Sea Sense satellite tracked green sea turtles from Tanzania 2012 under SWIOFP

Sea Sense

Dataset credit

Sea Sense
Institut Français pour L'Exploitation de la Mer
Kélonia

Contacts

RoleNameOrganization 
Primary contact Lindsey West Sea Sense
Secondary contact Mayeul Dalleau CEDTM
Secondary contact Jérôme Bourjea IFREMER
Data entry Ei Fujioka Duke University

Citation

West, L., M. Dalleau and J. Bourjea. 2014. Sea Sense satellite tracked green sea turtles from Tanzania 2012 under SWIOFP. Data downloaded from OBIS-SEAMAP (http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1122) on yyyy-mm-dd.

Abstract

Satellite tags were deployed on three nesting green turtles (Chelonia mydas) between March and July 2012 to address data gaps concerning the spatial dynamics of green turtle nesting populations in Tanzania. Tags were deployed in Temeke District which supports one of the largest green turtle rookeries in Tanzania.

Tag durations ranged from 24 to 36 days. All three individuals went on to lay further clutches of eggs after tag deployment which provided valuable data on inter-nesting behaviour. Two individuals spent their inter-nesting periods at the same location, 30km south of the nesting grounds.

Two of the tags failed before post-nesting migrations commenced. One of the turtles was tracked during a post nesting migration to a foraging ground on the north-west coast of Pemba Island (Tanzania).

This was the first sea turtle satellite telemetry project ever to be carried out in Tanzania and has confirmed the location of an important foraging ground in Pemba Island and a site utilised by gravid females during inter-nesting periods.

Purpose

The purpose of the satellite tracking project under SWIOFP was to facilitate the development of effective and sustainable management recommendations for protecting sea turtles at foraging and nesting sites and during migratory periods.

In Tanzania specifically, little is understood about the spatial dynamics of sea turtles which periodically move hundreds of kilometres between feeding grounds and nesting sites. There is a paucity of data concerning the location of important foraging habitats and migratory corridors and the true extent of fisheries interactions during various stages of the turtle life cycle. Lack of basic data is proving to be a major obstacle to the development and implementation of specific conservation and management actions in the wider western Indian Ocean region.

Supplemental information

N/A

References

Attributes

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
All attributes are included in the downloadable file (CSV or ESRI File Geodatabase) for "Complete Set of Dataset".

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)Description
oidUnique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
latitudeLatitude in decimal degrees
longitudeLongitude in decimal degrees
tag_idTag ID
obs_datetimeDate and time of observation in local time calculated by OBIS-SEAMAP
datetime_utcDate and time of observation in UTC
lcLocation class
time_zoneTime zone of the datetime_utc values (always UTC)
obs_countNumber of animals (always 1)
age_classAge (always Adult)
sp_tsnTaxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
sp_obsSpecies name recorded
providerData provider
ownerData owner
tagging_latLatitude of tagging location
tagging_lonLongitude of tagging location
countryCountry
geomGeometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
OBIS-SEAMAP ID1122
Seabirds0
Marine mammals0
Sea turtles703
Rays and sharks0
Other species0
Non spatial0
Non species0
Total703
Date, Begin2012-03-29
Date, End2012-08-15
Temporal prec.111111
Latitude-7.33 - -4.71
Longitude39.29 - 39.78
Coord. prec.5 decimal digits
PlatformTag
Data typeTelemetry location
TracklinesYES (ID: 1123)
Traveled (km)1,376
Travel hours2,090
Contr. through
Registered2014-03-10
Updated2014-10-07
StatusPublished
Sharing policy CC-BY (All)
Shared with OBIS*
GBIF (via DOI)*
* Aggregated summary
See metadata in static HTML
See metadata in FGDC XML
See download history / statistics