Japan, the sole breeding area for loggerhead turtles in the North Pacific, was recently ranked by a prominent researcher as the country most detrimental to sea turtle conservation. It also has one of the longest histories of nesting beach conservation and research in the world.

For generations, sea turtle biologists in the southeastern United States have watched loggerhead hatchlings emerge from their nests and enter the ocean. They are not seen again along those coasts until they reach approximately 50 centimeters (19.69 inches) in length. Archie Carr referred to that interim period as the “lost year,” and for years, we asked the question, “Where do those little loggerheads go?”

The remote island of Ascension used to number once hosted an abundance of nesting green turtles, which travel there from their foraging grounds off the coast of Brazil. After more than a century of exploitation by mostly European mariners, turtles are making a definite recovery.