Marine turtle sightings, strandings and captures in French waters 1990-2003

https://doi.org/10.82144/6ce1d23a https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/877 https://www.gbif.org/dataset/41419ee9-ef8d-4f80-8dd3-dc7716c7f82c https://obis.org/dataset/fe0652c6-1899-49b5-a013-5aa94b45813f Marine turtle sightings, strandings and captures in French waters 1990-2003 Matthew Witt University of Exeter Primary contact M.J.Witt@exeter.ac.uk OBIS-SEAMAP Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University

A328 LSRC building Durham NC 27708 US

seamap-contact@duke.edu https://seamap.env.duke.edu OBIS-SEAMAP Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University

A328 LSRC building Durham NC 27708 US

seamap-contact@duke.edu https://seamap.env.duke.edu distributor Matthew Witt University of Exeter Primary contact M.J.Witt@exeter.ac.uk owner 2025-07-31 eng Original provider: Matthew Witt, University of Exeter Dataset credits: Matthew Witt, University of Exeter Abstract: We present data spanning approximately 100 years regarding the spatial and temporal occurrence of marine turtle sightings and strandings in the northeast Atlantic from two public recording schemes and demonstrate potential signals of changing population status. Records of loggerhead (n = 317) and Kemp’s ridley (n = 44) turtles occurring on the European continental shelf were most prevalent during the autumn and winter, when waters were coolest. In contrast, endothermic leatherback turtles (n = 1,668) were most common during the summer. Analysis of the spatial distribution of hard-shell marine turtle sightings and strandings highlights a pattern of decreasing records with increasing latitude. The spatial distribution of sighting and stranding records indicates that arrival in waters of the European continental shelf is most likely driven by North Atlantic current systems. Future patterns of spatial-temporal distribution, gathered from the periphery of juvenile marine turtles habitat range, may allow for a broader assessment of the future impacts of global climate change on species range and population size. Occurrence GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type.xml Observation GBIF Dataset Subtype Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_subtype.xml Marine Biology Visual sighting Land-based Sightings N/A Abstract is from Witt et al. 2007; data included in this dataset are a subset of data presented in Witt et al. 2007. References: Duguy, R. 1990. Observations de tortues marines en 1990 (Manche et Atlantique). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 7:1053–1057. Duguy, R. 1992. Observations de tortues marines en 1991 (Atlantique). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 8:35–37. Duguy, R. 1993. Observations de tortues marines en 1992 (Atlantique). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 8:129–131. Duguy, R. 1994. Observations de tortues marines en 1993 (Atlantique). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 8:235–238. Duguy, R. 1995. Observations de tortues marines en 1994 (Atlantique). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 8:403–406. Duguy, R. 1996. Observations de tortues marines en 1995 (Atlantique). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 8:505–513. Duguy, R. 2004. Observations de tortues marines en 2003 (cotes Atlantiques). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 9:361–366. Duguy, R., P. Moriniere and A. Meunier. 1997a. Observations de tortues marines en 1997. Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 8:761–779. Duguy, R., P. Moriniere and M.A. Spano. 1997b. Observations de tortues marines en 1996 (Atlantique). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 8:625–632. Duguy, R., P. Moriniere and A. Meunier. 1999. Observations de tortues marines en 1998 (Atlantique). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime:911–924. Duguy, R., P. Moriniere and A. Meunier. 2000. Observations de tortues marines en 1999. Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 8:1025–1034. Duguy R, P. Moriniere and A. Meunier. 2001. Observations tortues marines en 2000 (Atlantique et Manche). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 9:17–25. Duguy, R., P. Moriniere and A. Meunier. 2002. Observations de tortues marines en 2001 (Atlantique et Manche). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 9. Duguy, R., P. Moriniere and A. Meunier. 2003. Observations de tortues marines en 2002 (Atlantique et Manche). Annales de la Societe des Sciences Naturelles de la Charente-Maritime 9:265–273. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License. https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/877 Oceans,United Kingdom -4.83 2.3667 51.05 43.39 1990-01-08 2003-08-10 Scientific names are based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). species Caretta caretta Loggerhead sea turtle species Lepidochelys kempii Kemp's ridley We set out to determine the spatial and temporal trends for sightings, strandings and captures of hard-shell marine turtles in the northeast Atlantic from two recording schemes. One recording scheme (presented here) included marine turtle sightings, strandings and captures occurring in French waters that originated from annual sightings and strandings publications of Duguy and colleagues (Duguy 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2004; Duguy et al. 1997a, b, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003). Records presented in Duguy publications prior to 2001 contained location descriptions, providing no geographic coordinates with error estimates. Longitude and latitude positions for these events were estimated to be the closest coastal point to the descriptive location. Duguy publications, 2001 onwards, were accompanied by maps displaying the approximate location of sightings and strandings events. These maps were digitized and georeferenced and coordinate positions determined for all appropriate records. Georefenced hard-shell turtle (Lk and Cc) capture/sighting/stranding records from the papers of Duguy for France 1990-2003 (featured in Witt et al. 2007) only includes records that could have coordinates derived from their locational descriptions. The second recording scheme used were records of sightings and strandings of marine turtles in the British Isles obtained from the TURTLE database operated by Marine Environmental Monitoring. Data from the TURTLE database were submitted to EurOBIS and can be viewed on OBIS-SEAMAP: <a href="http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/103151990">Marine Turtles.</a> notPlanned Matthew Witt University of Exeter Primary contact M.J.Witt@exeter.ac.uk NA NA NA Marine turtle sightings, strandings and captures in French waters 1990-2003 Matthew Witt owner NA zd_877 2025-07-31T15:50:16-04:00 dataset Witt, M. 2012. Marine turtle sightings, strandings and captures in French waters 1990-2003. Version 1.0.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/6ce1d23a. OBIS-SEAMAP Dataset Page UTF-8 Interactive map https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/877 FGDC Metadata UTF-8 XML https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/877/fgdc EML Metadata UTF-8 XML https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/877/eml OBIS-SEAMAP zd_877 zd_877 Witt, M.J., R. Penrose and B.J. Godley. 2007. Spatio-temporal patterns of juvenile marine turtle occurrence in waters of the European continental shelf. Marine Biology: 151:873-885.