
After 41 years in captivity, this celebrity sea turtle is finally swimming home
The waves were rough on the morning of April 11, but Jorge didn't hesitate. With steady strokes, the 220-pound sea turtle dove into the Atlantic Ocean—his first swim in open water in 40 years.
After spending more than half his life in a shallow aquarium tank in Mendoza, Argentina, hundreds of miles away from the ocean, Jorge is doing what once seemed impossible: He has relearned his natural instincts as he makes his way to the warm waters of Praia do Forte in northern Brazil—the place he once called home.
Watching Jorge's remarkable journey from afar is Mariela Dassis , a researcher at the National University of Mar del Plata who is in charge of his satellite monitoring. Dassis is overseeing the final phase of a meticulous three-year re-education and release project developed by several Argentine institutions to prepare Jorge, rescued as a juvenile in 1984, for life back in the wild. Jorge holds the record for the longest time spent in captivity of any sea turtle in the world.
The first night, Dassis barely slept, anxiously waiting for Jorge to emit a signal. Now, more than 70 days into his oceanic voyage, she feels calmer because Jorge has already traveled over 1,700 miles and has less than 760 miles left to reach his destination—proving himself a true master of resilience.
(Sea turtles are surviving—despite us.) Relearning the ocean life
At 60 years old, Jorge, a loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), weighs about 220 pounds. He's spent more than half his life in a 5,300-gallon pool barely 1.5 feet deep, living on hard-boiled eggs and beef in water that was salted to simulate the ocean he lost when he was accidentally captured in 1984. That year, a group of fishermen found him entangled in fishing nets, injured, and cool-stunned in Bahía Blanca, a port city in the province of Buenos Aires and a frequent stopover for his species along the migratory route.
(Meet the dog who can find rare sea turtle nests at a shocking success rate.)
At the time, sea turtle rehabilitation and reintroduction were not common practice, so Jorge was put in a wooden box and flown to the Andes. In Mendoza, he became a celebrity: Families went to see him at the aquarium for decades, and even mayors handed over the responsibility of caring for him to their successors as they began their terms in office. Pressure to return him to the sea grew so intense that more than 60,000 people signed a petition for his release, and a group of environmental lawyers eventually filed a lawsuit in 2021. Jorge in his first enclosure shortly after arriving in Mendoza in 1984. He was caught in fishing nets earlier that year by a group of fishermen. Photograph Courtesy of the Municipality of Mendoza City
The Mendoza Municipality took up the challenge of preparing Jorge for a return to the ocean, enlisting researchers from the Mar del Plata Aquarium, the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Institute of Marine and Coastal Research at the National University of Mar del Plata. Together, they set a goal: to get Jorge swimming freely again. But could he survive the attempt?
During those decades in captivity, Jorge's natural survival instincts faded, leaving him unfamiliar with hunting live prey or reacting to ocean currents—a dangerous handicap for any wild sea turtle.
'In three years, we managed to get him to recover the instinct he had almost lost,' explains marine biologist Alejandro Saubidet, who led Jorge's re-education—a rehabilitation that typically lasts a year and is designed for turtles that reach the coast with an injury or after ingesting plastic. 'We had to see if it was feasible to return him to the environment.'
The first step was to re-adapt him to saltwater. Over several months, the salinity of the pool he lived in was gradually increased until it reached 3.3%, which is the equivalent to the salinity that loggerhead turtles can tolerate in their natural habitat. Blood tests accompanied this process to determine how well Jorge could excrete the salt; x-rays were also taken to assess the health of his joints.
Once Jorge passed these tests, he boarded his second plane and flew to Mar del Plata, where a more comfortable pool awaited him, filled with seawater and kept at a controlled temperature between 68°F and 75°F. This temperature range was chosen to closely match the conditions he would encounter in the Atlantic Ocean during his first few months at sea.
The pool held 40,000 gallons of water and was 10 feet deep. The amount of water was gradually increased to make sure Jorge would be able to reach the surface to breathe.
Throughout the process, Jorge's diet also changed: Hard-boiled eggs and beef were replaced with live food, such as crabs and snails, which the turtle had to hunt. According to Saubidet, this wasn't easy.
