Gulf Green Turtle Project 2016-2019 Deployments 2017

Data provider
Emirates Wildlife Society WWF - Marine Research Foundation
Originating data center
Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT)
Project partner
This project is implemented by the Emirates Wildlife Society - WWF (EWS-WWF) with scientific advice from the Marine Research Foundation (MRF).

The Emirates Wildlife Society is an environmental non-governmental organization registered in the United Arab Emirates. Since its establishment in 2001, EWS has been working in association with WWF. The mission of EWS-WWF is to work with people and institutions within the UAE and the region, to conserve biodiversity, tackle climate change and reduce the ecological footprint through education, awareness, policy, and science-based conservation initiatives. So far, projects have included the establishment of protected areas, protection of species and habitats and increasing environmental awareness through education programmes.

The Marine Research Foundation conducts management-oriented research to support conservation of marine resources, particularly sea turtles and dugongs, in Southeast Asia and other Indo-Pacific sites. The Foundation carries out a number of projects related to biodiversity assessment and conservation, and provides management-oriented solutions to Government administrations and conservationists. Based in Malaysia, MRF runs projects in numerous countries and has a key focus area in the Middle East, with current direct involvement in marine turtle projects in Qatar, UAE, and Oman, and past involvement in projects in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Yemen.

Project sponsor or sponsor description
This project is implemented with the gracious and generous participation of the following agencies:

The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi
The Environment Protection & Development Authority- Ras Al Khaimah
The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment - United Arab Emirates
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change - Sultanate of Oman
The Environment Society of Oman
Five Oceans Environmental Services
The Environment and Protected Areas Authority - Sharjah

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 EWS-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 inâ€"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.

Only tags deployed in 2017 are displayed on this site.

N/A

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