoo, the turtles grew from a range of 3 to 19 pounds to 85 to 132 pounds making their chances for survival in the wild greater. At this size, they very few predators pose a threat. Just as important, exhibiting the turtles at Brookfield Zoo and other zoos and aquariums, enables people on the mainland to have an opportunity to learn about marine conservation and the challenges facing sea turtles in the wild.