UCF's Katherine Mansfield has found that the legendary Sargasso Sea could be an important nursery habitat for young sea turtles. Her findings help to solve the mystery of where turtles go during development and inform future conservation efforts for the threatened animals.

“That green turtles and loggerheads would continue in the currents, but that some might leave the currents and go into the Sargasso Sea was not ever considered or predicted by long-held hypotheses and the assumptions in the field,” Mansfield says. The turtles were tracked with solar-powered tracking devices attached to their shells.

• Katherine Mansfield