Common coastal foraging areas for loggerheads in the Gulf of Mexico: Opportunities for marine conservation

Hart, Kristen M.; Lamont, Margaret M.; Fujisaki, Ikuko; Tucker, Anton D.; Carthy, Raymond R.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2011.10.030

Cited by 65 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Connections between rookeries and foraging grounds are only now being quantified [2][3][4]11,12]. Loggerhead sea turtles nest every 2-5 years, depositing 2-6 clutches of 75-120 eggs approximately every 2 weeks during the nesting season [13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Loggerhead sea turtles nest every 2-5 years, depositing 2-6 clutches of 75-120 eggs approximately every 2 weeks during the nesting season [13][14][15][16][17][18]. After nesting, they migrate back to their residence or foraging site, to which they show a high level of fidelity [3,9,16,[19][20][21]. For loggerhead sea turtles specifically, locations of oceanic 'hotspots' representing key residence and foraging habitats have recently been delineated in the southeast US [11,22] and the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) [3,12], yet the mechanisms for selection of these areas remain poorly understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After nesting, they migrate back to their residence or foraging site, to which they show a high level of fidelity [3,9,16,[19][20][21]. For loggerhead sea turtles specifically, locations of oceanic 'hotspots' representing key residence and foraging habitats have recently been delineated in the southeast US [11,22] and the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) [3,12], yet the mechanisms for selection of these areas remain poorly understood. Additionally, while foraging likely takes place within areas designated as 'foraging' throughout sea turtle literature due to longterm site fidelity, the quantification of this behavior is lacking and the extent to which these areas are foraged remains largely unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current status of the DRTO subpopulation is unknown, yet recent tracking studies are beginning to define the characteristics of this subpopulation. Through satellite tracking, Hart et al [18] characterized internesting areas for DRTO loggerheads (seven adult females) and Hart et al [3] defined foraging areas in the GoM for four DRTO-nesting loggerheads.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Defining these areas can be challenging in the marine environment given their often separate geographic locations, but electronic tags (i.e., satellite, GPS, and geolocation tags) have allowed delineation of high-use at-sea residence sites for marine megafauna, including sea turtles [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Hamann et al [5] ranked efforts to define important in-water habitats as one of the top priorities worldwide for imperiled marine turtles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bahamas connection: residence areas selected by breeding female loggerheads tagged in Dry Tortugas National Park, USA

Hart

Sartain

Fujisaki

2015

Animal Biotelemetry

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Background: Delineation of home ranges, residence and foraging areas, and migration corridors is important for understanding the habitat needs for a given species. Recently, many population segments of Northwest Atlantic loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) were designated as endangered or threatened; the smallest subpopulation is in the Dry Tortugas. Foraging and residence areas for this subpopulation have not been defined outside the Gulf of Mexico. Here, for Dry Tortugas loggerheads that traveled to the Bahamas, we use a combination of switching state-space modeling (SSM) and home-range estimators to determine migration period, spatially delineate and describe residence areas, and examine inter-annual home-range repeatability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Bahamas connection: residence areas selected by breeding female loggerheads tagged in Dry Tortugas National Park, USA

Hart

Sartain

Fujisaki

2015

Animal Biotelemetry

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Evaluating the use of marine protected areas by endangered species: A habitat selection approach

Roberts

Smith

Burkholder

et al. 2021

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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1. Optimizing the design of marine protected area (MPA) networks for the conservation of migratory marine species and their habitats involves a suite of important considerations, such as appropriate scale requirements and the distribution of anthropogenic impacts. Often, a fundamental component of the conservation planning process is delineating areas of high use or high biodiversity within a region of interest. 2. However, basing conservation strategies off merely the number of individuals in an ecosystem is outdated and potentially subject to arbitrary thresholds. To be effective at protecting marine megafauna, MPAs would ideally encompass habitats used by focal species. Through satellite-tracking studies, evidence of whether species actually use protected areas is emerging. 3. Here, we present a multispecies perspective on habitat selection within existing MPAs throughout the Floridian ecoregion, which encompasses coastal Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Using an 11-year satellite-tracking dataset on 235 marine turtles, we used integrated step selection analysis to quantify the effects of sea turtle behavioural state (identified by a switching state-space model), protected area status, chlorophyll and bathymetry on habitat selection. 4. Our results show that sea turtles do select for existing protected areas, specifically multi-use zones, while controlling for the effects of depth and primary productivity. However, our analysis revealed that turtles showed no selection for the no-take zones within MPAs, during either transiting or foraging. 5. These findings contribute to the existing literature base of MPA use for highly mobile, imperilled species and could inform management of existing MPAs or changes to zoning, specifically multi-use to no-take. Our use of a robust spatial modelling framework to evaluate habitat selection relative to MPAs could be incorporated into conservation planning to build MPA networks designed to accommodate migratory species.

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Seasonal movements of immature Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) in the northern gulf of Mexico

Coleman

Pitchford

Bailey

et al. 2016

Aquatic Conservation

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ABSTRACT1. Seasonal movements and core habitat areas of immature Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) in the northern Gulf of Mexico were tracked via satellite telemetry. Tagged turtles were incidentally captured by recreational fishermen and rehabilitated at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi.2. The average size of the core habitat areas (50% KDE (kernel density estimation)) was 1660.2 km 2 ± 3438.2 SD. Turtles displayed strong intra-and inter-annual site fidelity to the Mississippi Sound during the spring, summer, and autumn months. During the winter months, most turtles, probably influenced by water temperatures, migrated to nearshore waters of Louisiana on either side of the Mississippi River Delta. However, other migration strategies were also observed. 3. Overall, these data indicate that the Mississippi Sound is an important developmental habitat for this critically endangered species. In addition, their wintering grounds in Louisiana are utilized by adult Kemp's ridleys and other sea turtle species as foraging grounds and migratory corridors. The high use of these areas by sea turtle populations increases the potential for negative impacts from anthropogenic disturbances (e.g. shrimp trawling, oil production, hypoxia) that occur there.

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Common coastal foraging areas for loggerheads in the Gulf of Mexico: Opportunities for marine conservation

Cited by 65 publications

References 49 publications

Bahamas connection: residence areas selected by breeding female loggerheads tagged in Dry Tortugas National Park, USA

Bahamas connection: residence areas selected by breeding female loggerheads tagged in Dry Tortugas National Park, USA

Evaluating the use of marine protected areas by endangered species: A habitat selection approach

Seasonal movements of immature Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) in the northern gulf of Mexico

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