Tour de Turtle

Tour de Turtles is an annual online "migration marathon." Endangered sea turtles, not human runners, are the competitors. Each turtle carries a harmless satellite transmitter, and the public follows its movement on interactive maps as it swims from major nesting beaches in the Western Hemisphere, often including Vero Beach and Melbourne Beach in Florida. The race target is 2,620 kilometers (1,628 miles), and the first turtle to reach that distance wins. The swim is expected to last about three months, though tracking can continue for up to two years after the race distance is finished. The course is the open ocean, so the route is not fixed; it is built by each turtle’s actual migration path after leaving its nesting site. To keep the race fair, distance does not start counting until the last turtle has been released, since different species may begin at different times. Every turtle gets a place on the online leaderboard, and each one is also tied to a conservation cause such as plastic marine debris, longline or trawl fishing, oil spills, coastal chemical pollution, egg harvest, sea walls, invasive predators, meat harvest, and climate-driven sea level or temperature rise. Alongside the migration race, the Causes Challenge lets the turtle that raises the most support win a separate contest, turning the tracking project into both a public science lesson and a fundraiser for sea turtle protection.