elements should not change from controlled to uncontrolled (or vice versa). You provided a \"location\" prop initially but omitted it on a subsequent render.'\n );\n };\n}\n\nexport default Switch;\n","import React from \"react\";\nimport invariant from \"tiny-invariant\";\n\nimport RouterContext from \"./RouterContext.js\";\nimport HistoryContext from \"./HistoryContext.js\";\nimport matchPath from \"./matchPath.js\";\n\nconst useContext = React.useContext;\n\nexport function useHistory() {\n if (__DEV__) {\n invariant(\n typeof useContext === \"function\",\n \"You must use React >= 16.8 in order to use useHistory()\"\n );\n }\n\n return useContext(HistoryContext);\n}\n\nexport function useLocation() {\n if (__DEV__) {\n invariant(\n typeof useContext === \"function\",\n \"You must use React >= 16.8 in order to use useLocation()\"\n );\n }\n\n return useContext(RouterContext).location;\n}\n\nexport function useParams() {\n if (__DEV__) {\n invariant(\n typeof useContext === \"function\",\n \"You must use React >= 16.8 in order to use useParams()\"\n );\n }\n\n const match = useContext(RouterContext).match;\n return match ? match.params : {};\n}\n\nexport function useRouteMatch(path) {\n if (__DEV__) {\n invariant(\n typeof useContext === \"function\",\n \"You must use React >= 16.8 in order to use useRouteMatch()\"\n );\n }\n\n const location = useLocation();\n const match = useContext(RouterContext).match;\n return path ? matchPath(location.pathname, path) : match;\n}\n","import React from 'react'\r\nimport CompanyName from './Component/CompanyName'\r\nimport { Button } from '@mui/material'\r\nimport PhoneIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Phone';\r\nimport FaxIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Fax';\r\nimport { createTheme, ThemeProvider } from \"@mui/material/styles\";\r\nimport EmailIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Email';\r\nimport Link from '@mui/material/Link';\r\n\r\n\r\nconst theme = createTheme({\r\n palette: {\r\n primary: {\r\n main: \"#99aab5\", // custom primary color\r\n },\r\n secondary: {\r\n main: \"#F27920\", // custom secondary color\r\n },\r\n },\r\n});\r\n\r\nexport default function Contact() {\r\n return (\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n 4419 West Tradewinds Avenue \r\n Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33308\r\n
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\r\n \r\n } style={{ wordBreak: 'break-all', textTransform: 'lowercase', color: '#ffffff' }}>Info@savetheseaturtle.org\r\n
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THE FLORIDA HAWKSBILL PROJECT
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The mission of The Comprehensive Florida Hawksbill Research and Conservation Program (a.k.a. The Florida Hawksbill Project) is to study and protect the region's hawksbill sea turtles and the habitats in which they live. Within the scope of this project, numerous studies have been undertaken to characterize the hawksbill aggregations found in SE Florida waters, and educational programs have been developed to engage the local dive community in the protection of hawksbill sea turtles and coral reef habitats. This program is hosted by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation, located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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THE FLORIDA HAWKSBILL PROJECT
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Unlike several other species of sea turtles, hawksbills don't nest on Florida's beaches and have been traditionally thought of as rare in Florida waters. As a result, little is known of their role in Florida's marine habitats, though for decades they have been so familiar to SCUBA divers along Florida's Southeast Coast. As a highly endangered species and an important member of the coral reef community, understanding and conserving hawksbill turtles in this part of their range is important to the future of both. The Florida Hawksbill Project is the only long-term study of hawksbill turtles in this part of their range.
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The Hawksbill Sea Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
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For centuries, a lucrative global trade in hawksbill sea turtle shell (a.k.a. \"tortoiseshell\", which was used primarily for stylish personal items and artwork) reduced hawksbill turtle populations to near extinction. Though international laws prevent the trade of products derived from endangered species, these practices continue throughout their range. Combined with the additional pressures of egg harvesting and habitat loss, the future of this species remains uncertain. International conservation efforts over the last four decades have and will continue to work to stabilize hawksbill populations around the world, and we are proud to contribute to that effort.
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By studying the hawksbills of Florida, we are contributing to the ongoing effort to recover Caribbean hawksbill populations. Multi-national efforts are required to stimulate hawksbill conservation, in large part due to their large ranges and close association with the region's coral reefs. The hawksbill turtles we encounter in Florida's waters have immigrated from and will return to a variety of distant locations around the Caribbean, creating a melting pot of regional populations that can provide valuable insight to the biology and conservation of hawksbills on a regional scale.
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Our Research
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The Hawksbill Sea Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
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The most important long-term task of the Florida Hawksbill Project is to provide a basic census of hawksbill turtles in Florida State waters. Once we know where they are most likely to be found, we can focus our efforts on estimating what the overall population may be. From there, we can determine the relative contribution Florida makes to the larger-scale regional recovery of this species.
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Throughout their global range, hawksbill turtles are known to closely associate with coral reef habitats, mostly due to their preference for eating sponges and corals. Due to the large extent of Florida's barrier reefs (approx. 350 linear miles), the Hawksbill Project focuses on representative sites in the northern, central, and southern sections of the Southeast Florida Reef Tract. The barrier reefs of northern Palm Beach County, the patch reefs of the northern Keys, and the finger reefs of Key West are the primary locations for our sampling efforts.
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Hawksbill turtles from each site are hand captured, tagged, and sampled for a number of studies related to their movements, behavior, and physiology. Each individual is equipped with markers (a.k.a. “tags”) that enable the research team to identify them should they be encountered again. To date, over 225 hawksbill turtles have been individually tagged, at least 60 of which have been encountered more than once.
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One of the first things we learned is that there are many more hawksbills than were expected, which reveals how important the reefs of Palm Beach County are for young hawksbill turtles. We estimate their abundance by keeping track of how many we encounter during our overall time searching. The resulting 'catch per unit effort's generated by our work can be compared with those from other study sites around the Caribbean, and we have so far firmly established that Florida is host to a regionally significant number of hawksbill turtles.
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The hawksbills of Palm Beach are primarily sub-adults, or immature turtles that have not yet grown to reproductive maturity. Hawksbills, like other sea turtles, can be found in different geographic locations depending on their life-stage. We call Florida “developmental habitat” for young hawksbill turtles who will someday depart to spend the rest of their lives elsewhere as adults.
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Hawksbill sea turtles primarily feed on sea sponges, corals, and small invertebrates.
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The Florida Hawksbill Project focuses on the abundance and distribution of hawksbill turtles in Florida. Tags are placed on each turtles' flippers for future identification.
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Movements and Growth:
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Once tags are placed on a turtle, it can be distinguished from others. When these individuals are encountered repeatedly, we gain valuable insight to their movements and growth patterns. Dozens of tagged hawksbills have been reported within the study site, some individuals since the inception of the study in 2004, all within close proximity to where they were originally found. To gain more details, our satellite tracking study examined the home-range, or territory, of six hawksbills that all stayed within close proximity (about a half-mile) to their favorite underwater caves, which they returned to each night for months on end. These results suggest that at least some of Florida's hawksbills may stick around for the duration of their sub-adult life-stage, which is likely to be around 15 years. We're now using chemical traces of carbon and nitrogen in the turtles' tissues to follow their steps from their initial arrival in Florida as young juveniles through to their impending departure as young adults. We are also developing shell-mounted underwater cameras to record their interactions with each other and their environment. \r\n
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Origins:
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Since we know that the hawksbills found in Florida did not come from Florida (hawksbills don't nest with any regularity there), we were curious about their origins, and by extension, their future destinations. Since sea turtles return to their natal beaches to nest, we can detect subtle differences in DNA sequences that have developed between various regional sub-populations. The young hawksbills we find in Florida carry their DNA 'fingerprint' with them, which reveals their place of origin. Turns out, Florida is a melting pot of Caribbean hawksbills from as far south as Panama to as far east as the leeward islands, but most hatched on the beaches of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.\r\n
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Because hawksbill sea turtles don't nest in Florida withy any regularity, the Florida Hawksbill Project used DNA fingerprinting to determine the origins of Florida's populations. Though most come from the beaches of Mexico, Florida is a 'melting pot' of hawksbill turtles from around the Caribbean.
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The Florida Hawksbill Project team used satellite transmitters to examine the movement patterns of local hawksbill turtles living off Palm Beach, Florida. They all stayed in small areas surrounding a preferred nightly refuge for months on end.
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How You Can Help:
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You can support the groundbreaking research of the Florida Hawksbill Project through your individual, corporate, or institutional sponsorship. Consider becoming a member at any level, or join the distinguished members of the Elite Sea Turtle Society and earmark your contribution to The Florida Hawksbill Project. Thank You!\r\n
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Contacts: Dr. Larry Wood, Founder and Director of the Comprehensive Florida Hawksbill Research and Conservation Program (a.k.a The Florida Hawksbill Project) larry@floridahawkbills.com, or the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n ))}\r\n\r\n {emptyRows > 0 && (\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n )}\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n ▼, // Update dropdown icon color\r\n\r\n classes: {\r\n icon: '#000000', // Update dropdown icon color\r\n iconFilled: '#000000',\r\n iconOutlined: '#000000',\r\n IconButton: '#000000',\r\n },\r\n }}\r\n\r\n\r\n onPageChange={handleChangePage}\r\n onRowsPerPageChange={handleChangeRowsPerPage}\r\n ActionsComponent={TablePaginationActions}\r\n />\r\n \r\n \r\n
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Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
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For many years, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has been committed to enhancing the education and research facilities at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, located in Boca Raton, Florida.
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In the summer of 2014, Gumbo Limbo unveiled their new marine science research annex, operated and utilized by FAU professors and students. Renovations of this dated facility were funded by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation, totaling in excess of $80,000. Renovations to the facility included kid-friendly viewing areas so that the research happening down below could be seen by even the smallest of future marine biologists. The research area on the ground floor received a complete renovation and overhaul with new rust-resistant lab tables, washer/dryer, storage cabinets, as well as cutting edge lab equipment such as scales and UV sterilizers.
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“Because of rotting lights, we had rust dropping into our tanks,\" said Jeanette Wyneken, an FAU biology professor who works in the lab. \"We don't have to worry about that anymore. Part of doing good science is being able to control your environment.”
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Florida Oceanographic Society
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The first phase of the Florida Oceanographic Society's new seasonal sea turtle exhibit is underway. This exhibit, which has been sponsored by the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, will provide warm conditions for the Society's resident sea turtles during the cooler months of the year, when they would otherwise be kept out of the public's view. This system will also serve as a 'farm' for growing sea lettuce, a natural and nutritious food for the Society's captive green sea turtles.
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Environmental Studies Center
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The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation is a strong supporter of the Environmental Studies Center located in Jensen Beach, Florida. Recently, the Foundation donated a beautiful 12- foot sea turtle educational display board to bring a more dynamic and hands-on learning experience to the children who visit the facility.
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The display highlights the biology of sea turtles and focuses on conservation issues, such as pollution, and how they affect these endangered animals. The Center is part of the Martin County school district and serves as an educational facility for all the children in the County. Roughly 10,000 students pass through its doors each school year.
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In addition, the Center's teaching boat, the River Scout, received a major upgrade funded through a grant from the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation. Most notably, the boat received new paint and an exciting hull wrap depicting an underwater scene complete with a sea turtle, fish, and coral reef. Safety equipment including a new VHF radio and Garmin navigation system were installed. New life jackets were purchased for all the staff and students. Before being put back in the water, the River Scout's motors were inspected and made ready for the new school year.
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The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation works closely with the Inwater Research Group (IRG) to promote quality educational programming. The Foundation recently donated $31,350 to IRG to continue their international education initiative for K-12 students.
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The initiative is entirely free to teachers and includes tailor-made lesson plans, in-class outreach presentations, and new “traveling trunks” containing all the education material teachers would need to carry out four conservation-based lesson plans. Just this past year alone, the partnership has been able to reach over 20,000 students with these programs.