'Little by little, we taught him to chase after prey,' he says. Other animals were later added to the pool to compete with him for food. 'The first time we threw in a ray, Jorge thought it was food and went after it, but when he saw it move, he got scared,' notes Saubidet.
Over time, Jorge became a skilled hunter, started making more sounds, and even built shelters—just like loggerhead turtles do in the wild to rest, hide from predators, and protect themselves from currents. The researchers even created currents in the pool that Jorge became accustomed to.
All of these behaviors indicated that Jorge was returning to his natural state, and each challenge he overcame prepared him for the great adventure that awaited him at sea. Jorge being released into the Atlantic Ocean on April 11. He's expected to travel about 2,500 miles to northern Brazil. Photograph By Mauro V. Rizzi / La Nación A beacon of hope for conservation
Although it was already autumn, the water was still warm enough on April 11 for Jorge to orient himself and catch the current that would carry him to Brazil, his final destination—that is, unless he decides to settle somewhere else along the route.
He left the aquarium with a rangefinder attached to his shell, boarded a ship belonging to the Argentine Naval Prefecture, and sailed 15 nautical miles into the Atlantic Ocean, where he finally touched the ocean for the first time in four decades.
As fate would have it, it was a day of rough seas, and Dassis endured the anguish of not knowing anything about Jorge's whereabouts until 10 a.m. the next day, when the rangefinder emitted its first signal from offshore. Jorge was heading in the right direction: north, toward Brazil.
'The most beautiful thing of all is that Jorge shows us reintegration is possible," says Dassis. "Nature can find its place again."
Since his initial release, Jorge has sent at least two signals a day, with an accuracy ranging from 500 to 3,300 feet. From this, researchers learned that in the first month, Jorge 'stepped on the gas' to cross the coast of Uruguay and enter Brazil, slowing down once he reached warmer waters. He's now swimming off the coast of Santa Catarina State.
Laura Prosdocimi, a researcher at the Laboratory of Ecology, Conservation, and Marine Mammals at the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences—who conducted the genetic studies that revealed Jorge's origin from a population of turtles in Praia do Forte—believes Jorge is returning to the nesting areas he knew as a hatchling and juvenile, just like adult specimens do. 'When Jorge entered captivity as a subadult, he already had much of the information about migratory routes,' she explains.
The rangefinder is expected to keep working for at least another four months. By the time the battery dies, researchers will have gathered completely unprecedented information, as science has very little data on the movement patterns of male sea turtles, particularly of this species.
'Jorge is a unique case in the world,' says Prosdocimi, noting that there are no records of another animal that spent so many year in captivity and then adapted so well to life in the wild.
'He's already overcome the greatest challenges," says Dassis. 'And since he's still of reproductive age—Caretta carettas live to around 80, but they can reach 100—maybe we'll see some Jorgitos and Jorgitas.'

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National Geographic
5 days ago
- National Geographic
After 41 years in captivity, this celebrity sea turtle is finally swimming home
Jorge, a 60-year-old, 220-pound loggerhead turtle, is a unique case of an animal who spent so long in captivity, yet managed to reacquaint himself to his natural habitat. Photograph By Pablo E. Blasko By María de los Ángeles Orfila The waves were rough on the morning of April 11, but Jorge didn't hesitate. With steady strokes, the 220-pound sea turtle dove into the Atlantic Ocean—his first swim in open water in 40 years. After spending more than half his life in a shallow aquarium tank in Mendoza, Argentina, hundreds of miles away from the ocean, Jorge is doing what once seemed impossible: He has relearned his natural instincts as he makes his way to the warm waters of Praia do Forte in northern Brazil—the place he once called home. Watching Jorge's remarkable journey from afar is Mariela Dassis , a researcher at the National University of Mar del Plata who is in charge of his satellite monitoring. Dassis is overseeing the final phase of a meticulous three-year re-education and release project developed by several Argentine institutions to prepare Jorge, rescued as a juvenile in 1984, for life back in the wild. Jorge holds the record for the longest time spent in captivity of any sea turtle in the world. The first night, Dassis barely slept, anxiously waiting for Jorge to emit a signal. Now, more than 70 days into his oceanic voyage, she feels calmer because Jorge has already traveled over 1,700 miles and has less than 760 miles left to reach his destination—proving himself a true master of resilience. (Sea turtles are surviving—despite us.) Relearning