Fine‐scale movement and habitat use of juvenile, subadult, and adult green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in a foraging ground at Ningaloo Reef, Australia

Abstract

1. The residence, home range, and habitat use of juvenile (42.0-63.5 cm midline curved carapace length, CCL), subadult (68.6-84.6 cm CCL), and adult (81.9-104.2 cm CCL) green turtles (Chelonia mydas) was investigated using passive acoustic telemetry in Ningaloo Marine Park, north-western Australia.Eighty-one turtles ranging in size from 42 to 104 cm CCL were captured on their foraging grounds and tagged with acoustic tags.2. Individuals were monitored for up to 913 days (range 48-913 days, median 367 days). Turtles of all sizes demonstrated very high fidelity to their foraging area. Residence declined with turtle body size and home range increased with turtle body size, with an average 50% kernel utilization distribution (KUD) area of 0.29, 0.47, and 0.57 km 2 for juveniles, subadults, and adults, respectively.3. Juveniles occurred only in shallow inshore habitat dominated by seagrass and macroalgae-covered pavement. Subadults and adults selected macroalgaecovered pavement, sandy areas of the lagoon, and macroalgae-dominated patch reefs within the lagoon. 4. At high tide, juveniles were approximately 200 m closer to the shore than at low tide, but there was no tidal pattern of space use in subadult and adult turtles. 5. Less than 5% of turtles departed the array within 6 months and there was no evidence of developmental migrations in subadults.6. The results highlight the conservation potential for go-slow areas to minimize boat strike in areas of high turtle density, given the small and stable home ranges.Furthermore, the spatial segregation of juveniles, subadults, and adults will result in variability in the susceptibility of individuals to boat strike.7. The influencing factors that drive the developmental migrations of turtles to consecutive habitats as they grow, as well as movement away from foraging grounds in response to changes in habitat quality, are complex. The ability of acoustic telemetry to provide long-term data on all size classes of turtles within

Comparing acoustic and satellite telemetry: an analysis quantifying the space use of Chelonia mydas in Bimini, Bahamas

“…Similar to the findings of Babcock et al [45], both telemetry approaches provided comparable overall tracking durations in this study [45]. Our satellite tracking durations (20 to 234 d) were equivalent to those reported in recent studies tracking juvenile green turtles [92,93]; however, the acoustic tracking durations (8 to 237 d) were considerably shorter than those in the current literature, which have tracked individuals for over a year and even up to 2.5 years [94,95]. Range distributions in particular are heavily influenced by the number of times an individual crosses its range (i.e.…”