Kate Mansfield, PhD
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katemansfield.bsky.social
Kate Mansfield, PhD
@katemansfield.bsky.social
Professor 👩‍🏫 • sea turtle biologist 🐢 🛥️• marine scientist 🌊 • Director, UCF Marine Turtle Research Group • amateur silversmith ⚒️ • beachcomber 🦀 • crafter🧵🎨

Marine ecology • conservation • animal telemetry 🛰️ • marine management & policy • movement ecology
Reposted by Kate Mansfield, PhD
Sea turtles are considered one of the oldest living species on Earth, but it's been a mystery where their babies go after heading out to sea — a period known as their “lost years.”

@katemansfield.bsky.social and her team of marine scientists at UCF are working to change that.

John Yang reports.
March 8, 2025 at 10:41 PM
It’s time again for our semi-annual turtle “round-up” at Port Canaveral. Fun day of controlled chaos. We caught 34 turtles. 🐢 we will be back at it again tomorrow.

Permits: MTP-231/NMFS 26268.
February 28, 2025 at 11:15 PM
🚨 We have an exciting new paper including the largest tracking dataset for WILD-caught dispersal stage sea turtles. This was part of @katrinaphillips.bsky.social‘s dissertation work funded in part by the Florida Restore Act Centers of Excellence Program.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
New insights on sea turtle behaviour during the ‘lost years’ | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Several marine turtle species spend their first years of life in oceanic habitats. This early life stage is referred to as the ‘lost years’ due to the difficulty of accessing individuals for study off...
royalsocietypublishing.org
February 5, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Congratulations to #UCF PhD student Callie Veelenturf for being recognized as one of the 2024 Future for Nature awardees!

futurefornature.org/future-for-n...
February 29, 2024 at 2:19 PM
New paper 🚨:

By lab alum Dr. Chris Long! Part of his PhD looking at the impacts of harmful algal blooms on sea turtles in Florida.

www.int-res.com/abstracts/me...
Harmful algal bloom impacts on juvenile green turtle foraging ecology: insights from stable isotope analysis
www.int-res.com
February 15, 2024 at 6:11 PM
One of my PhD students, Callie Veelenturf was on #CBSNews, interviewed about her rights of nature work ❤️:

youtu.be/F8K4raQ5pY8?...
December 11, 2023 at 8:29 PM
*Cowabunga*

The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge is experiencing an extraordinary sea turtle nesting season so far. We have recorded >12,100 loggerhead and >11,300 green turtle nests so far this year.

12 THOUSAND and 11 THOUSAND. 🤯

(The beach is only 13 miles/20km)

📸: A.Crowder
July 15, 2023 at 1:52 AM
One of our lab members, Dean Bagley, has been satellite tagging male green turtles for about 10 years. The second male of the season was tagged last Friday with the help of Inwater Research Group.

Look at that TAIL!

This satellite-tracking research was conducted under FWC permit MTP-051A.
July 12, 2023 at 8:23 PM
Another gorgeous night on the Archie Carr NWR. We hosted USFWS, NOAA & FWC personnel in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act.

This never gets old. 🐢

📸: a green sea turtle returns to the water after nesting. Long exposure photo taken without lights.
July 7, 2023 at 6:25 PM
Full moon on the Archie Carr Refuge. The turtles did not disappoint.

Green turtle covers nest at base of dune. Loggerhead turtle attempts to nest alongside done crossover stairs (she returned to water without nesting). 📸/🐢Permits: MTP 186/171; pics taken with long exposure, no lights were used.
July 4, 2023 at 9:39 PM