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The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation brings awareness about sea turtle conservation to the visitors of the North Beaches Art Walk in the Atlantic/Neptune Beach areas of Jacksonville Florida. The goal is to meet, educate, and encourage people to help protect sea turtles. On a typical art walk night (third Thursday of every month), the local community and visitors pack the streets of Atlantic/Neptune Beach Town Center area to enjoy this fun event.
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Propelling young scientists to save our seas
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National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Donates $60,000 to Fund Undergraduate Scholarships
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The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has donated $60,000 to Florida Atlantic University in support of four $15,000 undergraduate scholarships during the 2019-2020 academic year. The scholarships will provide financial assistance to Charles E. Schmidt College of Science seniors enrolled at the Boca Raton Campus who demonstrate academic excellence, financial need, and a commitment to become scholars and ambassadors that represent the Marine Science program at Florida Atlantic University. As such, they are expected to develop as well-rounded, skilled, and committed individuals who are motivated to engage the public through education, research and outreach activities appropriate to both their specific interests in the field, as well as those of importance in the field of marine biology.
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The ideal candidate is an undergraduate about to enter their senior year with interest in any aspect of marine biology research at the ecological, evolutionary, or behavioral level and educational outreach. Preference will be given to applicants in good standing in the biology department's Honors Thesis Program who demonstrate financial need, coupled with a commitment to community service, academic excellence, and a desire to enhance their ability to engage the public. These scholarships shall be awarded on the basis of need and merit without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, or disability.
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Scholarship Program Suports FAU Student
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For many years, the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University has been the recipient of numerous scholarships from the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation. These funds are used to support graduate research at the Master of Science and Doctoral levels. While in the past the Foundation has provided funding for projects involving marine turtles, this year the decision was made to support broader topics of research dealing with the conservation, management, and/or basic biology of marine fishes as well as turtles. This topical expansion also better reflects the interests of the department, which in recent years has expanded by hiring of several new and outstanding faculty members in the various subdisciplines of marine biology. Their students can now apply and compete for these important scholarships. You can help support and expand this important program by becoming an Elite Member of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation.
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Published quarterly, Florida Environmental Outreach Magazine is a full-color publication full of environmental news, current research, and National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation updates. A sure hit with readers of all ages! If you have an interesting topic or project you'd like our readers to know about, contact the Editorial Team at the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation to discuss your topic or submit an article.
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To get your own copies delivered straight to your home, sign up for your subscription at
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\r\n \r\n } className='mx-auto'>\r\n Outreach Subscription\r\n \r\n
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\r\n }\r\n aria-controls=\"panel1bh-content\"\r\n id=\"panel1bh-header\"\r\n >\r\n \r\n Facilities Enhancement\r\n
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\r\n }\r\n aria-controls=\"panel2bh-content\"\r\n id=\"panel2bh-header\"\r\n >\r\n Educational Outreach Programs
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\r\n }\r\n aria-controls=\"panel4bh-content\"\r\n id=\"panel4bh-header\"\r\n >\r\n Florida Environmental Outreach Magazine
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\r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Supports the Broward County Waterway Cleanup for 28th Year\r\n
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\r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation sponsored the 45th annual Broward County\r\n Waterway Cleanup Kick-off Party at the Marine Industries Association office in Fort\r\n Lauderdale on Thursday evening, February 5th from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Guests (including the\r\n Foundation’s own Kelly Flanagan and Bill Muller, upper left) enjoyed complimentary drinks\r\n and light hors d’oeuvres, and this year’s artwork created by MIASF’s Megan Piggott was\r\n unveiled. The partygoers also received limited edition Waterway Cleanup reusable cups. The\r\n 45th annual Broward County Waterway Cleanup, which was held on Saturday, March 5th, is\r\n organized by the Marine Industries Association of South Florida and Marine Industry Cares\r\n Foundation. The event is the County’s largest and longest-running environmental event. The\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has been a proud sponsor of the event since 1994.\r\n
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Florida Sea Turtles Get a Boost with Gift of New Boat
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The Marine Turtle Research Group has received a much-needed new boat that offers improved safety and research capabilities
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By Kyle Martin | February 25, 2022 - UCF Today
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Thanks to a trio of donors with a passion for supporting the state’s marine life , the new boat debuting this spring replaces a 1976 craft reaching the end of its lifespan. “I always joke our bimonthly team building exercise is fixing something on the boats,” says Kate Mansfield, an associate professor and director of the MTRG.
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Researchers will now be using a new and specially outfitted 17-foot Boston Whaler 170 Guardian for their work. The craft was provided by donations from the Folke H. Peterson Foundation and National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, and made possible with a purchase discount from Brunswick Commercial & Government Products, the parent company of Boston Whaler.
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“Boston Whaler and the Brunswick Commercial & Government Products Group supports environmental resource management and research efforts around the world,” says Kris Neff, president of Boston Whaler. “Our boats are ideally designed to handle the rigors and long-term serviceability of demanding applications, so we are confident that we are helping make a difference. Supporting the University of Central Florida and the Marine Turtle Research Group is particularly satisfying because we are a Florida-based company, and because conserving sea life directly aligns with our customers interests as boaters.”
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The MTRG is respected by scientists around the globe for its work unraveling sea turtle mysteries. Their legacy includes contributing to the establishment of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge — a critical pocket of protected shoreline for annual nest sites. In 2021, they were the first to track young green sea turtles to the Sargasso Sea during their “lost years.”
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Some of their research happens on shore, but much more comes from interacting with sea turtles on the water. Strict protocols allow them to safely net the turtles without endangering other marine life in the Indian River Lagoon, particularly dolphins and manatees. Deploying the net requires a careful choreography of boats, a procedure that quickly falls apart when an engine fails. “I need to know that the boat is safe and functional,” Mansfield says. “If we’re getting knocked around by the wind and the engine conks out, it’s dangerous for us and the animals.”
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When MTRG began working with Boston Whaler to order a new boat they had several specific requests, including stripping all the creature comforts, like coolers. With limited room aboard and multiple people handling different roles, it’s critical the net doesn’t snag on anything, Mansfield says. Another customization that sets this new craft apart is the additional balancing and buoyancy. Full-grown turtles weigh hundreds of pounds and hauling them, and even smaller turtles, aboard takes coordination. A heavy soggy net on the bow can also skew the balance.
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Mansfield says the new boat offers foremost increased efficiency and safety for the MTRG research team, but it’s also a win for turtle research. “MTRG has been providing critical insights into the habits and behaviors of sea turtles for decades, and we still have so much more to learn,” said Larry Wood, research coordinator for the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation. “We are excited to partner with them and play a part in furthering their research.”
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“I know this one is going to hold up under the stress. It essentially ensures our long-term projects continue,” Mansfield says.
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Reprinted with permission: University of Central Florida News | UCF Today UCF NEWS | STORIES OF IMPACT + INNOVATION | ORLANDO, FL
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Kate Mansfield and other researchers on the new boat UCF’s Marine Turtle Research Group will use to conduct research. (Photo by Nick Leyva ’15)
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Too Much of a Good Thing: Sargassum Blooms and Hatchling Production at a Local Nesting Beach
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Mike Salmon, Research Professor, Florida Atlantic University
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We are living in the Anthropocene age, in which human influence on the planet is so profound – and terrifying – it will leave its legacy for millennia. (Robert Macfarlane, The Guardian)
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It’s been known for many years that after Florida’s loggerhead and green turtle hatchlings crawl down the beach from their nest and enter the sea, they head for the Gulf Stream current where they find food and shelter in floating mats of an algae, known as Sargassum. These mats were first described by Christopher Columbus and his sailors in 1492, which reminded them of “salgazo,” small grapes in Portugal, and thus the name of the central gyre of the North Atlantic became the Sargasso Sea. However, until recently little was known about how these two species exploited this crucial “nursery”, and not surprisingly it turns out that they do so differently.
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Loggerhead hatchlings are generally dark brown in color, with a carapace (top shell) that in texture resembles an irregular clump of the algae. They generally crawl on top of the mat or float adjacent to it, and only move sporadically when food drifts close by (Figure 1). For that reason, they are known at this stage of their development as “sit-and-wait” predators. In comparison, green turtle hatchlings have a dark black carapace that contrasts in color with the browns of the algae. They hide in the mat by burrowing into it, with only their head protruding (1). They are also much more active than loggerheads. Until recently, they were rarely seen in the mats. That’s because when approached by either a predator or a boat with curious scientists on board, they avoid detection by diving under the Sargassum mat and swimming rapidly away.
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Another difference between the species is how Sargassum mats are exploited. Recent collaborative studies done by three Florida scientists (Kate Mansfield, Jiangang Luo and Jeanette Wyneken) revealed that most juvenile loggerhead remained associated with mats in the Gulf Stream, riding that current across to the eastern Atlantic (Figure 1). However, most juvenile green turtles of similar age leave the Gulf Stream and swim into the Sargasso Sea. Thus, green turtles differed from loggerheads geographically in where they spend their “lost years”. All of this information is vitally important since “... studies in which we learn where little sea turtles go to start growing up are fundamental to sound sea turtle conservation. If we don’t know where they are and what parts of the ocean are important to them, we are doing conservation blindfolded” (J. Wyneken).
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Figure 1. Upper left, loggerhead hatchlings rests above a Sargassum mat. Upper right, green turtle hatchlings rest within the mat with their head protruding to watch for approaching threats. Bottom: The Gulf Stream gyre encircles the Sargasso Sea. Loggerheads ride the gyre to nursery habitats on the east side of the Atlantic (brown star) while green turtles leave the gyre and reside in the Sea itself (green star).
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Historically, Sargassum rafts in the ocean have consisted of numerous long, narrow and shallow rafts, scattered like wisps hundreds of meters apart over the sea surface. That situation was promoted by the low concentration of nutrients in the Sargasso Sea, considered by oceanographers as a biological “desert”. But since the 1980’s, disturbing increases have occurred in the abundance and distribution of the algae in the Western North Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. These algal rafts have taken the form of massive “blooms”, or increases in the density and extent of the mats in the Caribbean and the open ocean, and in the major oceanic current systems in the Atlantic such as the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Gulf Stream (Figure 2).
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Figure 2. A huge raft of Sargassum, floating in the open ocean.
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The factor or factors involved in promoting these changes were unknown early on, but became apparent after marine ecologists began making key measurements. The culprits are geographically widespread and multiple (reviewed in 2): (i) forest clearing for agriculture in the Amazon, (ii) runoff of high concentrations of the nitrogen and phosphorus from those soils used to fertilize crops into the Amazon, Congo, and Mississippi rivers, and (iii) inputs of nutrient “dust” from Saharan African farming, carried by trade winds, and dropped into the western Atlantic and Caribbean seas.
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Those of us living in South Florida find these stories of nitrification painfully familiar! The addition of nutrients that enhance plant growth come from farms, groves, lawns, leaky septic tanks and golf courses. They wash into Lake Okeechobee and drain into the Everglades, and are also released into the Caloosahatchee and/or St. Lucie Rivers. This release of nutrient-rich waters results in algae blooms, hypoxic waters, and toxic conditions that lead to die-offs of fishes and other aquatic wildlife.
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Figure 3. Left: Sargassum accumulates on the beach, just above the surf zone where it might act as an obstruction that prevents hatchlings from entering the sea. Right: Josh measures some algae that has accumulated in the surf zone.
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Figure 4. Loggerhead hatchlings crawling from the nest to the sea at a Boca Raton nesting beach.
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The results revealed that those accumulations posed a real threat (3). Over 43 evenings when Josh measured responses to “natural” accumulations, there was a 22 % reduction in the number of hatchlings that could negotiate the barrier and swim offshore. The result: of the 12,730 hatchlings produced by that year, only an estimated 9,930 made it to the ocean.
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Figure 5. Results of an experiment to determine whether hatchlings can climb over Sargassum mats varying in elevation. Controls are tested in the absence of algae; all 16 crawl to the sea (lower numbers). As algal elevations increase, that proportion declines while those that fail increases (upper numbers). Finally, at elevations exceeding 30 cm, no turtles enter the sea.
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When manipulating algae elevation, he found that barriers exceeding 20 cm in height (almost 8 inches) significantly reduced the ability of the turtles to reach the ocean, and those exceeding 30 cm in elevation (12 inches) were a complete barrier (Figure 5).
