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Summer has arrived, and the Okeanos teams are making the most of the season! With favourable sea conditions, this is the perfect time to carry out essential fieldwork for our ongoing projects.

This month, the COSTA team, led by Dr. Frederic Vandeperre, joined forces with @Upwellturtles - with Upwell's Executive Director, Dr. George Shillinger on board - and Flying Sharks, represented by Ivan Beltran, to tag and release tiny loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta, aged 0–3 years). Also on board was the incredible Nuno Vasco Rodrigues, who elevated this initiative to another level with his expertise in capturing the entire process on film.

The turtles released during this operation came from various sources: some were recovered after stranding events, while others were purposefully captured by local fishers and marine tourism operators that actively collaborate with this initiative.

Each turtle was equipped with @LotekTelemetry micro-satellite tags (3–12g)—cutting-edge technology that allows us to monitor their movements and diving behaviour after release.

This work is part of a global effort to shed light on the mysterious "lost years" of sea turtles led by Upwell Turtles with their growing team of collaborators around the world including @MercatorOcean, @faumarinelab, @Zoomarine_algarve_oficial, @Aquariumlarochelle, @aquariumfoundation, and other partners. The operation began with preparing and tagging the turtles and ended with a safe return to the ocean off the coast of Faial Island.

We were also very pleased to welcome Yohann Santos, Antonieta Nunes and João Neves from Zoomarine, who joined the mission to observe the procedures and gain some hands-on experience with this type of operation.