International movements of adult female leatherback turtles in the Caribbean: results from tag recovery data (2002-2013)

Horrocks, Julia A.; Stapleton, Seth; Guada, Hedelvy J.; Lloyd, C.; Harris, E. J.; Fastigi, M.; Berkel, Jessica; Stewart, Kimberly; Gumbs, James C.; Eckert, Karen L.

doi:10.3354/esr00718

Cited by 19 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In contrast, leatherback turtles have been shown to nest hundreds of kilometres apart within the same nesting season at multiple locations (e.g. Stewart et al, 2014;Horrocks et al, 2016). From available satellite tracking (Witt et al, 2008) and tag return data (unpublished data, Angela Formia), it is clear that leatherback turtles nesting in southern Gabon and the Republic of the Congo exhibit similar behaviour and so likely form part of one extended nesting population, with individuals utilising waters and nesting beaches of both countries within the same season.…”

Section: Nesting Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Missing Data in Sea Turtle Population Monitoring: A Bayesian Statistical Framework Accounting for Incomplete Sampling

et al. 2022

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Monitoring how populations respond to sustained conservation measures is essential to detect changes in their population status and determine the effectiveness of any interventions. In the case of sea turtles, their populations are difficult to assess because of their complicated life histories. Ground-derived clutch counts are most often used as an index of population size for sea turtles; however, data are often incomplete with varying sampling intensity within and among sites and seasons. To address these issues, we: (1) develop a Bayesian statistical modelling framework that can be used to account for sampling uncertainties in a robust probabilistic manner within a given site and season; and (2) apply this to a previously unpublished long-term sea turtle dataset (n = 17 years) collated for the Republic of the Congo, which hosts two sympatrically nesting species of sea turtle (leatherback turtle [Dermochelys coriacea] and olive ridley turtle [Lepidochelys olivacea]). The results of this analysis suggest that leatherback turtle nesting levels dropped initially and then settled into quasi-cyclical levels of interannual variability, with an average of 573 (mean, 95% prediction interval: 554–626) clutches laid annually between 2012 and 2017. In contrast, nesting abundance for olive ridley turtles has increased more recently, with an average of 1,087 (mean, 95% prediction interval: 1,057–1,153) clutches laid annually between 2012 and 2017. These findings highlight the regional and global importance of this rookery with the Republic of the Congo, hosting the second largest documented populations of olive ridley and the third largest for leatherback turtles in Central Africa; and the fourth largest non-arribada olive ridley rookery globally. Furthermore, whilst the results show that Congo’s single marine and coastal national park provides protection for over half of sea turtle clutches laid in the country, there is scope for further protection along the coast. Although large parts of the African coastline remain to be adequately monitored, the modelling approach used here will be invaluable to inform future status assessments for sea turtles given that most datasets are temporally and spatially fragmented.

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Section: Nesting Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Missing Data in Sea Turtle Population Monitoring: A Bayesian Statistical Framework Accounting for Incomplete Sampling

et al. 2022

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“…The insertion of flipper tags to sea turtles was reported to be directly correlated to an outbreak of FP affecting the green turtle population foraging along the coast of Congo-Brazzaville in Western Africa, which motivated an indefinite ban of the technique of sea turtle flipper tagging in 2018 in French metropolitan and oversea territories present in all Oceans (Girard, 2018;GTMF, 2018;Hargrove et al, 2016). This essay argues there exists an absence of reports regarding captured-marked-recaptured sea turtles significantly suffering from FP tumors at the site of insertion of flipper tags neither from gray nor from peer-reviewed literature (e.g., Balazs, 1982;Hargrove et al, 2016;Horrocks et al, 2011Horrocks et al, , 2016Klemm, 1984;Moncada & Prieto, 1999;Moncada et al, 2023;Omeyer et al, 2019;Stacy et al, 2017), and that, inconsistently, although the insertion of PIT tags in sea turtles also disrupts sea turtles' skin integrity, this identification technique has not yet been suspected to trigger the clinical expression of FP at the insertion point (Hargrove et al, 2016;Stacy et al, 2017). Moreover, this essay analyzes that while oncogenic ChHV5 has been infecting sea turtle populations asymptomatically for million of years (Herbst et al, 2004;Manes, 2023), sea turtle FP seems to have emerged concomitantly in two distinct disease hotspots in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Coral Triangle during the first half of the 20th century.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A T A B L E 1 Results of a global assessment of three impacts of the sea turtle flipper tagging technique on their health and conservation: a risk of correlation of the clinical expression of a fibropapillomatosis (FP) tumoral lesion at the flipper tag insertion site-set in comparison with a risk of a FP lesion at a passive integrated transponders (PIT) tag insertion site-a risk of entanglement in fishing gears, and a deterrent effect on sea turtle fishing. Carr (1980), Hargrove et al (2016), Shaver et al (2019), Stacy et al(2017),Wood and Wood (1993) (1992),Horrocks et al (2011Horrocks et al ( , 2016 Williams et al (1994). St-Croix St-Thomas St-.…”