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Impact on Marine Turtle Nesting Beaches
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Joshua Schiariti entered the Masters of Science program in biology at Florida Atlantic University with interests in animal behavior, and since that’s my field he became my student. We both were impressed by the obvious accumulation of Sargassum, both in the shallow surf zone and on the nesting beach at Boca Raton (Figure 3). Could those accumulations act as a barrier to a small turtle, crawling from the nest to the sea (Figure 4)? If so, then the algae might indeed represent a significant threat, one that reduced nesting beach “productivity” in a species whose numbers had already been negatively affected by human activity. If those populations are to recover, they must produce adequate numbers of hatchlings!
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To find out, Josh designed two kinds of experiments, each requiring that he determine how well loggerhead hatchlings negotiated the algal accumulations over the course of a nesting season. To find out, we obtained a state permit to obtain the turtles from nests in the afternoon of the evening when they would normally emerge. After dark, these turtles were released on the beach where they crawled into the mats. After observing their behavior, they were recaptured and released to begin their offshore migration.
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In one set of experiments, Josh measured the elevation of the algal mass left “naturally” on the beach each evening. Those tests allowed him to estimate how many turtles could crawl over, around or through accumulations that varied in density and elevation from one night to the next. In the second set of experiments, Josh released hatchling on the beach near to algal accumulations that he created, and that varied systematically in elevation. That enabled him to more precisely determine the probability that hatchlings encountering an algal barrier of specific elevation could cross it to reach the sea.
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When they encountered an algal mass, hatchlings either crawled along the edge until they became exhausted, reversed direction and crawled away from the sea, or fell backward after attempting to climb over the mass (Figure 6). Those that explored the barrier either managed to find a spot where they could climb over the algae, or crawled along the edge of the mass until they found an opening leading to the sea. But even when hatchlings successfully negotiated the algae mass, the time spent on land was increased. In a previous study, those delays in seafinding were shown to increase the probability that the turtle would be detected, and taken by, a terrestrial predator (4).
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There are presently ~ 8 billion humans on this planet. Ultimately, it is the expansion of the human population that serves as the impetus for most agricultural activity, coupled with the need for improved yields that drives the use of fertilizers that are now impacting oceanic ecosystems in increasingly negative ways. We in Florida are well aware of these relationships. Red tides, a bloom of a single-celled and highly toxic algal organism, were known to occur on rare occasions historically and in restricted locations in Florida waters. Today, these blooms are increasing in frequency, duration, severity and geographic extent. They are also strongly associated with nutrient influxes into coastal waters where they have devastating effects on fishes, turtles, manatees and marine invertebrates.
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Figure 6. Night-time photos show what happens to crawling hatchlings when they encounter the algae mat. Black arrow points toward the sea; white arrow show the turtle crawl direction. Upper left: a hatchling crawls parallel to the mat edge. If it finds an opening, it may reach the sea. Upper right: a turtle crawls over the mat to reach the sea. Lower left: a hatchlings falls backward landing upside-down after failing to scale the mat. Lower right: the turtle reverses direction and crawls away from the sea.
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It thus should come as no surprise that Sargassum, so essential as a nursery habitat for hatchling and juvenile turtles, has become “too much of a good thing”, and in the process may actually represent a threat to the recovery of these endangered and/or threatened species. Its blooms represent a symptom of how we are increasingly upsetting balances in natural ecosystems, and in the process causing immense harm to the planet and its inhabitants. Hopefully, we’ll soon reverse those trends, learn how to correct our behavior, and live more harmoniously with Mother Nature!
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(1) Smith, MM. & Salmon, M. A comparison between the habitat choices made by hatchling and juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and loggerheads (Caretta caretta). Marine Turtle Newsletter 126:9-13, 2009.
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(2) Lapointe, BE et al. 2021. Nutrient content and stoichiometry of pelagic Sargassum reflects increasing nitrogen availability in the Atlantic Basin. Nature Communications 12:3060, 1–10.
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(3) Schiariti, JP & Salmon M. 2022. Impact of Sargassum accumulations on loggerhead (Caretta caretta) hatchling recruitment in Southeast Florida, United States. Journal of Coastal Research (in press; DOI: 10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-21-00134.1.)
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(4) Erb, V & Wyneken J. 2019. Nest-to-surf mortality of loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) hatchlings on Florida’s east coast. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, 271. Doi:10.3389/fmars.2019. 00271.
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The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation recognizes the importance of targeted sea turtle conservation programs. While research informs and education inspires, conservation is where they come together for action. All around the State and beyond, small grass-roots organizations are having a huge impact on sea turtle conservation within their local communities. The Foundation is proud to sponsor these fine organizations!
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Broward County Nest Surveys -NOVA Southeastern
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For over 20 years, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s Adopt-A-Nest program has supported NOVA Southeastern University Oceanographic Center’s Students and Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program. The operation employs 23 field workers who are primarily NSU graduate students or recent graduates. They patrol over 38 km of Broward County beaches each morning at dawn, from March 1 through September 30. Endangered sea turtle nests are identified, marked, located by GPS and sometimes relocated from intensely lighted beaches to avoid hatchling disorientation.
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\r\n }>\r\n Visit Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program\r\n \r\n \r\n
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Sandy Point NWR, St. Croix, USVI
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The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has had a long-standing relationship with our colleagues at the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge in St. Croix, USVI. Their groundbreaking leatherback turtle research and conservation programs have changed the trajectory for this species in that area.
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\r\n }>\r\n Visit The St. Croix Sea Turtle Project\r\n \r\n \r\n
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Recently, we initiated the development of a Hawksbill Conservation Action Plan for the U.S. Virgin Islands that will provide a roadmap for the recovery of this critically endangered species in this part of its range. Built upon historic and current data, the HCAP will inform researchers, conservationists, and educators who wish to make a difference for the Island’s hawksbills now and into the future.
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Sea Turtle Adventures
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Established in 2016 when biologist Jacquelyn Kingston, after working with several adults with special needs, recognized that increased conservation awareness can enrich the lives of this under-served audience. For 18 years, Kingston has been authorized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to monitor sea turtle nests along a three-mile stretch of beach in southern Palm Beach County, Florida. Creating Sea Turtle Adventures offered a way to provide more environmental education through hands-on activities such as beach cleanups, observation of turtle monitoring, and presentations that effectively engage adults with disabilities in the community.
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Coastal Connections
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After finishing up her graduate studies and moving to Vero Beach, FL, Kendra Cope noticed a need in the communities in and around Florida’s Indian River County to provide interactive and educational programs that contribute to the protection of sea turtles and the habitats they need to survive. In 2017, Coastal Connections, Inc (CCinc) became a reality. Featuring programs that inspire communities to protect turtles and their nests on the beach, encourage sustainable practices via their “Vero Goes Zero” program, and Sea Turtle-Friendly Hotel Certifications, Coastal Connections is making a big difference for sea turtles in Indian River County.
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Virginia Key Nest Surveys
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During the 2021 sea turtle nesting season, the Marine Order for Research and Action through Environmental Stewardship (MORAES) initiated a volunteer-led sea turtle conservation program throughout Virginia Key Beach (VKB), near Miami Florida. The program, supported by the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, trained 20 volunteers, with varying backgrounds and interests, to look for and identify nesting sea turtle activity on the 2.5 mile stretch of beach which is located in Miami-Dade County and managed by the City of Miami. MORAES took on the permit and developed the volunteer program for the first time this past nesting season and the group believes it was a huge success.
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Permit, Sharks and Fishing in the Lower Keys: A Reel Dilemma
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Monica Gabrielle, Contributing Science Writer
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Green and silver hues flash beneath the surface far off in the distance as a fisheries researcher hops on to the gunwale. Polarized blue sunglasses slice through the afternoon glare as he calls back to the captain, “Permit! Two o’clock, 150 meters!”.
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What could easily be mistaken as a glare by the amateur fisher, is a tell-tale sign recognizable to the saltiest of fishers… PERMIT! Permit (Trachinotus falcatus) can be found along the western Atlantic but are more commonly seen in southern Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Reaching lengths over 40 inches and weighing anywhere from 20-45 lbs., permit are a highly valued sportfish that offer the fight of a lifetime. In the Keys and in Biscayne Bay, an important population of permit spend the majority of their time in the deep cuts near beaches and on the flats but move to deeper waters offshore in the spring to spawn near artificial and natural reefs. In the Florida Keys, 100’s to even 1000’s of permit aggregate between March and June during the full moons. That is where our story begins.
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The FIU Research Team
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Ph.D. Candidate Benjamin Binder
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While incredible to witness, this reproductive strategy is shared by over 150 species around the world. These “fish spawning aggregations” consist of 10’s-1000’s of individuals traveling several miles for the sole purpose of spawning during conspicuous times of the year. Not only do aggregations tend to recur during the same couple of weeks each year, they consistently travel to the same isolated stretch of reef or wreck to spawn. Variability in occurrence does exist, but aggregations are often subjected to exceptionally intense periods of fishing, some sites more popular than others, which can cause once vibrant fisheries to decline or even collapse. This is the case for permit, which are a prized target for offshore anglers while they are spawning. Permit are not listed as a species of concern under IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) guidelines, but due to the concerns of a declining population and overharvest at permit spawning sites in the Florida Keys, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commision (FWC) instituted a precautionary no harvest closure throughout the Florida Keys to protect spawning fish in the spring.
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This does not mean that the lucrative fishery has disappeared. In fact, the catch-and-release fishery remains nearly as strong as ever. Catch-and-release may not stand out as a problem on its own, and it does draw a significant amount of revenue to the Keys, but over the years permit have started to become even more elusive on the flats. Reports from regional inshore anglers have indicated that permit are becoming scarce on the flats, and they’ve attributed it to a unique source of mortality. Their concerns point towards depredation, or the consumption by sharks and larger fish during a fight when anglers would otherwise be practicing catch-and-release fishing. Which means, prohibiting harvest was not enough to keep these fish safe while they spawn. Not only does this concern local anglers, but also regional fisheries managers and non-profits that worked hard to see the creation of the spawning season closure years earlier. This prompted Florida International University (FIU) researchers, supported by Bonefish Tarpon Trust and the FWC, to take a closer look at permit aggregation fishing in the lower Keys. The Marine Ecology and Acoustics laboratory at FIU applies fascinating technology to answer important ecological questions in novel ways. Most of the technology has been widely used for decades, but their lab is constantly pushing the bar to find new ways to apply this powerful tool to coastal fisheries research.
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The multibeam provides a unique view of the underwater environment. In the image on the left, individual permit stand out against the darker background. On the right, four Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus perezi) can be seen pursuing and attacking an angled permit as it rushes towards the surface. High resolution imagery like this is used to validate species when water clarity, depth, or light levels prevent traditional methods from being successful.
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The project initially started at one of their most hallowed spawning grounds, Western Dry Rocks, a 1 square mile area of high relief contiguous reef around ~10 miles southwest of Key West. The project started small, with the goal of characterizing fishing pressure and depredation mortality of permit at Western Dry Rocks specifically. Since 2018, the project has grown to sites in the middle Keys and now includes the 7 Mile Bridge Rubble, the Thunderbolt, and an unmarked artificial reef. The goals have expanded as well, and now they are working towards comparing aggregation sizes at artificial and natural reefs, estimating fishing effort between the regions, and determining how shark depredation varies through the Keys. The goals were simple, but the technology used to answer most of these questions was anything but! The researchers gathered fisheries independent and dependent data, applied sonar technology (echosounders and multibeam imaging sonar) to map the seafloor, estimate aggregation size, and even document the interactions between permit and their predators.
