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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SEA TURTLE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY MAPPED BY SATELLITE DURHAM, NC, August 9, 2004 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- Many Americans will be traveling north-south along I-95 to and from warm-water vacation spots this summer. Unknown to most, offshore in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, loggerhead sea turtles are doing a similar thing, shuttling between nesting and feeding grounds. For many loggerheads, this means heading north to fertile feeding grounds such as Chesapeake and Delaware after nesting. But not (Kentucky) Derby. Derby is one of four turtles being tracked in a high-tech collaborative project where sea turtles are tracked by satellite on the conservation website www.seaturtle.org/tracking. 
Derby completed her nesting season after laying an impressive six nests, each consisting of more than 100 eggs, between May and June at Bald Head Island, North Carolina.
She has since swum south through the waters of Georgia and South Carolina to the Georgia/Florida border. Where will she go next? Members of the public are invited to visit online and follow the routes of these most fantastic of sea creatures. Derby's name, a tribute to the famous horse race, and satellite transmitter were supplied by the Newport Aquarium, located in Newport, Kentucky. Newport Aquarium Husbandry Director Pam Lyons sees the turtle tracking program as a benefit for the community because of its educational value. "Viewing turtles, like Derby, on seaturtle.org allows us to get a connection to the animals in the wild that we would not have otherwise. Students at schools can learn about geography, biology, and relate it to something current and exciting. You can see the animals' personalities by their traveling pattern, so we can really see Derby as a special sea turtle." SEATURTLE.ORG, www.seaturtle.org, a non-profit web-based NGO, aims to provide instant public access to pioneering research into the migrations of sea turtles and other marine animals using state-of-the-art satellite telemetry. The project is the result of collaboration with the UK's Marine Turtle Research Group, www.seaturtle.org/mtrg, and a consortium of conservation organizations and donors. High-resolution photographs and maps are available for media use. http://www.seaturtle.org/imagelib/ For More Information: In USA: Michael Coyne, SEATURTLE.ORG, mcoyne@seaturtle.org, Tel: 301-221-9952 In UK: Brendan Godley, Marine Turtle Research Group, bgodley@seaturtle.org, Tel: 44-1872-863-728
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