Gulf Green Turtle Project 2016-2019

Nicolas Pilcher, Marine Research Foundation & Marina Antonopoulou, Emirates Nature WWF

Dataset credit

Nicolas Pilcher, Marine Research Foundation

Contacts

RoleNameOrganization 
Primary contact Nicolas Pilcher Marine Research Foundation
Data entry Ei Fujioka Duke University

Citation

Pilcher NJ, CJ Rodriguez-Zarate, MA Antonopoulou, D Mateos-Molina, HS Das & I Bugla. 2020. Combining laparoscopy and satellite tracking: successful round-trip tracking of female green turtles from feeding areas to nesting grounds and back. Global Ecology & Conservation. doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01169.

Abstract

Marine turtles are integral components of the Arabian region marine ecosystems, and a priority conservation component of national and regional conservation programmes. Sea turtles are protected in all countries bordering the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and are a priority species in Emirates Nature-WWF's Strategy 2015-2020, as well as WWF’s Global Marine Turtle Strategy 2012-2020 (WWF, 2012).

Turtles are in danger from accidental bycatch of juveniles and adults in fishing operations, marine habitat alteration and degradation, exploitation of eggs, loss of nesting beaches, and potentially through rising temperatures with climate change. Younger turtles are also impacted by cold-stunning events during winter months.

A small number of protected areas exist which encompass certain life stages of sea turtles in the Gulf region, but these are spatially-limited given the state of knowledge on turtle habitat use - we have little information on where green turtles migrate to following nesting areas, and where key foraging and development grounds are found.

The Gulf Green Turtle Project will allow us to decipher the migration paths of green sea turtles, as these comprise the most abundant turtle species in the inner Gulf region and the second most abundant in Oman, and will identify linkages between foraging and nesting populations within the important Gulf biogeographic region, allowing us to guide conservation actions and raise awareness of the importance of marine turtle populations.

Data resulting from this work will inform managers of critical in–water habitats utilised by Arabian turtles, and allow them to aim concerted conservation activities, including fishery regulation where applicable, to preserve turtles through all phases of their live cycle.

Purpose

N/A

Supplemental information

[2023-01-27] Additional 48 tags were appended.

This project is implemented by Emirates Nature - WWF, formerly known as Emirates Wildlife Society-WWF, with scientific advice from the Marine Research Foundation (MRF).

The data is also available at the STAT web site (http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/?project_id=1199) but this version is different as the data shared with OBIS-SEAMAP was filtered by the provider.

References

Pilcher NJ, CJ Rodriguez-Zarate, MA Antonopoulou, D Mateos-Molina, HS Das & I Bugla. 2020. Combining laparoscopy and satellite tracking: successful round-trip tracking of female green turtles from feeding areas to nesting grounds and back. Global Ecology & Conservation. doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01169.

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)
uidUnique ID
tagTag ID
datetimeDate/time of the location at UTC
lcLocation control
lat1Latitude in decimal degrees
lon1Longitude in decimal degrees
speciesSpecies name
sp_tsnTaxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_countNumber of animal. Always 1
tag_locationTag location (BT: Bu Tinah; RAK: ...)
sexSex
geomGeometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP
OBIS-SEAMAP ID2069
Seabirds0
Marine mammals0
Sea turtles7,788
Rays and sharks0
Other species0
Non spatial0
Non species0
Total7,788
Date, Begin2016-05-16
Date, End2019-10-17
Temporal prec.111110
Latitude12.55 - 26.80
Longitude39.91 - 69.45
Coord. prec.3 decimal digits
PlatformTag
Data typeTelemetry location
TracklinesYES (ID: 2070)
Traveled (km)62,017
Travel hours137,801
Contr. throughSEAMAP_TO_SWOT
Registered2020-07-08
Updated2023-01-30
StatusPublished
Sharing policy CC-BY (All)
Shared with SWOT
OBIS*
GBIF (via DOI)*
* Aggregated summary
See metadata in static HTML
See metadata in FGDC XML
See download history / statistics