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A Day in the Life of a Fisheries Scientist
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View of multibeam (M3) imaging
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I’ve been fortunate enough to support the team of scientists in their field efforts through the years, which mainly consisted of long days under the beating sun and lugging around bulky sonar equipment and fishing gear. After a 30-60 minute run to the site, the fun begins! All hands on deck – or better yet, eyes are laser focused on the horizon in search of those silvery green ghosts rolling inches below the surface. Once spotted, the research vessel creeps in the direction of the flashes to cast an arsenal of fishing lines that present their favorite dish, the swimming crab! If you think this sounds a lot like fishing, well it is, but for scientific purposes! Once the crab is gobbled up and the hook is set, another researcher deploys the sonar pod to determine the fate of the hooked permit and maybe capture the interaction between the school and any sharks in the area. Simultaneously, a third team member is actively recording catch rates of other anglers on the aggregation site and keeping track of the school for the next cast. Once a fish is landed, its length is recorded, pictures are taken to document their condition (and because these scientists love what they do), and the fish is promptly returned to the water with a smile and wave. This entire process is repeated over and over again until near sunset, weather permitting. At the end of the day, tired, salty, and satisfied, researchers return home to the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s R/V Hawksbill I to break down and clean up sampling gear. Before a well earned night’s rest the team hunts down a slice of key lime pie, and then it’s lights out before they hit the water the following morning! While bad weather days, a shortage of live crabs, and a few delays due to the worldwide pandemic halted the project for a season, the FIU team charges onward to aid in permit conservation efforts throughout the Keys.\r\n What the Data Have Told Us (continued)\r\n Over three years, FIU researchers angled nearly 200 permit and reported highly variable rates of depredation. Between March and May of 2021, variation occurred between sites, but also month to month at the same location, ranging from 0-37% of all angled fish between March and May of 2021. Interestingly, aggregation size was comparable across the season and between sites, and there were no apparent changes in conditions, but they reported a half dozen Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus perezi) and the occasional great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) following the boat day after day while conducting fisheries independent surveys. Sharks in high numbers like this aren’t exceptionally common “to just see” in their work, but once the sharks have it figured out, they can’t get a permit to the boat! Due to this variability they have planned to continue their work in 2022 and 2023 and plan to deploy environmental sensors to capture the seasonal change in conditions. They’re also expanding their data collection effort at each site to begin explaining the stark changes in shark abundance and activity levels through the season.
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The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s
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Fishing pressure also varied across the season in each of the three field years, with pressure reaching its peak in March and April. So intense, in fact, that they regularly record landings upwards of 100 permit in a single day. During these periods it is not uncommon to see 10 boats fishing the aggregation simultaneously for days on end, sharing information between one another, and hooking 3-5 permit on a single pass through the aggregation. But May offers a completely different experience. In every season to date, recreational and charter anglers alike pass directly through the aggregation site, with permit breaking the surface all around them, only to drop anchor on the reef a short distance away… One might think this is peculiar, but on speaking with the research team, they’ve provided an interesting insight. Fishers switch focus from permit to other aggregating species nearby, specifically the mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis) which were off limits prior to May 1st. They represent more than a sportfishing opportunity, but a prized gamefish of excellent table fare that is iconic in the Keys. The take home message here is that permit may experience some relief in the later parts of their spawning season, which means depredation is effectively non-existent!
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There is more work to be done over the coming years, but the data have already told an interesting story. In order to safeguard these spawning aggregations for years to come, it’s important to understand how predators and permit interact, and how fishing influences that relationship. You can be sure that these scientists love to fish as well, and that’s what makes them the right people for the job. They engage with local anglers, have fished for most of their lives, and truly believe in the work they are doing. In the end, the hope is the data can be used by fishers and managers to ensure access to the fishery is maintained in a sustainable way.
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This work was funded by Bonefish Tarpon Trust and supported by the Florida FWC. The team would like to offer a special thanks to Dr. Jacob Brownscombe of Carleton University and Dr. Ross Boucek of BTT. Also, a special thanks to Dr. Larry Wood and Captain Mike Osborne of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation for their continued support and providing accommodations aboard the R/V Hawksbill I. It has been a pleasure to work alongside Benjamin Binder, Kirk Gastrich, Gina Clementi, and the rest of the Dr. Kevin Boswell’s lab from FIU.
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A Tribute to Doc In memory of Llewellyn Ehrhart (April 22, 1942- March 3, 2022)
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Karen Holloway-Adkins\r\n
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An ocean of memories, laughter, and tears flood in with the passing of our dear colleague, mentor, and trusted friend, Professor Llewellyn McDowell Ehrhart. Some called him Llew, but most of us called him “Doc”. At one of our frequent informal gatherings, Carol, Doc’s wife and lifelong friend, told us that “Doc” was a childhood nickname, but the professors at Cornell University were not impressed with an underling being called “Doc”. We all laughed knowing Doc was likely already ahead in the academic game! He graduated December 1971 with a PhD from “some little old school in Ithaca, New York”, as he modestly referred to Cornell University. It was during his time at Cornell that he was a graduate student of Associate Professor of Zoology, James Layne (1926-2017), studying small mammals with a focus on subspecies of Peromyscus polionotus (oldfield mice). His study of three subspecies of oldfield mice often brought him to Florida and eventually led to an opportunity for a teaching position at Florida Technology University (now University of Central Florida) in Orlando.
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Professor Emeritus Llewellyn “Doc” Ehrhart with a loggerhead
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In early 1970, Doc received funding from NASA to catalog the vertebrate community at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Using his knowledge of habitat types and skills at capturing vertebrates, he and his students logged the amphibian, reptile, and mammal communities present on the properties now known as Canaveral Space Force Station, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and Canaveral National Seashore. During this time, Doc took interest in the sea turtles nesting on the beaches north of KSC and began a monitoring program. He and his students measured, tagged, and even weighed (!) the large nesting female turtles that came ashore to lay their eggs. Also, during this time he spoke with generational fisherman about a collapsed sea turtle fishery in the adjacent Mosquito Lagoon and undertook a sea turtle netting program in the lagoon. This early work fueled what would become a lifelong passion and undertaking to better understand the life history and ecology of marine turtles in Florida. Winter cold-stun events periodically occurred in this northern end of the Indian River Lagoon Complex. The sea turtles, especially green turtles, would become comatose-like and strand along the southern shoreline of Mosquito Lagoon, pushed there by north winds or they would bob like coconuts at the water’s surface. Researchers and conservationists worked quickly to protect the surviving turtles from scavengers until temperatures warmed. It was during this time that many saw fibropapillomatosis (FP) firsthand, a potentially debilitating disease that manifests as tumors on the eyes and soft tissue of primarily green turtles. FP was starting to take hold among sea turtle populations that resided in lagoon waters of Florida and when Doc began netting in the lagoon south of Sebastian Inlet, FP was already present in the turtle population. He shared the concern with other researchers of the implications of FP among green turtle aggregations. He worked with researchers at University of Florida and many of his students went on to study the etiology of FP, its associated viruses, suspected environmental co-factors, the transmission and responsible vectors, and effects of FP on marine turtle populations.
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All the while, Doc was teaching at the University. If you ever were fortunate enough to take a course with Dr. Ehrhart, it was memorable. He brought enthusiasm and energy to the classroom like no other professor most students encountered. Whether it was an undergraduate course in Vertebrate Zoology or graduate courses in Herpetology and Mammalogy – Doc was vibrant, informative, and you learned skills - real life career skills. You became, what I like to term, a forensic biologist. You didn’t just learn how to capture and handle an animal. You learned their life history; what habitat type a species occupied, tell-tale signs of their presence - the tracks and dens they made, the animals they shared refuge with, what natural predators and other threats existed, and more. And Doc always had a mesmerizing story or fact that made learning in class and in the field memorable. Those of us fortunate enough to share this space with Doc, could spend hours reminiscing the tales of Doc and Doc’s tales. We knew his favored animals and we laughed that he would never call something like his much-revered southeastern beach mouse as “cute”, but he would say “that is one handsome animal!” He couldn’t resist the opportunity to handle a Diamondback rattlesnake or tell you in animated elaboration – the remarkable evolution of dentition that led to the snake fang. He reveled in the opportunity to share many of his stories, and we spent many an evening waiting for a female sea turtle to complete her nesting ritual while enjoying Doc’s stories.
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Doc not only shared his love of sea turtles and other vertebrates, but we were also lucky in that he shared his life with us. Our hearts broke with him when he lost his dear wife Carol, who would sometimes accompany us to the beach late at night to catch a glimpse of a nesting turtle or cook us a spaghetti dinner on a particularly long day on the water catching sea turtles. Doc shined when he talked about his twin daughters, Mandy and Ashley – the Double Trouble tennis duo and their major academic and life accomplishments, and the way they looked after him after their mom’s passing. We always felt like we were part of that great family, and we are so grateful for them for sharing Doc.
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Doc authored and co-authored numerous key scientific publications over his lifetime. He served as the Team Leader of the Southeastern Region Loggerhead and Green Turtle Recovery Team. He received several awards including the International Sea Turtle Society’s Lifetime Achievement, Sea Turtle Conservancy’s Archie Carr Lifetime Achievement, Carnegie Professor of the Year for Florida, UCF Pegasus Professor, Inaugural UCF Arboretum’s Earth Day Conservation Hero, Preserve Brevard’s Charlie Corbeil Conservation, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Regional Director’s Honor Award for Conservation Partners and, most recently, Paul Moler Herpetological Conservation award. Doc would likely say his greatest honor was to have contributed to the formation of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, the most significant loggerhead nesting habitat in the Western Hemisphere. The three decades of data collected on nesting sea turtles along the shores of south Brevard and Indian River counties was instrumental in convincing Congress to recognize and assist in land purchase to form the Refuge. It’s befitting that Doc’s birthday is Earth Day (April 22nd). He certainly reverberates the passion I would hope we would all feel for the earth. Saying goodbye to our dear friend has been difficult but his compassion for sea turtles lives on in so many of us and he would have really liked that. And I think he would have said that his job was done here.
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In a talk given at the Friends of the Carr Refuge meeting, Doc spoke about the students that came through his courses and UCF Marine Turtle Project. He remarked “.... and we have been really blessed with highly-motivated, really capable students down through the years and that will probably be my legacy, if there is such a thing.” Thank you, Doc – your legacy certainly lives on in all of us.
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New Aluminum Nest-Marking Signs Now Being Deployed on Florida Beaches
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Larry Wood, Ph.D., NSTSTF Research Coordinator
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As most of you are aware, Florida's beaches are host to tens of thousands of sea turtle nests each year. Usually beginning sometime in mid- to late February with the arrival of the first leatherback nests and finishing up sometime in December with the departure of the last hatchlings, the season brings with it not only lots of turtles, but also a virtual army of environmental professionals, students, and citizen volunteers that diligently document the comings and goings of the females and their offspring. The nesting survey efforts are coordinated by Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) that provides training and material support to dozens of coastal organizations around the State.
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Caution tape surrounds a leatherback nest on
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Early morning nesting surveys are a fundamental part of the effort. Once trained, surveyors can effectively tell what species of turtles had come ashore the night before by examining the marks left behind in the sand. Lucky for us, loggerhead, green, and leatherback turtles (Florida’s primary nesters) leave distinctive tracks as they traverse the beach, making species identification pretty easy. The next thing we’d like to know is whether the turtles actually deposited eggs or not while they were on the beach. Turtle biology provides the nesting females with some behavioral flexibility during that vulnerable time searching for a suitable nest site, resulting sometimes in what are commonly called ‘false crawls’ or ‘non-nesting emergences’ in which the turtle returns to the water without nesting. Not to worry, though, false crawls aren’t uncommon, and plenty of observations indicate that unless there is some anatomical or physiological anomaly in the female, she’ll try again until she finds a good spot.
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It's one thing to count the nests, but another all together to keep track of their well-being. Everything from tropical storms to natural predators to beach parties threaten them, so protecting and subsequently evaluating their success often requires some way of visibly marking them for both the turtle surveyors and the public to easily see. To help, FWC has for many years provided State-approved nest marking signs free of charge to those who request them. In an effort to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics, particularly in the beach environment, Sea Turtle Adventures, Inc. recently undertook an effort to evaluate signs made of alternative, more sustainable materials. After a year of field testing, their team determined that light-gauge aluminum signs were best-suited for the job, so they teamed up with Florida Power and Light, Friends of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, and the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation to create the first batch of signs to be distributed to over 20 organizations around the State. These organizations will have the opportunity to further evaluate their practicality and durability through this summer’s nesting season, and hopefully inspire others to also switch over to this lightweight and durable alternative.
