Pan-Atlantic leatherback turtle movements

Hays, Graeme C.; Houghton, Jonathan D. R.; Myers, Alan A.

doi:10.1038/429522a

Cited by 161 publications

(164 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Leatherbacks undergo the longest migrations of any sea turtle species, crossing ocean basins to forage on cnidaria zooplankton such as jellyfish and salps (James and Herman, 2001;Hays et al, 2004;James et al, 2005;Benson et al, 2007a, b). Their large size and unique thermoregulatory adaptations allow them to inhabit tropical and temperate oceans (Frair et al, 1972;Greer et al, 1973).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Health Assessment of Western Pacific Leatherback Turtles (Dermochelys Coriacea) Foraging Off the Coast of California, 2005–2007

Harris

Benson

Gilardi

et al. 2011

Journal of Wildlife Diseases

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Health Assessment of Western Pacific Leatherback Turtles (Dermochelys Coriacea) Foraging Off the Coast of California, 2005–2007

Harris

Benson

Gilardi

et al. 2011

Journal of Wildlife Diseases

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“…Leatherbacks thermoregulate in varied thermal environments (Paladino et al 1990), make epic migrations (Morreale et al 1996, Eckert & Sarti 1997, Ferraroli et al 2004, Hays et al 2004, James et al 2005, have the fastest growth rate (Zug & Parham 1996) and largest reproductive output (Reina et al 2002) of any turtle, and are among the largest living reptile species (200 to 900 kg). Further, leatherbacks are specialist predators for gelatinous zooplankton prey (Bjorndal 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The recent dramatic decline in global leatherback populations is chiefly due to extensive egg-harvesting and adult mortality due to direct hunting and incidental fisheries interactions within the leatherbacks' extensive range (see analyses by Spotila et al 2000, Ferraroli et al 2004, Hays et al 2004, Lewison et al 2004, Troëng et al 2004, James et al 2005, Kaplan 2005). However, effects of climatically altered resource availability on energy acquisition, which have not been considered in these analyses, may also have significant impacts on the viability of leatherback populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy budget calculations indicate resource limitation in Eastern Pacific leatherback turtles

Wallace

Kilham²,

Paladino³

et al. 2006

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Resource availability constrains energy allocations to competing functions such as growth and reproduction, and thus influences animal life-histories and population dynamics. Leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea are critically endangered and exhibit physiological and life-history traits unique among marine reptiles. In addition, leatherback nesting populations in the North Atlantic (NA) are, on average, larger, produce more eggs, exhibit shorter remigration intervals (RIs, time between nesting seasons), and generally demonstrate more stable population trends than Eastern Pacific (EP) nesting leatherback populations. In order to compare energy requirements of inter-basin leatherback populations, we estimated costs associated with reproduction to calculate the energy budgets of leatherback populations from the EP and the NA. Our estimations illustrate that in contrast to reported trends in RIs of these populations (EP = 3.7 yr; NA = 2 yr), NA leatherbacks should require RIs between 1.5 to 4 times longer than their EP counterparts to accumulate sufficient energy to return to their nesting beaches for an entire reproductive season. These results indicate that resource limitation might lengthen RIs for EP leatherbacks compared to NA leatherbacks, thus decreasing the EP population's reproductive success and increasing its exposure to risk of fisheriesrelated mortality. We hypothesize that stochastic resource availability related to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is exacerbating the effects of high incidental fisheries mortality, resulting in plummeting EP leatherback populations. Therefore, management strategies for fisheries should allow little, if any, mortality of Pacific leatherbacks if there is to be any reasonable hope for recovery of this population.

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“…Both (2) and (3) would minimize potential injuries to turtles and researchers. Hays et al (2004b) reported successful deployments of similar recorders by attaching an ADR directly to a flipper tag with a wire, which can be cut to retrieve the ADR without removing the flipper tag. More research is necessary to reduce handling time and mutilation of animals when electronic recorders and transmitters are deployed to study their natural behavior.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extremely deep (>1000 m) and long dives reported in Eckert et al (1989) were not found in our study. Although it has been reported that leatherback turtles can dive deeper than 1000 m and longer than 30 min, these dives are rare (Hays et al 2004b). The sample sizes of these studies were too small to make conclusive remarks on diving behavior of nesting leatherback turtles.…”

Section: Tracked a Loggerhead Turtlementioning

confidence: 99%

Flipper tagging with archival data recorders for short-term assessment of diving in nesting female turtles

Eguchi¹,

Seminoff²,

Garner³

et al. 2006

Endang. Species Res.

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Archival data recorders (ADRs) were deployed on nesting female leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea to record short-term diving behavior. Plastic cattle ear tags were used as a platform to which an archival depth recorder was attached. The tags were applied to the hind flippers of 10 turtles, ranging from 141.9 to 160.6 cm in curved carapace length at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. We later retrieved 7 of the original 10 tags at the beach; durations of deployment ranged from 22 to 90 h. The recorded number of dives per deployment ranged from 118 to 310. Maximum dive depths ranged from 175.6 to 479.7 m (mean 275.4, SE 41.7, n = 7), and maximum dive durations ranged from 16.3 to 27.8 min (mean 21.3, SE = 1.5, n = 7). Dive data indicated that post-nesting females dove deeper, less frequently, and longer than pre-nesting females -depth: mean post 78.6 m, 95% CI (56.0, 101.2) versus mean pre 45.4 m, 95% CI (37.1, 53.8); frequency: mean post 2.4 dives h -1 , 95% CI (1.8, 2.9) versus mean pre 5.4 dives h -1 , 95% CI (5.0, 5.8); duration: mean post 13.1 min, 95% CI (11.2, 15.1) versus mean pre 6.1 min, 95% CI (5.5, 6.6). A pre-nesting female was defined as one that attempted to nest but returned to the sea without laying eggs. This ADR deployment method provides a simpler and less intrusive alternative to other tag attachment methods, such as harness and tethers, when the research questions require only short deployment time of archival recorders.

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Pan-Atlantic leatherback turtle movements

Cited by 161 publications

References 6 publications

Comparative Health Assessment of Western Pacific Leatherback Turtles (Dermochelys Coriacea) Foraging Off the Coast of California, 2005–2007

Comparative Health Assessment of Western Pacific Leatherback Turtles (Dermochelys Coriacea) Foraging Off the Coast of California, 2005–2007

Energy budget calculations indicate resource limitation in Eastern Pacific leatherback turtles

Flipper tagging with archival data recorders for short-term assessment of diving in nesting female turtles

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