Saving the sea turtles of Anguilla: Combining scientific data with community perspectives to inform policy decisions

Soanes, Louise; Johnson, James T.; Eckert, Karen L.; Gumbs, K.; Halsey, Lewis G.; Hughes, George R.; Levasseur, K. E.; Quattro, Joseph M.; Richardson, RG; Skinner, Jonathan; Wynne, Stuart P.; Mukhida, Farah

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109493

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…More broadly, this study adds to a growing body of telemetry research on hawksbills in the Caribbean Region (Becking et al, 2016;Esteban et al, 2015;Hart et al, 2019;Horrocks et al, 2001;Maurer, Dawson, et al, 2022;Moncada et al, 2012;Nivière et al, 2018;Revuelta et al, 2015;Soanes et al, 2022;Troëng et al, 2005;van Dam et al, 2008). Tracking work, combined with studies using other methodologies, such as flipper tag returns (Horrocks et al, 2011;Moncada et al, 2012), may represent a basis for developing a 'foraging-centric' view of geographic distributions that would build upon seminal 'nesting-centric' concepts (see point 3 below for more).…”

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Indeed, the Leeward Islands and neighbouring territories have served as the site of a large proportion of hawksbill transmitter deployments from Caribbean nesting beaches to date (e.g. Hart et al, 2019; Soanes et al, 2022), likely biassing observations of relatively high foraging use. Tracking individuals from additional rookeries will be necessary to refine the understanding of foraging distributions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Diverse migratory strategies for a hawksbill sea turtle population

Maurer,

Seminoff,

Burford Reiskind

et al. 2024

Aquatic Conservation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Outside of short, infrequent visits to reproductive habitats, sea turtle lifespans are largely spent in foraging areas. Supporting imperilled populations in an era of biodiversity declines and environmental change requires improvements in the understanding of foraging distributions, plus the migratory corridors that connect foraging and reproductive habitats. This study evaluates the migratory strategies and foraging geography of hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Western Atlantic. The post‐nesting migrations of 22 females were tracked via satellite telemetry from Long Island, Antigua, during 2016–2019, and a state‐space model was utilized to estimate true turtle locations from Argos satellite fixes. Model output was used to characterize migratory routes and home ranges occupied during non‐migratory inter‐nesting and foraging periods. Hawksbill migrations (N = 19) resulted in displacements to foraging areas ranging 7–2300 km. Foraging geography varied considerably—whereas eight turtles remained in the immediate vicinity of Antigua and Barbuda (<30 km), there were also longer‐distance migrations (>470 km) to locations such as The Bahamas and Nicaragua. Inter‐nesting core home ranges (50% utilization distributions) ranged from 7 to 72 km2, while foraging core areas ranged from 7 to 46 km2. These results add to evidence suggesting that, broadly, post‐nesting hawksbills forage in neritic habitats throughout the Wider Caribbean, including several high‐use areas. Short displacements to foraging habitats relatively nearby to nesting beaches appear to be the most common migratory behaviour, but individuals in a single population may exhibit various migratory strategies, resulting in basin‐wide connectivity between nesting and foraging sites. Given that a single individual or nesting population may inhabit several management jurisdictions, an idealized scenario for regional hawksbill conservation would entail data sharing between managers at linked nesting areas, foraging habitats and migratory corridors such that policies to protect key habitats and mitigate human impacts are designed and evaluated based on best‐available science.

show abstract

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diverse migratory strategies for a hawksbill sea turtle population

Maurer,

Seminoff,

Burford Reiskind

et al. 2024

Aquatic Conservation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Female leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea), for example, are not as strictly philopatric as other species [74], and individuals display a range of nesting behaviours with some laying nests over 400 km apart in a single nesting season [75]. Hawksbill females, by contrast, are among the more faithful of sea turtles to their natal nesting beaches [76][77][78][79], but many populations are genetically connected through male-mediated gene flow, particularly when rookeries are located along the same coastline [80,81]. Compared to what has been reported for hawksbills in other parts of the world, the level of genetic differentiation observed among Hawaiian nesting complexes was high and unexpected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-random mating within an Island rookery of Hawaiian hawksbill turtles: demographic discontinuity at a small coastline scale