the ocean life At 60 years old, Jorge, a loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), weighs about 220 pounds. He's spent more than half his life in a 5,300-gallon pool barely 1.5 feet deep, living on hard-boiled eggs and beef in water that was salted to simulate the ocean he lost when he was accidentally captured in 1984. That year, a group of fishermen found him entangled in fishing nets, injured, and cool-stunned in Bahía Blanca, a port city in the province of Buenos Aires and a frequent stopover for his species along the migratory route. (Meet the dog who can find rare sea turtle nests at a shocking success rate.) At the time, sea turtle rehabilitation and reintroduction were not common practice, so Jorge was put in a wooden box and flown to the Andes. In Mendoza, he became a celebrity: Families went to see him at the aquarium for decades, and even mayors handed over the responsibility of caring for him to their successors as they began their terms in office. Pressure to return him to the sea grew so intense that more than 60,000 people signed a petition for his release, and a group of environmental lawyers eventually filed a lawsuit in 2021. Jorge in his first enclosure shortly after arriving in Mendoza in 1984. He was caught in fishing nets earlier that year by a group of fishermen. Photograph Courtesy of the Municipality of Mendoza City The Mendoza Municipality took up the challenge of preparing Jorge for a return to the ocean, enlisting researchers from the Mar del Plata Aquarium, the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Institute of Marine and Coastal Research at the National University of Mar del Plata. Together, they set a goal: to get Jorge swimming freely again. But could he survive the attempt? During those decades in captivity, Jorge's natural survival instincts faded, leaving him unfamiliar with hunting live prey or reacting to ocean currents—a dangerous handicap for any wild sea turtle. 'In three years, we managed to get him to recover the instinct he had almost lost,' explains marine biologist Alejandro Saubidet, who led Jorge's re-education—a rehabilitation that typically lasts a year and is designed for turtles that reach the coast with an injury or after ingesting plastic. 'We had to see if it was feasible to return him to the environment.' The first step was to re-adapt him to saltwater. Over several months, the salinity of the pool he lived in was gradually increased until it reached 3.3%, which is the equivalent to the salinity that loggerhead turtles can tolerate in their natural habitat. Blood tests accompanied this process to determine how well Jorge could excrete the salt; x-rays were also taken to assess the health of his joints. Once Jorge passed these tests, he boarded his second plane and flew to Mar del Plata, where a more comfortable pool awaited him, filled with seawater and kept at a controlled temperature between 68°F and 75°F. This temperature range was chosen to closely match the conditions he would encounter in the Atlantic Ocean during his first few months at sea. The pool held 40,000 gallons of water and was 10 feet deep. The amount of water was gradually increased to make sure Jorge would be able to reach the surface to breathe. Throughout the process, Jorge's diet also changed: Hard-boiled eggs and beef were replaced with live food, such as crabs and snails, which the turtle had to hunt. According to Saubidet, this wasn't easy. 'Little by little, we taught him to chase after prey,' he says. Other animals were later added to the pool to compete with him for food. 'The first time we threw in a ray, Jorge thought it was food and went after it, but when he saw it move, he got scared,' notes Saubidet. Over time, Jorge became a skilled hunter, started making more sounds, and even built shelters—just like loggerhead turtles do in the wild to rest, hide from predators, and protect themselves from currents. The researchers even created currents in the pool that Jorge became accustomed to. All of these behaviors indicated that Jorge was returning to his natural state, and each challenge he overcame prepared him for the great adventure that awaited him at sea. Jorge being released into the Atlantic Ocean on April 11. He's expected to travel about 2,500 miles to northern Brazil. Photograph By Mauro V. Rizzi / La Nación A beacon of hope for conservation Although it was already autumn, the water was still warm enough on April 11 for Jorge to orient himself and catch the current that would carry him to Brazil, his final destination—that is, unless he decides to settle somewhere else along the route. He left the aquarium with a rangefinder attached to his shell, boarded a ship belonging to the Argentine Naval Prefecture, and sailed 15 nautical miles into the Atlantic Ocean, where he finally touched the ocean for the first time in four decades. As fate would have it, it was a day of rough seas, and Dassis endured the anguish of not knowing anything about Jorge's whereabouts until 10 a.m. the next day, when the rangefinder emitted its first signal from offshore. Jorge was heading in the right direction: north, toward Brazil. 