Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

KPBS Midday Edition

Researchers Discover Highly Social Group Of Turtles Off La Jolla Shores

A female loggerhead turtle sets off to lay eggs in the place where she was born.
Doug Perrine
A female loggerhead turtle sets off to lay eggs in the place where she was born.
To the pleasant surprise of marine biologists, a group of highly social turtles has ben discovered living year-round off the the coast of La Jolla.

Scientists have been studying a small group of East Pacific green sea turtles who seem to have found an ocean home off La Jolla Shores.

Finding the four turtles has surprised biologists because the water is colder here than in the tropics these creatures usually prefer, and because of the way they’ve been behaving with divers.

Megan Hanna is a biologist and environmental analyst for the Navy, whose research into the La Jolla turtles was just published in the journal "Frontiers in Marine Science."

Advertisement

She joined Midday Edition on Thursday to share more about the curious group of turtles off the coast of La Jolla.