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confidence: 99%

The tale of the sea turtle flipper tagging technique, a global environmental impact assessment

Saladin,

Freggi

2024

Wildlife Letters

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Although sea turtle flipper tagging is a tenet field technique generating irreplaceable scientific data worldwide since the inception of sea turtle conservation in 1920s along the Great Barrier Reef, the procedure was reported to trigger outbreaks of sea turtle fibropapillomatosis (FP) in 2018. This global environmental impact assessment performed during 2020–2023 meta‐analyzed three impacts on sea turtles health and conservation of the presence of visible flipper tags: a risk of clinical expression of FP lesions at the tag insertion point, a deterrent effect of the presence of flipper tags on sea turtle fishing, and a risk of entanglement of sea turtles in fishing gears. This essay concluded that the risk of expression of a FP lesion at the flipper tag insertion point is most probably correlated to a direct inoculation of ChHV5 via infected tagging equipment, and that the risk of entanglement in fishing gears can be mitigated by the choice of metallic flipper tags over plastic flipper tags. This essay also strongly recalls the sea turtle flipper tagging technique represents a remedy to knowledge gaps relevant to climate velocity research and can be a deterrent on sea turtle fishing in a frame of strong partnerships with indigenous people, independently of communities' socio‐cultural backgrounds.

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“…Leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea are highly migratory animals, often moving vast distances between nesting and foraging habitats (James et al 2005, Hays et al 2006, Shillinger et al 2008, Fossette et al 2014, Horrocks et al 2016. Estimating population size for widely dispersed species can be feasible if these species form seasonal aggregations, as happens with seabirds (Patterson et al 2008, Lynch et al 2010), whales (Lindsay et al 2016) and marine turtles (Stokes et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thirty years of leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea nesting in Espírito Santo, Brazil, 1988-2017: reproductive biology and conservation

Colman¹,

Thomé²,

Almeida³

et al. 2019

Endang. Species. Res.

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In the southwestern Atlantic Ocean, leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea are only known to regularly nest in eastern Brazil, on the coast of the state of Espírito Santo. Here, we present an analysis of the nesting ecology, population trends and conservation status of this leatherback turtle colony between 1988 and 2017. We observed an increasing, although variable, trend in the annual number of nests, with the mean increasing from 25.6 nests in the first 5 yr of the study to 89.8 in the last 5 yr. Concurrently, there was also a significant decrease in the mean curved carapace length of the population, which we hypothesize was caused by recruitment of new females to the nesting population. Throughout the study period, nests were concentrated in the southern part of the 160 km long study area. No change was observed in the annual median nesting date. Mean annual hatching success was 66.0% and no significant variation in hatching success was detected after a major spill of mining tailings into the nesting area in 2015. We postulate that local conservation actions that started in the 1980s have contributed to the gentle recovery of this population; however, given the small population size and restricted nesting geographical distribution alongside the persistence of various threats-fisheries bycatch, climate change, pollution and coastal development-this population continues to be of conservation concern.

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International movements of adult female leatherback turtles in the Caribbean: results from tag recovery data (2002-2013)

Cited by 19 publications

References 29 publications

Missing Data in Sea Turtle Population Monitoring: A Bayesian Statistical Framework Accounting for Incomplete Sampling

Missing Data in Sea Turtle Population Monitoring: A Bayesian Statistical Framework Accounting for Incomplete Sampling

The tale of the sea turtle flipper tagging technique, a global environmental impact assessment

Thirty years of leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea nesting in Espírito Santo, Brazil, 1988-2017: reproductive biology and conservation

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