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hawksbill sea turtles ( Eretmochelys imbricata ) from the Hawaiian archipelago form a small and genetically isolated population, consisting of only a few tens of individuals breeding annually. Most females nest on the island of Hawai'i, but little is known about the demographics of this rookery. This study used genetic relatedness, inferred from 135 microhaplotype markers, to determine breeding sex-ratios, estimate female nesting frequency and assess relationships between individuals nesting on different beaches. Samples were collected during the 2017 nesting season and final data included 13 nesting females and 1002 unhatched embryos, salvaged from 41 nests, of which 13 had no observed mother. Results show that most females used a single nesting beach laying 1–5 nests each. From female and offspring alleles, the paternal genotypes of 12 breeding males were reconstructed and many showed high relatedness to their mates. Pairwise relatedness of offspring revealed one instance of polygyny but otherwise suggested a 1 : 1 breeding-sex ratio. Relatedness analysis and spatial-autocorrelation of genotypes indicate that turtles from different nesting areas do not regularly interbreed, suggesting that strong natal homing tendencies in both sexes result in non-random mating across the study area. Complexes of nearby nesting beaches also showed unique patterns of inbreeding across loci, further indicating that Hawaiian hawksbill turtles have demographically discontinuous nesting populations separated by only tens of km.

show abstract

“…Female leatherback turtles ( Dermochelys coriacea ), for example, are not as strictly philopatric as other species (Thorson et al 2012), and individuals display a range of nesting behaviors with some laying nests over 400 km apart in a single nesting season (Stewart et al 2014b). Hawksbill females, in contrast, are among the more faithful of sea turtles to their natal nesting areas (Bowen et al 2007; Monzón-Argüello et al 2011; Gaos et al 2016; Soanes et al 2022), but many populations are genetically connected through male-mediated gene flow, particularly when rookeries are located along the same coastline (Phillips et al 2014; Levasseur et al 2019; see also Roden et al in review). Compared to what has been reported for hawksbills in other parts of the world, the level of genetic differentiation observed among Hawaiian nesting complexes was high and unexpected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-random mating between nesting sites of Hawaiian hawksbill turtles: demographic discontinuity within a small isolated population

Horne

Dutton

Frey

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) from the Hawaiian archipelago form a small, genetically isolated, population consisting of only a few tens of individuals breeding annually. Most females nest on the island of Hawaii, but little is known about the demographics of this rookery. This study used genetic relatedness, inferred from 135 microhaplotype markers, to determine breeding sex-ratios, estimate female nesting frequency, and assess relationships between individuals nesting on different beaches. Samples were collected during the 2017 nesting season and final data included 13 nesting females and 1,002 unhatched embryos, salvaged from 41 nests, 13 of which had no observed mother. Results show that most females used a single nesting beach laying 1-5 nests each. From female and offspring alleles the paternal genotypes of 12 breeding males were reconstructed and many showed high relatedness to their mates. Pairwise relatedness of offspring revealed one instance of polygyny but otherwise suggest a 1:1 breeding-sex ratio. Relatedness analysis and spatial-autocorrelation of genotypes indicate non-random mating among complexes of nesting beaches, for both sexes, suggesting strong natal philopatry. Nesting complexes also showed unique patterns of inbreeding and outbreeding across loci, further indicating that Hawaiian hawksbill turtles have demographically discontinuous nesting populations at a fine spatial scale.

show abstract

Saving the sea turtles of Anguilla: Combining scientific data with community perspectives to inform policy decisions

Cited by 5 publications

References 32 publications

Diverse migratory strategies for a hawksbill sea turtle population

Diverse migratory strategies for a hawksbill sea turtle population

Non-random mating within an Island rookery of Hawaiian hawksbill turtles: demographic discontinuity at a small coastline scale

Non-random mating between nesting sites of Hawaiian hawksbill turtles: demographic discontinuity within a small isolated population

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About