Sea turtle tracking in Bonaire 2003-2011

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Of the four species of marine turtles commonly observed breeding in the Caribbean, three species, the loggerhead (Caretta caretta), the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) and the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) regularly nest on the beaches of Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean.
Whereas juvenile green and hawksbill turtles can be observed year-round in the neritic waters surrounding Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, adult marine turtles are only rarely seen outside of the breeding season, which combined for the three species lasts from May to December. In-water surveys of marine turtles conducted in all potential foraging habitats around the islands indicate that adult marine turtles are seasonal visitors and do not reside permanently in the islands’ waters.
We used satellite telemetry starting in 2003 to address the question of where the foraging grounds are located of the turtles breeding at Bonaire and Klein Bonaire. Our principal objectives were to identify the migratory pathways and the foraging ground locations of post-reproductive marine turtles, in order to deepen our understanding of the potential threats facing these animals.

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2012-10-12: A sea turtle identified as 'Valley' was not properly registered and was not shown on the map. The issue is fixed.
2012-10-12: Turtles identified 'Funny' and 'STINAPA' got wrong tag ids. The issue is fixed.

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.
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)
obs_date	Date recorded
obs_time	Time recorded
lc	ARGOS location class (B and Z classes removed)
latitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
longitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
sp_obs	Species name recorded
sp_tsn	ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number assigned by OBIS-SEAMAP
obs_count	Animal count (always 1)
series	Tag ID with turtle name
geom	Geometry field added by OBIS-SEAMAP