Gabon 2009-10: Pongara, Leatherback Turtles

Data provider
Marine Turtle Research Group
Originating data center
Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT)
Project partner
The partnerships' work in Gabon, which includes satellite telemetry of marine turtles (leatherback and olive ridley turtles), training and capacity building in the use of fisheries vessel monitoring systems and assessing the distribution and abundance of dolphins and whales is funded by the Darwin Initiative, which is financed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the UK Government under the project Darwin Marine Biodiversity Action Plan for Gabon.

Our work in Gabon is also supported by a range of additional funders, including the Natural Environment Research Council (UK; Award NER/S/A/2004/12980), the Large Pelagics Research Center, funded through NOAA (US; Award NA04NMF4550391), the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, through the Shellshock campaign, and the European Social Fund. The Gabon Turtle Partnership receives funding from the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund (US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Department of the Interior).

Since 2005, a partnership of conservation biologists and Non-Governmental Organisations, lead by the University of Exeter & Seaturtle.org, The Gabon Turtle Partnership, Parcs Gabon and the Wildlife Conservation Society have been fitting satellite transmitters to leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting in Gabon (Atlantic Coast, Central Africa), whose beaches host the worlds largest nesting aggregation of leatherback turtles, see link.

This year's fieldwork is taking place in Pongara National Park, northwest Gabon, where the parternship has fitted 2 leatherback turtles with satellite tracking devices. The two turtles have been named Darwinia, after the projects funders (Darwin Initiative), and Noelle after the Christmas period.

Threats faced by leatherback turtles on the nesting beaches, in the coastal zone and in the open-sea are numerous; satellite tracking enables us to build an understanding of their critical habitats, with the hope to inform plans to limit negative interactions with human activities.

This years fieldwork follows the successes of last year, where females were tracked using Argos-linked GPS telemetry, see the project page. In previous nesting seasons we have attached satellite transmitters to leatherback turtles nesting in Mayumba National Park, in the southwest of Gabon.

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Visit STAT's project page for additional information.

The dataset has been updated over time as outlined below. Each entry includes the version number, release date, type of change, and a short description.

Overview

Attributes are defined by seaturtle.org.

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
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
sort	Internal use
uid	Unique ID assigned by STAT
prognum	Program number
tag_id	PTT ID
utc	Date and time in UTC
lc	Location class
iq	Quality indicator
lat1	Latitude in decimal degrees
dir1	Dir 1
lon1	Longitude in decimal degrees
dir2	Dir 2
lat2
dir3	Dir 3
lon2
dir4	Dir 4
nb_mes	Number of messages received
big_nb_mes
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
tsn	ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
timestamp	Numeric timestamp
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
dataset_id	Dataset ID by OBIS-SEAMAP