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2018 Nesting Summary
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\r\n Florida's beaches are famous for more than one reason... not only are they\r\n beautiful, but they are also host to a globally significant number of sea turtle nests\r\n each summer. This remarkable natural phenomenon has inspired a virtual army of turtle\r\n enthusiasts accomplish what would otherwise be an overwhelming task for our State\r\n environmental agencies: From professional biologists to retired volunteers, nearly\r\n 3,000 people from all around the State of Florida participate in organized sea turtle\r\n nesting counts that are critical to answering one of our most commonly asked\r\n questions: How are the turtles doing?\r\n
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\r\n One of the big challenges of conserving any long lived, wide-ranging marine creature\r\n is knowing how many there actually are. We can't easily count them to estimate\r\n population numbers, and generation times can often match ours, so it takes a long time\r\n to recognize either a recovery or a decline in a population that we may be interested\r\n in studying. Lucky for us, sea turtles need to return to land to nest, so there's\r\n a relatively easy way for us to keep track of population trends through careful\r\n documentation of each\r\n
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\r\n \r\n “Green turtle nesting in Florida is interesting in two ways. First, there seems to be\r\n a burgeoning population of females using Florida as nesting grounds, so it looks as if\r\n green turtles are responding well to long-term regional conservation efforts. Second,\r\n they have a unique and conspicuous bi-annual pattern of nesting activity. If the\r\n pattern holds, there may be another record set in 2019!”\r\n \r\n
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\r\n species' reproductive effort over time. Of course, there are limitations; e.g.\r\n only females come ashore, and we don't get a total 'count' of the\r\n number of individuals actually involved each year because each female may nest\r\n multiple times, but we're mostly interested in how each population is doing, and\r\n careful nest counts have proven to be a very useful proxy for studying sea turtle\r\n population trends.\r\n
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\r\n In Florida, there are three species of sea turtle that nest each year with any\r\n regularity; the loggerhead, green, and leatherback turtles. Of particular interest to\r\n Florida's sea turtle scientists are the impressive numbers of loggerhead turtle\r\n nests that are documented each year, which can exceed 100,000. Because this\r\n reproductive effort represents ~90% of the entire northwest Atlantic loggerhead\r\n population, the data collected on loggerhead turtles in Florida are especially\r\n meaningful for the preservation of this species in the Atlantic Ocean.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n “Florida's loggerhead turtle nest counts have fluctuated from year to year and\r\n even decade to decade. However, long-term data are critical to understanding\r\n population trends, and it appears the loggerhead nesting population has remained\r\n fairly stable since the early 1990's.”\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Thanks to nearly two decades of data, we see encouraging signs that the population,\r\n though it may have 'ups' and 'downs', is fairly stable, and\r\n hopefully continues to have success in this extremely important rookery.\r\n
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\r\n For the greens and leatherbacks, Florida is only one of many nesting sites around the\r\n Caribbean, but still has important significance in maintaining the region's genetic\r\n diversity for both of these species. Green turtles come in second after the loggerheads\r\n in overall nest production in Florida, and in some locations actually produced more\r\n nests per kilometer than loggerheads over the last few years. Though no one knows why\r\n for sure, female green turtles have somehow synchronized their nesting activity to form\r\n a dramatic bi-annual pattern of high vs. low productivity, allowing us to\r\n 'expect' high or low years. For those who count nests, 2019 should be a\r\n doozie!\r\n
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\r\n Leatherback turtles come in third on the list of Florida's nesters, certainly not\r\n for any other reason than they, comparatively, have a much smaller nesting population;\r\n notice the scale on the leatherback nesting chart is in the hundreds, not thousands.\r\n Leatherbacks are amazing giants that have begun to take Florida a little more seriously\r\n as a nesting site since around the year 2000, but remain somewhat of a mystery\r\n concerning nesting trends with lots of annual variation that doesn't seem to yet\r\n form a pattern. Either way, we wish them the best, and we hope the more recent declines\r\n are just a temporary glitch in a long-term positive trend.\r\n
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\r\n Many thanks to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for providing the\r\n data and charts.\r\n
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\r\n Sea Turtle Adventures Continues to Develop Innovative Programming for Adults with\r\n Special Needs\r\n
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\r\n Jackie Kingston, Executive Director, Sea Turtle Adventures, Inc.\r\n
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\r\n Sea Turtle Adventures, Incorporated (STA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based\r\n out of North Palm Beach, FL. The mission of STA is to conserve local populations of sea\r\n turtles, educate the public about the marine environment, and provide nature-based\r\n programs to adults with special needs. While STA was officially formed in 2016, the work\r\n that we have been doing on the beach to protect sea turtle's dates back nearly two\r\n decades. STA has monitored a 3-mile section of beach in southern Palm Beach County for\r\n 19 years, documenting nearly 1,000 nests annually.\r\n
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\r\n Hannah Zegel attending an outreach event.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Dr. Larry Wood (left) presents a ‘big check’ to Jacquelyn\r\n
\r\n Kingston, Alessandra Schnirel, and Joe Kingston\r\n
\r\n in support of STA’s programs.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n One of the programs that makes STA unique is our iCare program. This one-of-a-kind\r\n program was specifically designed for adults with special needs who enjoy nature. The\r\n program began in November 2017 with seven participants and as of March 2019, the\r\n program has 53 members. The purpose of iCare is to enhance life skills through\r\n interaction with the natural environment. The group meets several times a month and\r\n helps paint sea turtle nest stakes, conduct beach cleanups, and enjoy adventurous\r\n activities including kayaking and boating.\r\n
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\r\n STA has appreciated our relationship with The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation\r\n (NSTSTF) since we formed in 2016. With support from NSTSTF, we were able to purchase a\r\n projector to launch our offsite educational program in early 2017 and in 2018 we were\r\n able to purchase a side by side ATV.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Lauren Maheady and Alessandra Schnirel\r\n\r\n tend to mangrove seedlings that will one\r\n\r\n day be used in restoration projects\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Now in 2019, NSTSTF is helping support our ongoing sea turtle conservation program\r\n including a research and development project to identify a more environmentally\r\n friendly material that can be used for sea turtle nest signs as opposed to the\r\n traditionally used plastic signs.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Ms. Joan Lorne performs a sea turtle nest productivity\r\n\r\n assessment in southern Palm Beach County.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Education and Research at FIU’s Center for Coastal Oceans Research\r\n
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\r\n Analisa Duran Education & Outreach Program Coordinator, Center for Coastal Oceans\r\n Research Florida International University\r\n
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\r\n The Center for Coastal Oceans Research at Florida International University (FIU)\r\n provides a unique educational opportunity for learners of all ages and serves as a\r\n marine-related research hub for conservation, preservation, and action-oriented\r\n solutions for some of our ocean’s most pressing challenges.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Aquarius Underwater Laboratory in the Florida Keys National
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\r\n As the rate of faculty and graduate student publications based on work in the Florida\r\n Keys increased tremendously, a program to improve the academic environment for\r\n residents was created. The initiative continued to grow and was known as the Marine\r\n Education and Research Center (MERC), housed within the Institute of Water and\r\n Environment (InWE) in the College of Arts, Sciences and Education. Today, MERC has\r\n rebranded and is known as the Center for Coastal Oceans Research (CCOR).\r\n
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\r\n The educational programs in the Florida Keys include Family Science Night, Ocean Life\r\n Series seminars, acting as judges for school and county science fairs, visiting\r\n schools in Monroe county to educate about CCOR initiatives, and attending and creating\r\n community science-driven events. The desired outcomes of these programs are to inspire\r\n environmental stewardship, educate about the marine world by connecting science to the\r\n community, and peak the curiosity of students to be interested in science. CCOR also\r\n facilitates global Skype in the Classroom programs that have reached over 1 million\r\n students since 2013.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Education and Outreach\r\n
\r\n JR Aquanaut trying on a real dive helmet.\r\n
\r\n Photo credit: CASE News\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The research projects within the center range from seagrass and blue carbon, to the\r\n Global Finprint project and shark populations & finning. There are a total of 17\r\n faculty members whose PhD, graduate, and undergraduate students are working toward\r\n research and discoveries within the marine environment. The center encompasses\r\n Aquarius Undersea Laboratory in Islamorada, Florida as well as successful partnerships\r\n with Rookery Bay Research Reserve in Naples, Florida and the Florida Keys National\r\n Marine Sanctuary.\r\n
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\r\n Aquarius Undersea Laboratory is an integral part of the center and has been a part of\r\n FIU since 2013. Aquarius is the world’s only underwater research laboratory and is\r\n deployed in 60 feet of water in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary about 5\r\n nautical miles off shore from Tavernier Florida. Here, scientists can be immersed in\r\n their research for weeks at a time through a process called saturation diving.\r\n Saturation diving gives aquanauts the opportunity to spend nine hours a day diving\r\n down to 95 feet to conduct their research. When their mission is accomplished aboard\r\n Aquarius, aquanauts need to only decompress once before returning to the surface. It\r\n could take as long as six months of surface-based diving to conduct as much research\r\n done during a 10-day Aquarius mission!\r\n
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\r\n Aquarius provides scientists with the opportunity to conduct crucial research covering\r\n a variety of areas including water quality, coral reef biology, ecology, and\r\n physiology, long-term ocean monitoring, restoration science, ocean acidification, and\r\n global climate change. Aquarius also serves as a space analog for astronauts who are\r\n preparing to go into space. Over 700 publications have resulted Aquarius missions.\r\n
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\r\n If you are interested in learning more about CCOR or participating in one of their\r\n events, please contact the center’s Education & Outreach Coordinator at:\r\n anduran@fiu.edu or visit ccor.fiu.edu\r\n
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\r\n FIU Research Team collecting samples. Photo credit: CASE News\r\n
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\r\n Daring...exciting...toothy...these words describe the many shark-related thrillers that\r\n often bring to mind vivid images of dramatic and terrifying scenes. Portraying sharks as\r\n the monster, such films can be harmful to the innocent creatures swimming in our oceans\r\n because they evoke fear in people who play at the beach or dive over a coral reef. Some\r\n individuals may even find themselves worrying about what’s lurking beneath the waves — and\r\n if it’s hungry. But in reality, sharks are some of the planet’s most misunderstood\r\n creatures, an issue worsened by the media’s love for drama and violence.\r\n
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\r\n As an incredibly attractive location for marine life, Florida provides the ideal habitat\r\n for many sharks that suffer from this PR nightmare. In fact, a wide variety of shark\r\n species make our waters their home, including the protected hammerheads and angel sharks.\r\n In August 2013, for example, researchers at Ocearch in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, captured\r\n and tagged a 14-foot, 2,300-pound white shark named Katherine. Since that day, Katherine\r\n has traveled nearly 40,000 miles to visit Florida each year. Most recently, this\r\n incredible fish was spotted off the coast in Cape Canaveral.\r\n
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\r\n Because of their diversity and the critical role each shark plays in the ecosystem,\r\n conservation efforts in the Sunshine State have become more important than ever.\r\n Thankfully Ocearch, which aims to monitor marine life and thereby promote conservation, is\r\n not the only organization working to save sharks. Rather, many individuals, groups, and\r\n businesses are working together to dispel the terrifying myths surrounding these animals.\r\n By promoting better education and awareness, these actions provide new knowledge, such as\r\n insights into their behavior, and increase public understanding of their not-so-scary\r\n nature.\r\n
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The Issues Facing Sharks
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\r\n Although individual sharks may be blissfully unaware of the issues they face, their\r\n existence as a whole is largely threatened by human actions. Commercial shark finning — a\r\n practice that involves capturing sharks, cutting off their fins, and discarding the\r\n carcass — is considered a threat that’s not only harmful to shark populations but also\r\n extremely wasteful. Researchers have estimated that this practice leads to the death of\r\n over 100 million sharks per year.\r\n
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\r\n Even if sharks are not targeted by commercial fishing vessels, they may still be\r\n vulnerable as bycatch. A fishery that targets tuna or billfish, for instance, will likely\r\n catch some shark species in their nets. And while this isn’t intentional, it can still\r\n lead to the deaths of many sharks, decimating their populations. Other human impacts have\r\n also led to the reduction of shark populations, including habitat degradation. This\r\n all-encompassing term refers to the destruction of areas where sharks can survive, often\r\n as a result of climate change, pollution, or physical destruction.\r\n
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\r\n But why are sharks so vulnerable - and why do they need saving from these issues? Sharks\r\n can live pretty long lives (the oldest living vertebrate is a Greenland shark that’s\r\n estimated to be at least 300 years old!), it takes them years to mature, and when they do\r\n reproduce, they usually have only a few pups. Collectively, these traits are known as\r\n life-history characteristics, which have been adapted over time and allow the sharks to\r\n fulfill a specific niche in their environment. But when an exorbitant number of sharks are\r\n killed each year as a result of human activity, it reduces their ability to survive long\r\n enough to reproduce. And if they can’t reproduce, then it’s only a matter of time before\r\n their numbers run out. Thankfully, there are a few heroes working to raise awareness and\r\n save the sharks.\r\n
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Spreading Awareness of Shark Products
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\r\n \r\n Melissa Marquez helping bring a great white shark up for fin ID photos.
