Four captive-bred green sea turtles were scheduled for a first experience of the deep sea yesterday.

The 2-year-old animals were brought on board the NCL Pride of Hawai'i, which was scheduled to take a jog offshore north of Kaua'i yesterday, where the animals were to be released. The turtles, raised primarily at Sea Life Park by Dolphin Discovery, were fitted with tiny satellite transmitters, which would report their position to researchers as the immature turtles began life on the open sea.

The project is part of a program sponsored by by Norwegian Cruse Lines, Sea Life Park, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. It will help answer a persistent question in sea turtle biology: Young green sea turtles are seldom seen after hatching, so what happens to the animals from the time they skitter off the beaches on which they hatch and the time they return to the shore as much larger turtles?

"The study of sea turtles when they are in their pelagic habitats — far from land, living oceanic — is one of the last great mysteries to be uncovered of sea-turtle life history and ecology," said NOAA biologist George Balazs, of the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, in an e-mail.

The four turtles were given names in a joint program of NCL America and Sea Life Park, and the winning turtle-namers got a ride on the cruise boat to see the turtles released. The names, and the meanings the winners gave: Ha'aheo, or "pride"; Nani Pupu, or "beautiful shell"; Kaimakana, or "gifted ocean"; and 'Au Ku'oko'a, or "swim free."

In other turtle research, Balazs and other scientists have released satellite-tagged loggerhead turtles off Japan and tracked their movement into the Pacific. It's part of an effort to learn more about the at-sea behavior of turtles — where they go, where they feed, and the timing of their travels.

Some conclusions of that work: The captive-raised animals survive well in the wild and soon begin behaving as researchers believe wild animals do. And the loggerheads don't seem to use the ocean just as a highway, but graze a lot, following currents and eddies that concentrate food resources.

In other work, a satellite-tagged green sea turtle released off the Mauna Lani resort on the Big Island took a long cruise into deep water around the Hawaiian chain and up into the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and returned to the reef off the resort. An issue for the deep-sea-released turtles is whether they behave differently.

If you have a question or concern about the Hawaiian environment, drop a note to Jan TenBruggencate at P.O. Box 524, Lihu'e, HI 96766 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com. Or call him at (808) 245-3074.