Track the Disney-sponsored sea turtle who swam 1,100 miles in three months
Sea turtles spend 90% of their lives in the ocean. Where do they go and how can we help them? We spoke with Disney’s Dr. Mark and Dr. Zak to find out and learn about the Tour de Turtles tracking program.
Updated Nov. 4, 2024 with the winner! Interview originally published July 29, 2024.
And the winner is …
Earlier this year, we spoke with Dr. Zak Gezon and Dr. Mark Penning about Disney’s involvement with Tour de Turtles, a research initiative that tracks sea turtles’ individual journeys across the ocean.
Disney just informed us that the winner of 2024’s Tour de Turtles is Ebb, who swam over 1,100 miles. This marks the first time that a Disney-sponsored turtle has won the race. Ebb is currently swimming off the coast of Delaware, according to her tracking map.
The other Disney turtle, Flo, swam over 700 miles. She’s currently cruising the Caribbean.
Below is our interview with Dr. Zak and Dr. Mark from July, providing insight into the history and science behind Tour de Turtles.
Sea turtle talk
“There’s a lot of sea turtle research that goes on beaches, but over 90% of a sea turtle’s life is spent in the ocean. They will hatch out of that beach and then come back decades later, and we don’t know that much about what they’re doing over those decades and where they go. To have a complete picture of the sea turtle’s life and really know how to protect them, we need to know what’s happening with that 90% of their life when they’re out at sea.”
This is the vision of Disney’s support of sea turtles, as described by Dr. Zak Gezon, conservation director at Walt Disney World. We spoke with Dr. Zak and Dr. Mark Penning, vice president of Disney’s Animal, Science, and Environment unit, about the incredible migration of sea turtle mothers, the company’s interest in nature that began with Walt Disney, and the ways families can get involved in their own backyard.
Tracking sea turtles
Tour de Turtles is an annual event organized by Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) and participated in by Disney. Each year, female sea turtles naturally make landfall on the ocean shoreline outside of Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, a Disney Vacation Club property on Florida’s east coast, just over 100 miles from Walt Disney World in Orlando. As part of Tour de Turtles, different organizations sponsor the attachment of radio telemetry devices to a handful of these mother turtles. The tracking of the turtles as they return to the sea helps fill in that missing 90% Dr. Zak mentioned.
“That is an understudied and critically important piece of their natural history that we need to have more insight about how to do our best job protecting them,” Dr. Zak told us.
One of Disney’s sponsored turtles from 2023, for example — Madame Leota, named such to tie in with last summer’s release of the “Haunted Mansion” movie — has traveled 4,500 miles since her Tour de Turtles debut, making her way from Florida up the Atlantic coast toward Delaware and Maryland.
For 2024, Disney Conservation Fund sponsored a turtle named Ebb, while Disney Cruise Line sponsored Flo. They both departed from Vero Beach on July 27. All are welcome to track the migration journey of Ebb and Flo on STC’s website.
“It’s fantastic,” Dr. Mark said of tracking the turtles’ journeys online. “You learn a lot, as we do as scientists.”
So far, Flo has made it up to Satellite Beach while Ebb prefers a slower pace and just passed Palm Bay.
By the numbers
17 years of Tour de Turtles
1.8 million sea turtle hatchlings from 22,000 nests documented near Disney’s Vero Beach Resort
$5.7 million given by Disney to support sea turtles since 1995
300+ endangered sea turtles nursed back to health and returned to the ocean by Disney’s animal care teams
Sea turtles’ incredible migration patterns
Occurring on a public beach, the moment when the turtles transition from shore to ocean can be viewed by the general public. At the inception of Tour de Turtles, the onlookers were mainly a small group of scientists. Now, the annual event attracts over 1,000 spectators.
“It’s very touching to actually see this,” said Dr. Mark, “especially when you just heard from the scientist who has studied them. You get to learn a little more. It starts to hit home.”
Did we mention? The turtles don’t nest their eggs on Vero Beach haphazardly. They intentionally choose to come here because it’s where they hatched years ago.
“This sea turtle hatched out somewhere on this stretch of beach 30, 40, 50 years ago and comes back every couple of years now,” Dr. Mark explained. “How?! What?! Really?! It’s been halfway around the world and it knows to come right back here. In that whole time, you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘Is she thinking about that same place? Does she keep coming back each year?’ These are the questions we try to answer by putting the trackers on them. It’s great science. We learn a lot. We also want our guests at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort — and the public in general — to learn with us because it’s really fun.””
A tradition of storytelling
Some may be surprised to learn of Disney’s deep-rooted involvement with animal care and conservation.
“We take the very best care of our animals, wherever Disney has animals,” Dr. Mark said of his teams’ work. “We look at how we represent animals in film and television to make sure that we’re doing it right — that it’s all factually correct, but also that it’s responsible. We look at our environmental initiatives, environmental goals, the 2030 goals that we’re striving toward as a company, and then, of course, the incredible conservation work that takes place.”
Dr. Zak added, “We have a team of biologists, and we really look at where Disney is going to have an impact on animals and wildlife and wild places, and really try to make sure that we’re doing it in the best possible way to hopefully have a positive impact on nature, wherever we have a footprint. Of course, as part of Disney, we like to be able to leverage what we do and be phenomenal storytellers and help get kids inspired and engaged to help do the same.”
A recent example of this initiative is the National Geographic series “Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom,” the two seasons of which are streaming on Disney+. The docuseries shows viewers the personalized care Disney provides for animals at its parks and in the wild.
For Tour de Turtles 2024, Disney’s sponsored sea turtles are named Ebb and Flo after two characters from the new animated series “Ariel,” now streaming on Disney+ and airing on Disney Junior.
“This is our way of helping to connect our beautiful stories, our storytelling, our characters with what’s going on out there in the real world,” Dr. Mark said. “People forget that Walt Disney loved nature. Walt Disney loved animals. How many of his stories are all about animals? Like we keep telling ourselves, ‘It was all started by a mouse.'”
The corporate synergy serves as more than just a plug for new shows, though.
Dr. Zak explained, “To be able to take a beloved piece of fantastic Disney storytelling and be able to marry that with actual science done by scientists that kids and families can get up close and see — you can smell the research happening right in front of you — is such a visceral connection between that storytelling that Disney does so well and the science and research and conservation that we do so well. We see kids making their own outfits showing up wanting to be sea turtle conservationists and you can see firsthand the impact that it’s having on the future of science and also the future of sea turtles.”
How you can get involved
While Disney’s scientists log the hours of research and field work, Dr. Mark and Dr. Zak stress that taking take of earth’s habitats is all of our responsibility — and that doing so is simpler than you might realize.
“The best way to really get involved with conservation a lot of times is to look in your own backyard and figure out where the needs are locally, no matter where you live,” Dr. Zak said. “For kids, we always like to suggest they start in their backyard because it’s so much easier than you’d think. Just planting a couple of species of plants that are butterfly-friendly or pollinator-friendly in general.”
On the topic of sea turtles, Dr. Mark said, “What we try to share with people is our responsibility is to take care of that beach for the next 20, 30, 40 years so that they can continue coming back to lay their eggs.”
In the meantime, the tracking efforts of Disney and the STC continue to provide important information about sea turtles’ lives at sea.
“Animals are fantastic, aren’t they?” Dr. Mark reflected with a smile. “They just do amazing things. How exactly they do it, I don’t think we quite understand.”
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Take a look back at Tour de Turtles 2018 in this vlog from our YouTube archives:
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Thank you for the wonderful article about the sea turtles! I’ve been tracking them and plan to donate!