Cape Cod Sea Turtle Release 2007

Data provider
New England Aquarium
Originating data center
Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT)

The New England Aquarium (NEAq) has been rehabilitating stranded sea turtles for more than twenty years. The majority of sea turtles that are treated at NEAq come from annual cold stun stranding events on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. Each fall and winter, juvenile and sub-adult sea turtles strand on Cape Cod beaches after experiencing cold-stunning. Cold stunning, or hypothermia, in sea turtles is thought to occur when water temperature quickly drops below 50ºF (10ºC). Sudden cooling of ocean water temperatures leaves the turtles torpid and floating at the surface, unable to swim or dive, and allows them to be pushed by strong sustained storm winds onto the windward shore. Since the 1980s, NEAq has worked with the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (WBWS) to save these threatened and endangered species.

NEAq has recently begun using satellite telemetry to study the post release survivorship of these rehabilitated turtles. Our primary goal is to learn about the survivorship of these animals. We will also be studying and observing their habitat use and migration routes post-release.

We wish to thank the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries for their continued support of the Massachusetts Sea Turtle Network. In addition we would like to thank our volunteers and the kind folks at the Cross Sound Ferry for their dedication and continued support to the preservation of sea turtles and other marine life.

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Visit STAT's project page for additional information.

Overview

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