Cayman Islands 2003: Loggerhead & Green Turtles
Cayman Islands Department of Environment

Marine Turtle Research Group

When Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman Islands in 1503, he named them Las Tortugas (the turtles). Ferdinand Columbus recounted that the islands were ?full of tortoises, as was all the sea about, insomuch as that they looked like little rocks? The green turtle population was estimated at over 6.5 million turtles at the time of the discovery, and turtle fishing (turtling) came to form the basis of the economy and culture of the Cayman Islands. This historical importance is memorialized in our Coat of Arms and currency, but by the beginning of the 19th century, commercial exploitation had driven the immense green turtle nesting population in the Cayman Islands to the brink of extinction.
Wild turtles continue have a central place in the memories and experiences of many of our citizens, but today, only a few dozen nesting sea turtles remain. Where do these endangered greens and loggerheads go after they leave our beaches? With the help of schools and the community, the Cayman Islands Department of Environment and the Marine Turtle Research Group have begun a satellite telemetry project to track our historically and culturally important sea turtles for the first time.

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Project partner
This project represents a collaborative effort between the Cayman Islands Department of Environment and the Marine Turtle Research Group.

Project sponsor
The Department of Environment and MTRG would like to thank Erika and Jacob Olde for their sponsorship of ?Samia? and Year 7 and 8 students of St. Ignatius High School for their sponsorship of Shelby and Myles. St. Ignatius students received generous donations from Rotary International, Bank of Butterfield, Tortuga Rum Company, and the Final Touch. This research is also supported by Cayman Wildlife Connection, and a grant from the Natural Environment Research Council to MTRG. Finally, Sirtrack Inc made this project possible by providing custom-build KiwiSat 101 PTTs almost immediately after St. Ignatius students completed their fund-raising and an order was placed.

Overview

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downlodable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission unless otherwise noteded below.

Attributes in dataset provided

Attribute (table column)	Description
sort
uid
prognum
tag_id
year
mon
day
hour
min
sec
utc
lc
iq
lat1
dir1
lon1
dir2
lat2
dir3
lon2
dir4
nb_mes
big_nb_mes
best_level
pass_duration
nopc
calcul_freq
altitude
sensors
species
tsn
timestamp
project_id
lc_filter
speed_filter
distance_filter
topo_filter
time_filter
angle_filter
oid