Loggerhead turtle movements in the Southern California Bight

Data provider
NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Originating data center
Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT)
Project partner
This project is under the leadership of scientists at the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). This federal organization is responsible for effective management of our U.S. based fisheries. To do so requires that management decisions be based on the best available science. This project is developed to generate such information, particularly as it relates to fisheries time-area closures in the Southern California Bight.
Project sponsor or sponsor description
This project is a collaboration among scientists at the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, CA, and the NMFS West Coast Regional Office in Long Beach, CA. The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA is a key partner and has served as the rehabilitation institution for two turtles (Coco and Char Char) tracked so far as part of this project. SeaWorld - San Diego has also been a key contributor, serving as the rehabilitation center for Ruth. Additional partners include ICAPO and Ralph Pace Photography. The NMFS permit number for Coco's satellite tracking research is 14510.

Endangered North Pacific loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) are distributed widely throughout the North Pacific Ocean. Scientists have known that juvenile loggerhead turtles originating from Japanese nesting beaches cross the Pacific Ocean to access the productive waters off the Pacific Coast of North America, although the movements of these loggerhead turtles in U.S. waters of southern California are poorly understood. This project's goal is to track the movements of juvenile loggerheads in this portion of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. Understanding their movement patterns, and how they relate to oceanographic conditions in the region will provide significant information for management efforts aimed at reducing human impacts to loggerheads in this area.

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Visit STAT's project page for additional information.

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.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downloadable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission.

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
prognum	Program number
tag_id	PTT ID
lc	Location class
iq	Quality indicator
dir1	Dir 1
nb_mes	Number of messages received
big_nb_mes	definition not provided
best_level	Best signal strength in dB
pass_duration	Pass duration in seconds
nopc	Number Of Plausibility Checks successful (from 0-4)
calcul_freq	Calculated frequency
altitude	Altitude used for location calculation
sensors	Sensors
species	Species name
project_id	STAT Project ID
lc_filter	Parameters to location filtering
speed_filter	Parameters to speed filtering
distance_filter	Parameters to distance filtering
topo_filter	Parameters to topo filtering
time_filter	Parameters to time filtering
angle_filter	Parameters to angle filtering
life_stage	Life stage of the animal
gender	Gender of the animal
wetdry	Wet or dry
wetdry_filter	Parameters to Wet or dry filterint
obs_datetime	Date and time (local time zone)
timezone_h	Time difference from UTC