Photo Provided by Melissa Marquez.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Although shark finning is prohibited on United States fishing vessels, the trade of\r\n shark fins remains legal in all but 12 states. Miami is a leading import/export nexus\r\n of the trade, according to the website for Save the Sharks, an organization led by\r\n Susana Ramirez. Dedicated to improving public awareness of such issues, Ramirez relies\r\n on a variety of tools, such as education, outreach, and general conservation. These\r\n tools allow her to focus much of the organization’s efforts on getting shark products\r\n out of stores and restaurants. “We find it best to focus on specific issues,” Ramirez\r\n explains, indicating that they can then achieve better results. Through Save the\r\n Sharks, Ramirez reminds people that shark meat poses health issues. In particular, the\r\n meat contains high levels of mercury which are typically over the FDA’s action level\r\n of one part per million. In addition, the ethical, conservation, and sustainable\r\n fishery issues involved in selling shark products can be a major problem.\r\n
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\r\n According to Save the Sharks, the shark fin trade is one of the leading causes of\r\n mortality in these animals - and there are simply no sustainably sourced shark fins\r\n available. If you ever find non-food shark products like shark teeth, bracelets, or\r\n necklaces, Ramirez warns that these aren’t necessarily safe to purchase either,\r\n stating “they are almost never ethically sourced.” With a focus on getting shark\r\n products off the menu, Ramirez and her team are working on relaunching their “Report\r\n an Entity” program, which will allow conservation-savvy consumers to take action\r\n whenever they find shark products in stores or restaurants.\r\n
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Giving Sharks a Voice Through Social Media
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\r\n Currently residing in Sydney, Australia, Melissa Cristina Marquez began her own personal\r\n mission to save sharks from the halls of her college in Sarasota, Florida. It was here\r\n that she originally founded The Fins United Initiative (fondly referred to as TFUI),\r\n which is an education and conservation program geared towards uniting lovers of sharks\r\n and their relatives around the world.\r\n
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\"Take out these predators, and it has been proven that the ecosystem suffers.\"
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\r\n Through this organization — which hopes to soon have its own home base and a fleet of\r\n educational vehicles — Marquez is working to help everyone understand the importance of\r\n sharks. By partnering with educational institutions and other organizations, she has\r\n designed novel techniques that promote participation and learning.\r\n
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\r\n But her goals go far beyond providing easily accessible information. Marquez also\r\n strives to give sharks a voice through her social media accounts. “Sharks are one of the\r\n most important predators in our oceans, which is the largest ecosystem making up 75% of\r\n our planet,” Marquez stated. “Take out these predators, and it has been proven that the\r\n ecosystem suffers. If you don’t protect sharks, then you aren’t protecting our oceans”.\r\n Whether she’s working through TFUI or tweeting about the latest shark research, she\r\n hopes to help us all understand the importance of these animals so that we can better\r\n promote their well-being.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Melissa with a spiny dogfish caught in Wellington,
New Zealand. Photo:\r\n Provided by Melissa Marquez.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n In addition to promoting awareness of the sharks themselves, Marquez also shines her\r\n spotlight on the other end of the diver’s mask - the people who research them. “I want\r\n people to go to my various channels, be it TFUI or my Twitter account, and see the\r\n diversity within the STEM fields that the media doesn’t typically show,” she stated.\r\n As a strong advocate for diversity and inclusivity, Marquez devotes her time working\r\n with two sides of the same coin. Not only is she saving sharks by raising awareness\r\n and promoting education about their role in the ecosystem, but she is also giving the\r\n diverse researchers who study them a voice.\r\n
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How Can You Help?
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\r\n Developing a better understanding of sharks and the key role they play in the\r\n environment is one of the most important things an individual can do to save sharks.\r\n But if you want to take more action, there a few ways anyone can help these incredible\r\n creatures. One of Melissa Marquez’s favorite tips is to remind individuals “to eat\r\n sustainable seafood” by avoiding unsustainable seafood. Susana Ramirez also recommends\r\n avoiding shark foods, including shark steak, shark meat, and shark fin soup.\r\n Additionally, remember to read the ingredients list whenever purchasing fragrances,\r\n medications, or oils, because “these products may have shark in them,” Ramirez\r\n advises. Marquez offers other great ways to help sharks - and the ocean as a whole.\r\n Consider spending the day with your family volunteering at reputable nonprofits in the\r\n area, or try writing to policy-makers to ask what they’re doing to help the oceans.\r\n
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\r\n It is often all too easy to overlook the importance of sharks in the ecosystem or to\r\n feel overwhelmed by the complexities of saving them. But the work of Melissa Cristina\r\n Marquez and Susana Ramirez proves just how important — and possible — it is to get\r\n started. The mission to save Florida’s sharks has already begun — will you be a part\r\n of it?\r\n
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Taking Classroom Education to a Whole New Level
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\r\n Kara Muzia
Inwater Research Group, Inc.\r\n
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\r\n There are STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs and then there’s\r\n Limestone Creek Elementary. This elementary school, located in the heart of Jupiter,\r\n Florida, gives hands on interactive learning a new meaning.\r\n
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\r\n At Inwater Research Group, we first heard about Limestone Creek through our flagship\r\n education program: the Traveling Trunks. Cheryl Kenney, a fifth grade teacher at\r\n Limestone Creek, borrowed both of our educational trunks, Darker Skies Darker Beaches\r\n and Traveling Turtles, to educate her classroom. The results were outstanding.\r\n
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\r\n The Darker Skies Darker Beaches education program let the students put their critical\r\n thinking skills to the test as they came up with beach friendly lighting! After learning\r\n about the effects of light pollution on nesting turtles, students are greatly motivated\r\n to create their own prototypes. Using batteries, white and red lights, and different\r\n coverings the students design the perfect, turtle friendly lights. Material costs,\r\n conductivity of materials also play a role in their designs, and at the end they make a\r\n commercial advertising their newly designed lights!\r\n
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\r\n The Traveling Turtles program allows the students to put their marine biology skills to\r\n the tests. In one of the lessons, students are given model turtles to weigh and measure,\r\n and take the overall assessment of health. Depending if the turtles have injuries or if\r\n they’re underweight, the students decide whether to “Rehab or Release” the animal.\r\n
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\r\n These trunks, and their fantastic lessons, are available for teachers to borrow for\r\n free. The power of hands-on learning is one worth spreading, and Inwater Research Group\r\n along with their partners at National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation are proud to be\r\n able to offer this trunk program.\r\n
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\r\n Mrs. Kenney invited the IRG crew down to Limestone Creek to see our trunks, and her\r\n students, in action. Watching the students playing the trunk’s games, you’d never\r\n realize that they were learning so much. What struck us biologists was how knowledgeable\r\n these young people are about sea turtles. More than just fun facts, these students knew\r\n the seven species of turtles, which ones nested in South Florida, their habitats, and\r\n even their diet. They fundamentally understood some of the core issues surrounding these\r\n marine creatures. When asked what plagues turtles, “plastic pollution” and “light\r\n pollution” rank among the highest answer responses.\r\n
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\r\n While her budding scientists were sent out for recess, Mrs. Kenney gave us a tour of the\r\n rest of Limestone Creek Elementary. Outside, she shows us the garden. Each classroom is\r\n given a raised garden bed to tend, and the results are lush beautiful vegetables such as\r\n tomatoes and collard greens that the students take pride in growing.\r\n
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\r\n There’s also a marine science lab where students have access to aquariums and aquatic\r\n fish. Limestone Creek is in a formal partnership with the Reef Institute, who sends\r\n staff out three times a week to work on the aquariums and with the kids. There’s touch\r\n tanks, Pacific and Atlantic tanks where fish and coral are delineated by which oceans\r\n they’re grown in. Come May, the students will get to try their hand in coral fragging,\r\n saving the world one sea turtle and piece of coral at a time.\r\n
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\r\n Schools like Limestone Creek and classes like Mrs. Kenney’s are a wonderful example of\r\n how future generations can learn and have fun at the same time. STEM doesn’t have to be\r\n a four letter word - instead it can spell out a great way to teach youngsters about\r\n their environment in an interactive way, making students, parents, and educators happy.\r\n
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\r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation sponsored the 42nd annual Broward County\r\n Waterway Cleanup Kick-off Party at the Marine Industries Association office in Fort\r\n Lauderdale on Thursday evening, February 7 at 6:00pm. Guests enjoyed complimentary\r\n drinks and light hors d’oeuvres, and this year’s artwork created by Steve Diossy was\r\n unveiled. The 42nd annual Broward County Waterway Cleanup, which was held on Saturday,\r\n March 2, is organized by the Marine Industries Association of South Florida and Marine\r\n Industry Cares Foundation. The event is the County’s largest and longest-running\r\n environmental event. The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has been a proud\r\n sponsor of the event since 1994.\r\n
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\r\n Each spring, the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton hosts “Sea Turtle Day” to help\r\n ring in the upcoming sea turtle nesting season. This year’s event, held March 2nd,\r\n included numerous environmentally-themed informational and interactive booths, arts and\r\n crafts, great local food, and of course guided tours of the Nature Center, Sea Turtle\r\n Rehabilitation Center, and Florida Atlantic University’s on-site Laboratory facilities.\r\n It was also an opportunity to meet with our friends from Nova Southeastern University,\r\n who were on-hand to receive the annual proceeds from the National Save The Sea Turtle\r\n Foundation’s Adopt-A-Nest Program. These funds will be used to conduct nesting surveys\r\n and nest productivity analyses on the beaches of Broward County in 2019.\r\n
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\r\n\r\n \r\n Gumbo Limbo Nature Center is host\r\n
\r\n to “Sea Turtle Day” each spring to\r\n
help bring awareness to the\r\n
\r\n community about the upcoming\r\n
\r\n nesting season. Larry Wood and\r\n
\r\n Connie Versteeg (below) enjoyed\r\n
\r\n the beautiful day at the\r\n
\r\n Foundation’s booth.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Nova Southeastern University’s Sea Turtle team received the proceeds from the\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s 2018 Adopt-A-Nest Program.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n\r\n \r\n Gumbo Limbo Nature Center is host to “Sea Turtle Day” each spring to help bring\r\n awareness to the community about the upcoming nesting season. Larry Wood and Connie\r\n Versteeg (below) enjoyed the beautiful day at the Foundation’s booth.\r\n \r\n
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Sea Turtle Adventures: 2021 Recap\r\n
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Jackie Kingston, Executive Director, Sea Turtle Adventures
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Sea Turtle Adventures (STA) has been monitoring local beaches in Palm Beach County for nesting sea turtles for over two decades. Based out of West Palm Beach, STA has three core focus areas: sea turtle conservation, public education and engagement, and providing nature-based programs to adults with special needs. In this article, we touch on the highlights from 2021!
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During the 2021 nesting season, STA documented 766 sea turtle nests on the 3-mile section of beach we have been monitoring for the past 21 years. The nest count breaks down as follows: 666 loggerhead, 76 green, and 24 leatherback nests. To put it in perspective, our beach saw an average number of loggerhead nests, a below average number of green nests, and a record-breaking number of leatherback nests (the previous record of 19 was set in 2020). STA also responded to 14 stranding and salvage events, and assisted FWC with an additional four sea turtle “transfer only” cases (where we simply transported a stranded turtle on behalf of FWC from one location to another, typically a rehabilitation center).
