The summary article makes it sound like it’s somehow surprising that sea turtles can swim. The paper itself clarifies that it’s more a question of whether there are trends in the directionality of their swimming.
> Studies that compared turtle movements to oceanographic drifters suggest that swimming by young sea turtles directs their oceanic dispersal [19,21]. In addition, research in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic suggests that young oceanic-stage turtles actively swim and there may be distinct differences among species in orientation, dispersal and swimming behaviour [19,21]. Understanding whether and when juvenile turtles are active swimmers or passive drifters is critical for determining dispersal trajectories, exposure and transition times in areas impacted by anthropogenic activities (e.g. oil spills) and connectivity between populations and habitats [29]. Without basic biological and behavioural data, it is difficult to improve assessments of anthropogenic impacts on protected species, necessitating conservative or precautionary approaches to management using ‘best available data’.
I’ve spent so much time wrestling with and learning all (most) of these pitfalls, and I consider it time well spent. After my first few weeks I started dreaming in bash.
That story actually came about from a scientist doing experiments on frogs. Frogs with removed brains.
Arguably the frogs are not smarter than we thought
I'm pretty sure the article is about interacting with people.
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