There and back again: natal homing by magnetic navigation in sea turtles and salmon

Diverse marine animals migrate across vast expanses of seemingly featureless ocean before returning as adults to reproduce in the area where they originated. How animals accomplish such feats of natal homing is an enduring mystery. Growing evidence suggests, however, that sea turtles and salmon imprint on the magnetic field of their home area when young and then use this information to return as adults. Both turtles and salmon have the sensory abilities needed to detect the unique 'magnetic signature' of a coastal area. Analyses have revealed that, for both groups of animals, subtle changes in the geomagnetic field of the home region are correlated with changes in natal homing behavior. In turtles, a relationship between population genetic structure and the magnetic fields that exist at nesting beaches has also been detected, consistent with the hypothesis that turtles recognize their natal areas on the basis of magnetic cues. Salmon likely use a biphasic navigational strategy in which magnetic cues guide fish through the open sea and into the proximity of the home river where chemical cues allow completion of the spawning migration. Similarly, turtles may also exploit local cues to help pinpoint nesting areas once they have arrived in the vicinity. Throughout most of the natal homing migration, however, magnetic navigation appears to be the primary mode of long-distance guidance in both sea turtles and salmon.