‘They’ve been doing this since the time of the dinosaurs’: A turtle’s 1,200-mile survival odyssey to return to where it was born

Night is falling in Long Beach, the beach that borders Georgetown, the capital of Ascensión Island. On the shore, something moves. A dark, enormous mass emerges from the waves with a slowness that seems deliberate. It’s a female green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), which can grow to measure over four feet and weigh more than 330 pounds. She just crossed 1,400 miles of open ocean, from the coasts of Brazil. It took her six weeks. She ate nothing on the trip. She’s returning to the same beach where she was born. And now she has a job to do. Seguir leyendo