A LEATHERBACK turtle has claimed the deepest dive yet recorded by a reptile. One individual has been tracked diving to 640 metres in the open ocean, and unpublished data suggests that a few may occasionally go as deep as 1000 m or more.
Leatherback turtles, which are critically endangered, can grow to more than 2 m long, and the biggest ever found weighed in at 916 kilograms. They are the widest-ranging marine reptile, but previously they have only been tracked while diving near to shore at their breeding grounds, where individuals have been recorded diving as deep as 475 m.…
