Cayman Islands 2005: Green Turtles

Data provider
Marine Turtle Research Group
Originating data center
Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT)
Project partner
This project represents a collaborative effort between the Cayman Islands Department of Environment and the Marine Turtle Research Group of the University of Exeter in Cornwall (UK).


Project sponsor or sponsor description
Satellite transmitter and associated satellite time for Green Turtle 1 was supported by the Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP) - a joint initiative of the UK's Department for International Development and Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in partnership with the UK Overseas Territories.

When Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman Islands in 1503, he named them Las Tortugas (the turtles). Ferdinand Columbus recounted that the islands were ?full of tortoises, as was all the sea about, insomuch as that they looked like little rocks? The green turtle population was estimated at over 6.5 million turtles at the time of the discovery, and turtle fishing (turtling) came to form the basis of the economy and culture of the Cayman Islands. This historical importance is memorialized in our Coat of Arms and currency, but by the beginning of the 19th century, commercial exploitation had driven the immense green turtle nesting population in the Cayman Islands to the brink of extinction. Wild turtles continue have a central place in the memories and experiences of many of our citizens, but today, only a few dozen nesting sea turtles remain. Where do these endangered greens and loggerheads go after they leave our beaches? With the help of schools and the community, the Cayman Islands Department of Environment and the Marine Turtle Research Group have begun a satellite telemetry project to track our historically and culturally important sea turtles for the first time.

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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