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Figure 1. As a new alternative to tradionally
\r\n plastic signs, aluminum turtle nest signs will be
\r\n tested in 24 nesting beaches around the State.
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STA’s efforts to develop an alternative non-plastic sea turtle nest sign finally came to fruition. After soliciting proposals for multiple vendors to produce a (relatively) light-weight aluminum sign, STA partnered with Pride Enterprises based out of Central Florida. PRIDE is a self-funded enterprise whose mission makes a positive difference in Florida. They make communities safer and save taxpayers money by training eligible inmates in vocational skills and transitioning them into the job market upon completion of their sentences. Nearly 2,000 aluminum sea turtle nest signs are in production and will be shipped to 24 organizations throughout Florida (see Figure 1 for testing locations) who agreed to test these new signs during the 2022 nesting season.
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STA’s “ride along” program continues to gain interest from residents and visitors (including many who joined us from out of state)! During a “ride along”, participants join us for a 1hr adventure aboard our ATV. They enjoy a personalized experience where they observe our permitted sea turtle monitor excavate a previously hatched nest and learn all about the nesting process. This one-of-a-kind opportunity has grown significantly over the past three years since its first offering. Please visit our website for more information or if you would like guidance in starting a similar program (www.seaturtleadventures.com).
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STA remains one of only a few organizations who is willing to respond to calls regarding injured seabirds and shorebirds. In 2021, we responded to calls for about 12 injured seabirds and transported all to Busch Wildlife for rehabilitation. Keep our phone number handy if you are in need of a seabird rescuer in Palm Beach County (561-704-5911).
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STA’s nature-based program for adults with special needs also continued to see growth. The iCare Program grew from 90 to 135 members in 2021 and participants had their fair share of environmental experiences. STA hosted three weeklong “Biology Bootcamps” where special needs adults learned firsthand what it is like to be a biologist. iCare members also participated in over 40 cleanups throughout the year, primarily in mangrove habitats which are often overlooked as potential cleanup locations but are oftentimes full of debris.
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Jackie Kingston, STA Executive Director, teaching Hannah Zegel, iCare member, how to properly measure this large deceased loggerhead which washed ashore Oct 20 2021 in Palm Beach County, FL.
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Sea Turtle Monitoring and Satellite Tracking Project at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge,
St. Croix, Virgin Islands, 2021
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Thanks to the support of the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation, we had a great 2021 at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge! We had a small crew to start the leatherback nesting season in March, but completed 10 weeks of night patrols. We had quite a bump up from last year’s numbers and encountered 27 individual leatherbacks. The oldest (from 1999) and biggest turtle (174 cm) was Rosie - we saw her several times, including one cloudy afternoon (see photo). We built upon our satellite tracking program for leatherbacks and deployed another eight tags! Kelly Stewart and Claudia Lombard (refuge biologist) deployed four of these tags during one particularly intense night! Mike Evans (refuge manager) and Dante Trivett (resource specialist) assisted with leatherback patrols and satellite tagging. Our colleagues at the Canadian Sea Turtle
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Network had satellite tagged our turtle Carol during summer 2020, but her tag had failed. Despite this, they were expecting her back to nest at Sandy Point. And we found her! We replaced her broken satellite tag with a new one before she left the nesting grounds. Three turtles are still transmitting as of 1 December and are off the east coast of the United States (see map).
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We supported a small but mighty team and accomplished a great deal this year. We finally were able to resume the outreach program and along with Fish and Wildlife at the refuge, we presented two great in-person programs – Turtle Watch and Sea Turtle Scientist. Our Outreach and Education Specialist, Haley Jackson (a recent Duke masters graduate), did a fantastic job organizing, scheduling, and
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leading these afternoon beach sessions, with help from our strong and enthusiastic volunteer team. The children of St. Croix were able to see leatherback hatchlings emerging from their nests during Turtle Watch in July. During Sea Turtle Scientist later in October, St. Croix children and youth watched our team do a nest excavation for green and hawksbill turtles. Both programs were really well received and the FWS plans to run them again next year.
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We spent more time with nesting green and hawksbill turtles this year, doing more than three weeks of night work during September and October. We saw tagged green turtles on 73 occasions, representing 51 individuals, a big increase over last year. Hawksbills were a bit more cryptic this year, and although we saw several, not all of them nested, so we tagged 10 turtles. We collected genetic samples from all, and these will contribute to our population studies on both species.
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The Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) team of Yaira Ortiz and Jahsendi Simmonds, led by Dante Trivett, helped so much with day patrols, leatherback genetic sampling, and leatherback nest excavations. We counted on them every day of the summer! YCC is a great summer job experience provided by Fish and Wildlife.
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Our project is updated regularly on our website at
\r\n STXTurtles.com. We also have a Facebook page
\r\n (@stxleatherbacks) and post on Instagram
(#stxturtles).\r\n Our sincere thanks to National
Save the Sea Turtle\r\n Foundation for the
support of our program this year!\r\n The St. Croix
Sea Turtle Project is sponsored by The\r\n Ocean
Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, working\r\n in
cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service
and\r\n NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Marine
Turtle\r\n Genetics Program in La Jolla, California.
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We supported three graduate students this year, who are collecting data in the Virgin Islands for their thesis work. Makayla Kelso (University of the Virgin Islands) and Paige Kauffman (UC San Diego) worked on digitizing and analyzing historical records of hawksbill and green turtles and this important data is now integrated into the Sandy Point database! Katie Ayres (University of the Virgin Islands) worked on St. Thomas to build a citizen science program to help her record hawksbill activity on that island. Overall, we are learning so much more about our green and hawksbill populations and covering more beaches regularly!
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Temperature loggers were deployed in over 50 hawksbill nests at Sandy Point (as a complement to Katie Ayres study in St. Thomas). Dante Trivett is helping to develop our sand temperature profile project and deployed many of the loggers in the hawksbill nests. It’s important to understand what’s happening at the local level with sand temperatures and nest temperatures, both for determining possible hatchling sex ratios but also for monitoring climate change and sea level rise.
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The volunteer team at Sandy Point is growing and extremely enthusiastic about all components of the sea turtle conservation work. Volunteers helped with all turtle patrols, nest excavations, outreach programs and maintenance projects all year long. We celebrated their accomplishments with them in November with a lunchtime get together (see photo). Again this year, we used a mobile app for collecting all data for all three species nesting at Sandy Point. We did training for the app and for identifying turtle crawls for volunteers, who patrol seven days a week.
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The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation was again instrumental in our success in 2021! We are so grateful for their help in getting this critical conservation work done!
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\r\n Navigating the Future: 39th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium Held in Charleston, South\r\n Carolina\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D.
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\r\n \r\n The 2019 sea turtle symposium included 7 days of lectures and\r\n
\r\n poster presentations that cover topics from nesting biology to\r\n
\r\n fisheries management to publlic education. Representatives from\r\n
\r\n over 50 countries had the opportunity to present and discuss their\r\n
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\r\n The International Sea Turtle Symposium is an event that most of us in the sea turtle\r\n community look forward to every spring. It has provided the opportunity for us to\r\n travel the globe, visit new places and cultures, and create memories and friendships\r\n that will last a lifetime. The meeting typically alternates between domestic and\r\n international locations, and this year’s meeting was held in beautiful Charleston,\r\n South Carolina. The theme of the meeting was “Navigating the Future”; which reflects\r\n not only the amazing natural abilities of sea turtles, but also our ability to work\r\n together to ensure humans and sea turtles can share a bright tomorrow.\r\n
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\r\n Ms. Liberty Boyd presented the findings of her study\r\n
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\r\n partnership with Dr. Larry Wood and The Florida\r\n
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\r\n the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Over 800 participants from more than 50 countries attended lectures and viewed poster\r\n presentations on topics that included fisheries and threats, management and policy,\r\n anatomy and physiology, population biology, nesting biology, education, outreach, and\r\n advocacy. Throughout the week there were also special sessions and meetings, a video\r\n night, the ever-raucus Live Auction, and the parting Banquet where students and sea\r\n turtle ‘dignitaries’ are awarded for their work and accomplishments. We were proud to\r\n see Florida Atlantic University’s Boris Tezak receive the Archie Carr best oral\r\n presentation award in the biology section, and both Dr. Jeanette Wyneken and Dr. Mike\r\n Salmon receive recognition for their remarkable long-term contributions to sea turtle\r\n biology and conservation. Dr. Larry Wood presented a poster that discussed hawksbill\r\n sea turtle abundance in the Florida Keys, and co-presented a poster with a student\r\n from Florida international University about the various barnacles, corals, and other\r\n organisms that live on the shells of hawksbills. We were thrilled to be invited to\r\n barnacle-expert Dr. John Zardus’ lab at the Citadel to see his remarkable collection\r\n of specimens and discuss future collaborations\r\n
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\r\n We were treated to extremely thought-provoking Keynote presentations from Dr. Elena\r\n Mustakova-Possardt, Dr. Colin Limpus, Dr. Blair Witherington, and Dr. Jay Nichols, and\r\n of course got to catch up with friends and colleagues from around the world. The\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation is a proud sponsor of the International Sea\r\n Turtle Society.\r\n
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\r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Supports
Education Programs at\r\n the Marine Environmental Education
Center at the Carpenter House (MEEC) in\r\n Hollywood, Fl\r\n
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Dr. Derek Burkholder and the The MEEC Team
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\r\n The Marine Environmental Education Center (MEEC) at the Carpenter House, located in\r\n Hollywood, Florida, opened in 2017 to educate the public about current marine science\r\n research taking place at Nova Southeastern University. When visiting the MEEC, guests get\r\n the chance to meet a green sea turtle, Captain, who has permanent injuries after a boat\r\n strike, while also learning about the plight of other endangered marine animals and\r\n conservation issues.\r\n
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\r\n Since opening the MEEC, over 33,000 guests have visited Captain and learned about the\r\n struggles that sea turtles are facing worldwide. The MEEC has been developing education\r\n programs which integrate marine science into the grade level curriculum.\r\n
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\r\n The goal is to build connections with classroom academic content and inspire students to\r\n take action in marine conservation on a local level. The MEEC has partnered with several\r\n local non-profit groups like Free Our Seas and Beyond and Surfrider Broward to educate the\r\n public on marine debris issues and local conservation efforts.\r\n
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\r\n To expand the MEEC’s reach in the community, they have recently welcomed two new staff\r\n members, thanks to the support from The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation.\r\n
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\r\n Laura Palomino joins the MEEC team as the Education Specialist and Volunteer\r\n Coordinator. She grew up in the fast-paced life of Miami, FL, but has spent most of her\r\n time underwater with over 500 dives (...and counting!). As an AAUS scientific diver,\r\n Laura has had the opportunity to work on various projects including fish surveys,\r\n Elkhorn coral health assessments and outplanting in the keys, and lionfish and marine\r\n debris removals in Biscayne National Park. She graduated from the University of Florida,\r\n with a B.S in Interdisciplinary Marine Science and then moved to the Florida Keys to\r\n intern with Reef\r\n
\r\n Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) and pursue a career in marine conservation.\r\n Laura discovered her passion for citizen science, environmental education, and lionfish\r\n awareness. This lead her to work for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation\r\n Commission and Biscayne National Park conducting lionfish management and education\r\n throughout South Florida. While working at Biscayne National Park, Laura was lucky to\r\n experience a sea turtle hatching event and help with stranded and injured turtles. Her\r\n interest in marine conservation and education brought her to the MEEC, where she is\r\n excited to work alongside Captain and the MEEC crew to promote ocean conservation and\r\n awareness.\r\n
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\r\n Taylor Apter also joins the MEEC team. Originally from New Jersey, she learned at an early\r\n age to foster a love of the ocean at the Jersey shore. After graduating from the Marine\r\n Academy of Science and Technology, she attended Stonybrook University where she received a\r\n Bachelor of Science Degree in Marine Vertebrate Biology. Growing sick of the cold, she\r\n immediately moved to Florida to pursue her love of not only the ocean, but of SCUBA\r\n diving. Taylor worked as a SCUBA instructor for two years in Vero Beach, Florida, before\r\n being accepted to Nova Southeastern University’s marine science program. She is currently\r\n pursuing her Master of Science degree under Amy C. Hirons in the Charismatic Megafauna and\r\n Oceanography Laboratory. Her thesis is on the study of trophic dynamics and heavy metal\r\n contaminant levels in a threatened population of Northern Sea Otters. Taylor is very\r\n excited to combine her passion for marine creatures and education at the MEEC.\r\n
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\r\n If you are visiting the Hollywood area and would like to stop by to meet Captain and the\r\n MEEC crew, public hours are 10am-5pm, Tuesday through Saturday! Follow us on Fackbook\r\n
\r\n @seekthemeec\r\n \r\n and Instagram\r\n \r\n @the_meec\r\n \r\n for updates and upcoming\r\n \r\n
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What Are You Doing Here?
