Identifying Sea Turtle Home Ranges Utilizing Citizen-Science Data from Novel Web-Based and Smartphone GIS Applications

Establishing how wildlife viewing pressure is distributed across individual animals within a population can inform the management of this activity, and ensure targeted individuals or groups are sufficiently protected. Here, we used social media data to quantify whether tourism pressure varies in a loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta population and elucidate the potential implications. Laganas Bay (Zakynthos, Greece) supports both breeding (migratory, and hence transient) and foraging (resident) turtles, with turtle viewing representing a major component of the tourism industry. Social media entries spanning two seasons (April to November, 2018 and 2019) were evaluated, and turtles were identified via photo‐identification. For the 2 years, 1684 and 2105 entries of 139 and 122 unique turtles were obtained from viewings, respectively (boats and underwater combined). However, while residents represented less than one‐third of uniquely identified turtles, they represented 81.9 and 87.9% of all entries. Even when the seasonal breeding population was present (May to July), residents represented more than 60% of entries. Notably, the same small number of residents (<10), mostly males, were consistently viewed in both years; however, different individuals were targeted by boats versus underwater. Thus, turtles appear to remain in the area despite high viewing intensity, possibly indicating low disturbance. However, photo‐identification records revealed a high risk of propeller and boat strike to residents (30%) leading to trauma and mortality. To reduce this threat, we recommend the compulsory use of propeller guards for all boats, compliance with speed regulations and the creation of temporary ‘refuge’ zones for resident animals at viewing hotspots, with these suggestions likely being relevant for other wildlife with similar population dynamics. In conclusion, social media represents a useful tool for monitoring individuals at a population scale, evaluating the pressure under which they are placed, and providing sufficient data to refine wildlife viewing guidelines and/or zoning.

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“…Di Minin et al ., 2019) and wildlife distributions (e.g. Baumbach et al ., 2019; Casale et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social media reveals consistently disproportionate tourism pressure on a threatened marine vertebrate

Papafitsoros

Panagopoulou²,

Schofield

2020

Animal Conservation

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“…Marine tourism is increasingly oriented towards the observation of charismatic megafauna such as sea turtles (Bell et al 2008;Williams et al 2017;Baumbach et al 2019). The green turtle, Chelonia mydas and the hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, use the Brazilian coast as a nesting and foraging ground, and both are found on national and international threatened species lists, however, most of the feeding grounds are understudied (Santos et al 2011;IUCN 2022).…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen science to determine sea turtles’ spatio-temporal parameters on a subtropical foraging ground

Neves-Ferreira

Mello-Fonseca

Ferreira

2022

Preprint

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Sea turtles spend most of their life cycle in foraging grounds. Nevertheless, given the logistical ease, bulk of studies are carried out in nesting grounds. One strategy to gather information in foraging grounds is the use of cost-effective and non-invasive techniques that allow public participation. The present study aimed to use photographic-identification to investigate the spatio-temporal distribution of Chelonia mydas and Eretmochelys imbricata. Furthermore, we describe the occurrence of fibropapillomatosis. This work was carried out at subtropical rocky reefs of the Brazilian coast in Arraial do Cabo (22°57’S, 42°01’W), within a sustainable conservation unit. The images were obtained through social media screening, citizen science and intentional capture. A total of 641 photos (between 2006 and 2021) and 19 diving forms (between November 2019 and March 2020) were obtained. All diving forms presented at least one turtle. The photo-id identified 174 individuals of C. mydas, with 45 resighted individuals. E. imbricata had 32 individuals identified, and 7 individuals resighted. The median interval between the first and last individual sighting was 1.7 years for C. mydas and 2.4 years for E. imbricata. Fibropapillomatosis was only observed in C. mydas, with a prevalence of 13.99% and regression in 2 individuals (10.00%). The results indicated Arraial do Cabo as an important development area for sea turtles with resident individuals showing fidelity for at least 6 years. As the region accumulates anthropogenic impacts, it is critical to propose significant management measures to protect sea turtles from continuous and synergistic impacts, mainly on resident individuals.

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“…In particular, with respect to sea turtles, citizen science has been exploited in many different ways during the last years, in a variety of studies. These range from determining foraging and nesting habitat distributions (Hudgins et al ., 2017; Montagna et al ., 2017; Baumbach et al ., 2019; Casale et al ., 2020; Hanna et al ., 2021; Read and Jean, 2021), and evaluating tourism pressure (Papafitsoros et al ., 2021) to documenting polyandry in loggerhead sea turtles (Papafitsoros et al ., 2022). Typically in these type of studies photo-identification is also employed, exploiting the unique facial scale pattern of sea turtles, which is stable throughout their lifetime (Schofield et al ., 2008; Carpentier et al ., 2016), allowing for monitoring of specific individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social media mining and photo-identification detects the shift of long-term seasonal foraging habitat for a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle

Papafitsoros

2022

Preprint

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Animal imagery uploaded on social media has been identified as an important tool in wildlife research and conservation and has been used in a variety of recent studies. Here a case study is presented, where a detailed analysis of social media content revealed a shift of a long-term foraging habitat for a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) in Greece. In particular, this individual was a long term resident of Zakynthos island, Greece, from 2016 until 2020 (5 consecutive summer seasons), regularly foraging on a nearshore reef, with no observations of it being made during the 2021 season. However regular social media image mining combined with photo-identification, detected this individual foraging in the Gulf of Corinth in August 2021, more that 200km away from his previous foraging habitat. This case study (i) shows the possibility for juvenile loggerheads to shift their foraging site even after long term use, with implications in capture-mark-recapture studies and (ii) once more highlights the useful- ness of social media mining and citizen science in diverse aspects of sea turtle studies.

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Identifying Sea Turtle Home Ranges Utilizing Citizen-Science Data from Novel Web-Based and Smartphone GIS Applications

Cited by 17 publications

References 55 publications

Social media reveals consistently disproportionate tourism pressure on a threatened marine vertebrate

Social media reveals consistently disproportionate tourism pressure on a threatened marine vertebrate

Citizen science to determine sea turtles’ spatio-temporal parameters on a subtropical foraging ground

Social media mining and photo-identification detects the shift of long-term seasonal foraging habitat for a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle

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