Trackers boost conservation hopes for turtles

Ready for release: One-year-old leatherback turtles equipped with a tiny satellite tag prepare to be released into the sea in Phuket province. — Reuters

Off the shore of Thailand’s resort island of Phuket, marine conservationists have released 11 baby leatherback sea turtles into the Indian Ocean, hoping they can thrive in the wild and return in two decades to reproduce.

The release of the year-old turtles, each about the size of a rugby ball, follows an intense conservation effort to boost the leatherback’s survival chances after the discovery in 2018 that the endangered species had returned to lay eggs in southern Thailand.