'The most beautiful thing of all is that Jorge shows us reintegration is possible," says Dassis. "Nature can find its place again." Since his initial release, Jorge has sent at least two signals a day, with an accuracy ranging from 500 to 3,300 feet. From this, researchers learned that in the first month, Jorge 'stepped on the gas' to cross the coast of Uruguay and enter Brazil, slowing down once he reached warmer waters. He's now swimming off the coast of Santa Catarina State. Laura Prosdocimi, a researcher at the Laboratory of Ecology, Conservation, and Marine Mammals at the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences—who conducted the genetic studies that revealed Jorge's origin from a population of turtles in Praia do Forte—believes Jorge is returning to the nesting areas he knew as a hatchling and juvenile, just like adult specimens do. 'When Jorge entered captivity as a subadult, he already had much of the information about migratory routes,' she explains. The rangefinder is expected to keep working for at least another four months. By the time the battery dies, researchers will have gathered completely unprecedented information, as science has very little data on the movement patterns of male sea turtles, particularly of this species. 'Jorge is a unique case in the world,' says Prosdocimi, noting that there are no records of another animal that spent so many year in captivity and then adapted so well to life in the wild. 'He's already overcome the greatest challenges," says Dassis. 'And since he's still of reproductive age—Caretta carettas live to around 80, but they can reach 100—maybe we'll see some Jorgitos and Jorgitas.'
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Yahoo
Invasive Argentine tegus have found a home in Florida. Are there any near Jupiter?
Tegus are like a cross between an iguana, a snake and a lizard, and people are seeing them more often near Palm Beach County. The invasive Argentine black and white tegu has 'reproducing populations' in Hillsborough, Miami-Dade and Charlotte counties, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Scientists also discovered an 'emerging population' in St. Lucie County. Tegus in other Florida counties are likely there because they are escaped or released pets. Still, the lizards have been spotted crawling around Palm Beach County for more than a decade, said Amy Kight, executive director of Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter Farms. She gets calls about tegu sightings around canal banks at least once a year. 'I have a feeling people see them more, but just don't know what they are looking at,' wrote Kight in a prepared statement. 'They come from all over the place. We have cared for a few over the years.' Schools: Who are the 2025 teachers of the year in northern Palm Beach County? Meet the winners! Argentine black and white tegus are not native to Florida, but to South America: Brazil, Paraguay, eastern Uruguay and northern Argentina. The omnivores are only protected by anti-cruelty laws in Florida and can be humanely killed on private property with permission from the landowner, according to FWC. They can also be captured and humanely killed without a permit or hunting license on 32 Commission-managed lands in South Florida. The lizards can reach nearly 5 feet long and live up to 20 years. They lay about 35 eggs each year. They have a dotted black-and-white pattern along their backs and tails. While they are climbers, they rarely reach more than a few feet off the ground. Tegus are also strong swimmers. They hibernate during the winter months. In South Florida, they emerge from their burrows in February, just in time for breeding in spring. Tegus can be dangerous if people try to catch them, but they are not considered aggressive. They don't typically chase people and attack them if left unprovoked, Kight said. However, they are known as egg-eaters and can disrupt Florida wildlife. They may eat American alligator eggs and gopher tortoise hatchlings. Those who find tegus should not try to catch the tegu themselves. Instead, take a picture of it and call FWC, which has a wildlife alert hotline at 888-404-FWCC (888-404-3922). FWC also encourages people to report tegu sightings to its exotic species hotline at 888-Ive-Got1 (888-483-4681). Tegus are a prohibited species in Florida and cannot be kept without a permit from FWC. People who have tegus as pets can surrender them without penalties through FWC's exotic pet amnesty program. Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@ Support local journalism: Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: What is a tegu? Iguana-looking reptile is spotted in Palm Beach County
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
The weird way that penguin poop might be cooling Antarctica
