International Movements of Adult Female Hawksbill Turtles (<i>Eretmochelys imbricata</i>): First Results from the Caribbean's Marine Turtle Tagging Centre

Horrocks, Julia A.; Krueger, Barry H.; Fastigi, M.; Pemberton, Emile L.; Eckert, Karen L.

doi:10.2744/ccb-0875.1

Cited by 26 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Investigations of long-range movements (in cluding ontogenetic habitat shifts) of turtles from Glover's Reef add to the body of knowledge from previous studies in the region (e.g. Velez-Zuazo et al 2008, Blumenthal et al 2009a,b, Browne et al 2010, Agusa et al 2011, Horrocks et al 2011, Rincon-Diaz et al 2011a, Scales et al 2011, Hart et al 2012, Leroux et al 2012, Dunbar et al 2013) and advance our understanding of hawksbill ecology and management needs in Belize, as well as the relationship between this site and rookeries and feeding ag gregations in the wider Caribbean region falling within the 'Atlantic, Western Caribbean/USA' RMU (Wallace et al 2010). In addition, comprehensive genetic and contaminant analyses of the samples collected from 2010 to 2013 will provide further insights into the relationships between this population and others in the region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Hawksbill turtles cover extensive geographic areas throughout their lives in the West Atlantic (Bolten 2003, Horrocks et al 2011, Meylan et al 2011, which requires a regional ap proach to their management and conservation (Horrocks et al 2011, Moncada et al 2012, Campbell 2014. Investigations of long-range movements (in cluding ontogenetic habitat shifts) of turtles from Glover's Reef add to the body of knowledge from previous studies in the region (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In-water assessments of sea turtles at Glover’s Reef Atoll, Belize

Strindberg¹,

Coleman²,

Perez³

et al. 2016

Endang. Species. Res.

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The decline of sea turtle populations in the Caribbean has led to intensive recovery efforts. In Belizean waters, hawksbill turtles are seemingly making a comeback. At Glover's Reef Atoll particularly, juvenile hawksbill turtles are found in the fore-reef habitat. The population status and dynamics of this foraging aggregation were assessed to inform conservation management and to ascertain the national and regional importance of this site. During 12 sampling periods from 2007 to 2013, turtles of all species were counted, captured, and tagged. For hawksbill turtles, the capture-recapture histories were combined with the counts using a mark-resight analysis under a robust design. This provided estimates of abundance as well as survival and transition rates. From 2009 onward, distance sampling was also used to estimate density and abundance of hawksbill turtles and the less frequently encountered green and loggerhead turtles. Distance sampling provided a more cost-effective estimation method for multiple species and another more precise source of abundance estimates for hawksbills. This is the first study known to use either markresight or distance sampling methods during snorkel surveys of sea turtles. It produced reasonably congruent abundance estimates of >1000 juvenile hawksbills and an order of magnitude less of green and loggerhead turtles. The mark-resight analysis estimated an apparent juvenile hawksbill survival probability of 0.975 (95% CI: 0.936−0.99), indicating that mortality factors are low. The Atoll provides important developmental habitat for juvenile hawksbills, contributing to the recovery of the species on the national and regional scale.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In-water assessments of sea turtles at Glover’s Reef Atoll, Belize

Strindberg¹,

Coleman²,

Perez³

et al. 2016

Endang. Species. Res.

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show abstract

“…In these species, once sexual maturity is reached turtles begin periodic migrations between feeding and breeding/nesting areas, which are sometimes separated by thousands of kilometers (Miller, 1997), with females (Carr, 1967), and to a lesser extent males , exhibiting phylopatric or "natal homing" behavior. This has been verified using flipper tags (Limpus et al, 1992;Horrocks et al, 2011), satellite tracking (Luschi et al, 2006;Godley et al, 2010) and mtDNA markers Bowen et al, 1996), in which has demonstrated significant differences in the mtDNA haplotype frequencies among nesting populations (Bowen and The Wider Caribbean has also been the scene of political conflict in the management of E. imbricata. The majority of WC nations had already abandoned the legal fishery for this species when Cuba permanently closed its legal fishery in January 2008.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Approach to Mixed Stock Analysis that Informs on the Management and Conservation of Hawksbill in the Wider Caribbean: the Case of the Legal Fishery in Jardines del Rey, Cuba

Pérez-Bermúdez

Ruiz-Urquiola

<³

et al. 2017

ijms

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A new approach to mixed stock analysis that informs on the management and conservation of hawksbill in the wider Caribbean: the case of the legal fishery in Jardines del Rey, Cuba, International Journal of Marine Science, 7(33): 316-343 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2017.07.0033) Abstract Researchers have used mixed stock analysis (MSA) to infer the relevance of rookeries in sea turtle aggregations for conservation/management purposes. However, their approaches and assumptions are not always homogeneous or realistic. We assayed new MSAs using the annual haplotype frequencies of aggregations and rookeries of Eretmochelys imbricata in the Wider Caribbean (WC), and the population size was selected according to the sampler year most relevant on the maturity of the aggregation. The MSA results obtained using this approach were compared with MSAs executed with grouped haplotype frequency data as has been the most common practice in the literature. The relationship of Jardines del Rey (JR) legal fishing aggregation (Cuba) to other aggregations and rookeries in the region was analyzed with data collected in 2004 to 2006 and during the 1990s. The JR non-adult fishing ground presented high genetic diversity and Mexican rookery was identified as the primary contributor using haplotypes at the 384 bp length and each MSA approach that was used, congruent with the demographic growth reported for this rookery. Using haplotypes at the 740 bp length, the primary contributor to non-adult turtles at JR differed according to the MSA approach used, alternating between Mona Island and the Mexican rookery. Jardines del Rey is a route usually taken by non-adult hawksbills of diverse origin, reflecting the need to strengthen the sampling and conservation efforts on the WC rookeries with rare or orphan haplotypes, and to warn about the impact of the fishery occurring in similar areas. Likewise, adult turtles from JR were highly diverse and from multiple origins, with this area serving as a migratory corridor for first breeders (females) to many WC breeding grounds. Caution should be employed in any MSA approach due to the influence effect of sequence length, selection of the rookery size and haplotype frequencies, as well as other assumptions that may affect the estimated contributions.

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“…The data contrast with the first summary of international MTTC tag data in the WCR from hawksbill turtles Eretmochelys imbricata, where the majority of tags recovered from turtles tagged on nesting beaches were from deliberately harvested or incidentally captured animals at sea (Horrocks et al 2011). Rates of within-and betweenseason leatherback tag recoveries (2.8 and 4.3%, respectively) fall within previously published estimates (see Eckert et al 1989, Rondón-Médicci et al 2014, although Schulz (1971) reported 8.5% between rookeries in Suriname and French Guiana, perhaps because of the contiguous continental shoreline of the Guianas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…Since not all leatherback nesting beaches in the WCR are monitored, published data may underestimate the frequency of international movements. Notwithstanding, within-and between- season movements among rookeries by leatherbacks in the WCR is markedly higher than for hawksbills, for which no females have yet been recovered nesting outside the rookery in which they were tagged (Meylan 1999, Horrocks et al 2011. Leatherbacks moving from the tagging beach to a different location within a nesting season travelled an average straight line distance of ca.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%