Never agree to write a turtle’s biography. You will, at one crucial point, run out of material.

Every sea turtle begins life in the same way. It hatches within its buried nest, forces its way to the surface, and sprints towards the water past a gauntlet of crabs, birds and other predators. Many die, but they emerge in such numbers that there are plenty of survivors. They dive beneath the waves… and disappear.

By the time Atlantic loggerhead turtles start showing up in coastal waters again, they’ve grown from palm-sized infants into large animals whose shells are a couple of feet long. They must have been away for several years, but their movements are secrets withheld by the vastness of the