In December 2022, Matthew Boyer hopped on an Argentine military plane to one of the more remote habitations on Earth: Marambio Station at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, where the icy continent stretches toward South America. Months before that, Boyer had to ship expensive, delicate instruments that might get busted by the time he landed. 'When you arrive, you have boxes that have been sometimes sitting outside in Antarctica for a month or two in a cold warehouse,' said Boyer, a PhD student in atmospheric science at the University of Helsinki. 'And we're talking about sensitive instrumentation.' But the effort paid off, because Boyer and his colleagues found something peculiar about penguin guano. In a paper published on Thursday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, they describe how ammonia wafting off the droppings of 60,000 birds contributed to the formation of clouds that might be insulating Antarctica, helping cool down an otherwise rapidly warming continent. Some penguin populations, however, are under serious threat because of climate change. Losing them and their guano could mean fewer clouds and more heating in an already fragile ecosystem, one so full of ice that it will significantly raise sea levels worldwide as it melts. A better understanding of this dynamic could help scientists hone their models of how Antarctica will transform as the world warms. They can now investigate, for instance, if some penguin species produce more ammonia and, therefore, more of a cooling effect. 'That's the impact of this paper,' said Tamara Russell, a marine ornithologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who studies penguins but wasn't involved in the research. 'That will inform the models better, because we know that some species are decreasing, some are increasing, and that's going to change a lot down there in many different ways.' With their expensive instruments, Boyer and his research team measured atmospheric ammonia between January and March 2023, summertime in the southern hemisphere. They found that when the wind was blowing from an Adelie penguin colony 5 miles away from the detectors, concentrations of the gas shot up to 1,000 times higher than the baseline. Even when the penguins had moved out of the colony after breeding, ammonia concentrations remained elevated for at least a month, as the guano continued emitting the gas. That atmospheric ammonia could have been helping cool the area. The researchers further demonstrated that the ammonia kicks off an atmospheric chain reaction. Out at sea, tiny plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton release the gas dimethyl sulfide, which transforms into sulphuric acid in the atmosphere. Because ammonia is a base, it reacts readily with this acid. This coupling results in the rapid formation of aerosol particles. Clouds form when water vapor gloms onto any number of different aerosols, like soot and pollen, floating around in the atmosphere. In populated places, these particles are more abundant, because industries and vehicles emit so many of them as pollutants. Trees and other vegetation spew aerosols, too. But because Antarctica lacks trees and doesn't have much vegetation at all, the aerosols from penguin guano and phytoplankton can make quite an impact. In February 2023, Boyer and the other researchers measured a particularly strong burst of particles associated with guano, sampled a resulting fog a few hours later, and found particles created by the interaction of ammonia from the guano and sulphuric acid from the plankton. 'There is a deep connection between these ecosystem processes, between penguins and phytoplankton at the ocean surface,' Boyer said. 'Their gas is all interacting to form these particles and clouds.' But here's where the climate impacts get a bit trickier. Scientists know that in general, clouds cool Earth's climate by reflecting some of the sun's energy back into space. Although Boyer and his team hypothesize that clouds enhanced with penguin ammonia are probably helping cool this part of Antarctica, they note that they didn't quantify that climate effect, which would require further research. That's a critical bit of information because of the potential for the warming climate to create a feedback loop. As oceans heat up, penguins are losing access to some of their prey, and colonies are shrinking or disappearing as a result. Fewer penguins producing guano means less ammonia and fewer clouds, which means more warming and more disruptions to the animals, and on and on in a self-reinforcing cycle. 'If this paper is correct — and it really seems to be a nice piece of work to me — [there's going to be] a feedback effect, where it's going to accelerate the changes that are already pushing change in the penguins,' said Peter Roopnarine, curator of geology at the California Academy of Sciences. Scientists might now look elsewhere, Roopnarine adds, to find other bird colonies that could also be providing cloud cover. Protecting those species from pollution and hunting would be a natural way to engineer Earth systems to offset some planetary warming. 'We think it's for the sake of the birds,' Roopnarine said. 'Well, obviously it goes well beyond that.' This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The weird way that penguin poop might be cooling Antarctica on May 22, 2025.