A Dingle aquarium which last year opened a special turtle section hopes to put tracking devices on turtles caught in fishermen's nets "to find out exactly where they go".
The plan was outlined yesterday by Mr Kevin Flannery, a rare fish expert and a founder member of Dingle Oceanworld, Mara Beo.
"Leatherback turtles are found as far north as Iceland. Everybody says they go back to their nesting grounds [on the Caribbean Sea] but do they? Nobody knows.
"They are a mystery, and they are our biggest sea reptile," said Mr Flannery, who works with the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources in Dingle.
The aquarium is working with the department of zoology in UCC on the project to put satellite tracking devices on turtles and it hopes to get the co-operation of salmon fishermen on the west coast to insert the devices.
Mr Flannery expects to have it up and running this year.
His remarks follow the washing ashore of a giant 500lb leatherback turtle on a beach near Castlegregory in Co Kerry this weekend.
The turtle, which Mr Flannery puts at around 100 years old, was dead and probably died from hypothermia.
It should have gone south but instead was caught in Brandon Bay.
Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtles. They can reach a length of 9 feet and weigh nearly a tonne when fully grown.
But they are among the most endangered species and face threats from modern fishing equipment, plastic debris which they mistakenly swallow for jellyfish, and hunting for their shells.