Equatorial Guinea 2014: Foraging Green Sea Turtles

Data provider
Marine Turtle Research Group
Originating data center
Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT)
Project partner
Wildlife Conservation Society, Instituto Nacional de Desarrollo Forestal y Manejo del Sistema de Areas Protegidas - Proyecto TOMAGE, Manga, Marine Turtle Research Group
Project sponsor or sponsor description
Tullow Oil, US Fish and Wildlife Service US Department of the Interior

La Región Continental de Guinea Ecuatorial alberga importante hábitat de alimentación para juveniles de tortuga verde (Chelonia mydas) y carey (Eretmochelys imbricata), clasificadas como en peligro y en peligro critico de extinción, respectivamente. Después de un cierto número de años perdidos en alta mar, los juveniles de ambas especies reclutan a aguas costeras, posiblemente a miles de kilómetros de sus playas natales. Zonas rocosas poco profundas adecuados para esta etapa de desarrollo incluyen tres áreas protegidas a lo largo de la costa continental de Guinea Ecuatorial - la Reserva Natural de Río Campo, la Reserva Natural Punta Ilende y la Reserva Científica de Playa Nendji - gestionadas por el Instituto Nacional para el Desarrollo Forestal y la Gestión de las Áreas Protegidas (INDEFOR). Una mejor comprensión del uso del hábitat de las tortugas marinas en esta región es fundamental para informar a todos los esfuerzos de conservación o de mitigación de impactos. En junio de 2014, hemos implementado un estudio de telemetría satelital en una pequeña muestra de tortugas para obtener una primera visión de la utilización del hábitat marino de los juveniles que se encuentran a lo largo de la costa continental de Guinea Ecuatorial.

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Equatorial Guinea’s mainland hosts important foraging habitat for juvenile green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), classified as endangered and critically endangered, respectively. After a number of “lost years” in the high seas, juveniles of both species recruit to nearshore waters, potentially thousands of kilometres from their natal beaches. Suitable shallow rocky areas for this developmental stage include three protected areas along Equatorial Guinea’s mainland coastline - the Rio Campo Natural Reserve, Punta Ilende Natural Reserve and Playa Nendji Scientific Reserve - managed by the government’s Institute for Protected Area Management and Forestry Development (INDEFOR). A better understanding of habitat use of sea turtles in this region is fundamental to inform all subsequent conservation or impact mitigation efforts. In June of 2014, we have implemented a study of satellite telemetry in a small sample of turtles to get a first look at the use of the marine habitat of juvenile found along the mainland coast of Guinea Equatorial.

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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