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Ryan M. Chabot, Inwater Research Group
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\r\n \r\n Though closely related to the Kemp’s Ridley (Lepidochelys kempii), the Olive Ridley sea\r\n turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) is is extremely rare in Florida. They are a relatively\r\n small species of sea turtle, and can be found in most tropical waters around the world,\r\n but often prefer offshore waters where encounters are less frequent.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Saturday, May 11, 2019 started out like any ordinary day for the team of biologists at\r\n Inwater Research Group (IRG), but quickly changed into one of the most exciting events\r\n of the year. While conducting routine monitoring of our St. Lucie study site, we\r\n captured an adult male olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) sea turtle. Although olive\r\n ridleys are commonly found in parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, finding\r\n one in Florida is an extremely rare event! Unlike most other hard-shelled sea turtle\r\n species, olive ridleys spend much of their life in offshore or continental shelf waters,\r\n making in-water encounters of them infrequent. Even more so, nesting in the Atlantic is\r\n restricted to the northeastern coasts of South America and the central coast of West\r\n Africa. Since record keeping began in Florida, there have only been seven other\r\n sightings of olive ridleys in the state, six of which were sick or debilitated animals\r\n that needed rehabilitation or subsequently died, while the seventh was discovered dead.\r\n Unlike these other turtles, this olive ridley appeared to be in near-perfect physical\r\n condition. The only other healthy confirmed olive ridley observed by researchers in U.S.\r\n waters was by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources during one of their\r\n annual research cruises.\r\n
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\r\n The sightings of olive ridleys in Florida raise some very interesting questions. Is it\r\n normal for the species to be in our waters? Or is this turtle a stray who accidentally\r\n wandered all the way from South America or Africa? How do we protect a species for which\r\n we have no real information about their behavior in U.S. waters? To try and at least\r\n begin answering these questions, we reached out to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service\r\n (FWS) and our collaborators at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center (GLNC) for help.\r\n
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\r\n With experienced guidance from FWS about species protocols, and generous support from\r\n GLNC, we had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to track this turtle’s movements. Like\r\n every other sea turtle we encounter, the olive ridley was first given a full assessment\r\n including being weighed and measured. Metal flippers tags and a microchip were also\r\n applied, which can be used to identify the animal if it’s seen again. But since this\r\n encounter was so special, the turtle was also affectionately named “Jasper.”\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Researchers with the InwaterResearch Group examined andtagged “Jasper” for future\r\n identification.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Jasper the wayward olive ridley will carry two kinds of remote sensing devices. The\r\n larger transmitter on the apex of the shell can communicate with satellites to record\r\n long-distance movements. The smaller device near the rear of the shell can communicate\r\n with acoustic listening stations along the coastline\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The IRG team then outfitted Jasper with a small acoustic tag. A series of acoustic\r\n receivers along the east coast of the US constantly “listens” for the presence of\r\n animals with acoustic tags. So, if Jasper gets close enough to any of these receivers,\r\n it will record when and where he was “heard”. However, these receivers are mostly in\r\n very nearshore waters, so if Jasper wanders further from shore, they wouldn’t be able to\r\n hear his acoustic tag. Fortunately, the sea turtle team from GLNC rushed to deliver a\r\n satellite transmitter they had on hand to apply to Jasper. Much like the tracking\r\n technology in your car and phone, whenever the antenna on Jasper’s satellite transmitter\r\n breaks the water’s surface (like when he comes up to breathe), it transmits his position\r\n to satellites overhead. The materials used to attach these transmitters will degrade\r\n over time, so Jasper will simply shed the tags when he makes new shell material as he\r\n grows. These two technologies combined will hopefully give us some new insight on just\r\n what olive ridleys found in the Northwest Atlantic do during their time here. This\r\n information, in turn, can help us as researchers and conservation managers better\r\n understand what everyone can do to ensure the long-term survival of this high seas\r\n traveler. Cheers to safe travels for Jasper, a one-in-a-million find!\r\n
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Update: Tracking Male Green Turtles in SE Florida
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Larry Wood and Dean Bagley
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\r\n It has become widely recognized among the sea turtle research and conservation\r\n community that we know comparatively little about the lives of male sea turtles. At\r\n first this may seem odd, but researchers have traditionally had relatively easy access\r\n to females and hatchlings, since they are, at one time or another, found on beaches.\r\n Males, on the other hand, can’t be found so easily because in almost all cases, they\r\n never come to shore.\r\n
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\r\n Ms. Bagley and her team have been focusing on a population of green turtles that nest\r\n on the beaches at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Melbourne, Florida. The\r\n green turtle nesting population is quite large there, and offers her team unusual\r\n access to male turtles. In their zeal to reproduce, male turtles may continue to grasp\r\n females even as they come ashore to nest, effectively getting carried into the surf\r\n zone by their companions.\r\n
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\r\n This provides Ms. Bagley’s team the opportunity to capture the males and attach\r\n satellite transmitters to their shells. The results are among the first ever that\r\n describe the reproductive migrations of male green turtles in Florida. The National\r\n Save The Sea Turtle Foundation is excited to support Ms. Dean Bagley’s important work.\r\n This year, she dedicated two of the satellite tags to members of the Foundation’s\r\n team. The first was named for the late Captain Nick Reeves, who sadly passed away\r\n recently but remains in our memories. The second was named for Mr. Wayne Kurian, one\r\n of the key members of the Foundation’s fundraising team whose work continues to be so\r\n important to the Foundation’s success.\r\n
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\r\n Nick's transmitter was deployed on 5-29-19 . He immediately took off to the south, and\r\n swam to beyond the 17th Street Bridge in Vero Beach (green dots) before turning around\r\n on 5-30-19 and coming back north to Sebastian Inlet, where he stayed until 6-4-19\r\n (light green dots). At that time, he began swimming south again (yellow orange dots,\r\n orange, red-orange and finally red dots) along the coast, in some places practically\r\n on the beach as he continued south.\r\n
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\r\n He arrived just off Elliott Key, at the south end of Biscayne Bay on 6-9-19, looked\r\n around (maybe rested?) a bit and started north again on 6-10-19. His last location was\r\n opposite Key Biscayne on 6-10-19 at 9:09 p.m. He may have set a new record for the trip\r\n south. He made it from Sebastian inlet to Elliott Key in about 7 days.\r\n
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\r\n Wayne took us a little longer to find. Wayne was deployed on 6-4-19. Upon release, he\r\n headed immediately north, spending most of his time south of Eau Gallie Blvd in our\r\n Central Brevard Study Area, but going as far north as Satellite Beach before leaving\r\n that area and coming back south on 6-9-19. He crossed Sebastian Inlet later that day and\r\n continued south, uninterrupted, until the last location on Hutchinson Island, just south\r\n of Jensen Beach and north of the St. Lucie Inlet on 6-11-19 at 1:55 a.m. When we left\r\n off , Nick was east of Elliott Key, at the south end of Biscayne Bay. He left on June 10\r\n and has since made the journey back north to Jupiter, arriving on the 13th and turning\r\n around to come back south, also on the 13th. It’s like he forgot something and went back\r\n to get it.... he didn’t spend any time there, and was back off Elliott Key by 6-17-19.\r\n
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\r\n Meanwhile, Wayne was just south of Jensen Beach and north of the St. Lucie Inlet on\r\n 6-11-19. He has continued south and was still migrating at his last reported location,\r\n also east of Elliott Key. We’ll keep you updated in upcoming issues of Florida\r\n Environmental Outreach Magazine!\r\n
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Leatherback Nesting in Southeast Florida
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\r\n Kelly Martin, President
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\r\n With the support of The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation, biologists from Florida\r\n Leatherbacks Inc. were able to purchase a brand new ATV to allow them to continue their\r\n long-term research on Florida’s nesting leatherback sea turtles. With this ATV, they\r\n were also able to track two turtles with long-term satellite tags in addition to the\r\n routine population monitoring that they have conducted for many years.\r\n
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\r\n Leatherback sea turtles are the largest living turtles and unique among sea turtles for\r\n many reasons. Feeding on a diet of jellyfish and other soft-bodied marine animals,\r\n leatherbacks can reach lengths of 2-3 meters and weigh up to 700 kgs. Leatherbacks are\r\n named for their rubbery skin and their carapace is composed of thousands of tiny bone\r\n plates and a thick fat layer. This flexible structure allows their body to expand and\r\n contract with water pressure, enabling them to dive to depths of over 1,000 meters.\r\n Leatherbacks also have unique adaptations that allow them to tolerate much colder water\r\n temperatures than other marine turtle species.\r\n
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\r\n In the Atlantic Ocean, major nesting beaches exist in Gabon, Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana,\r\n and French Guiana. Most of these beaches have seen increases in nest numbers over the\r\n last several decades. In stark contrast, leatherback populations in the Pacific Ocean\r\n have declined by more than 80% in recent years. Major nesting beaches in the Pacific\r\n include Indonesia and Papua in the western Pacific, and Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica\r\n in the eastern Pacific. It is not known what has caused such sharp declines in the\r\n Pacific though poaching and fisheries interactions are thought to be leading factors.\r\n
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\r\n Florida, despite being one of the densest loggerhead sea turtle nesting beaches in the\r\n World, hosted very little leatherback nesting in the mid-1900s. However, since 1979, the\r\n number of leatherback nests in Florida has been increasing by approximately 10% per\r\n year. Due to the lack of appropriate data regarding leatherback survival rate,\r\n remigration interval, internesting interval, and population size,\r\n
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\r\n FIU Research Team collecting samples. Photo credit: CASE News\r\n
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\r\n very little was known about this new and growing population, including why they had not\r\n been previously documented in large numbers in Florida. One key way to address these\r\n deficiencies is by creating a long-term, mark-recapture program designed to use tags to\r\n identify unique individuals within a population and monitor their return over the years.\r\n
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\r\n Leatherback tagging began on some Florida beaches as early as the 1980s. Biologists\r\n currently working for Florida Leatherbacks Inc. (FLI) began tagging leatherbacks on some\r\n of the more densely nested beaches in southern Florida in the early 2000s. In addition\r\n to tagging each individual, a tissue sample was taken for genetic analysis and the\r\n turtle was measured and checked for any injuries. The mark-recapture data from these\r\n studies have been used to define survival rate, remigration interval, population size,\r\n clutch frequency, genetic structure, and many other important biological parameters.\r\n Incorporating the use of satellite transmitters helped define important migratory routes\r\n and post-nesting movements of Atlantic leatherbacks.\r\n
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\r\n Despite many years of successful data collection, researchers noted that some\r\n individuals were observed only once in a nesting season while others laid as many as\r\n eight nests. There were also widely ranging remigration intervals, often as high as ten\r\n years, despite a presumed remigration interval of 2-3 years. One proposed reason was the\r\n low site fidelity of leatherbacks. Researchers suspected that turtles tagged on their\r\n study area were also utilizing beaches throughout the southeast coast. This was\r\n supported by the incidental captures on adjacent nesting beaches during morning nesting\r\n surveys. Low site fidelity makes it difficult to get a true estimate of nesting\r\n parameters by surveying just one small area. Estimated clutch frequency and population\r\n size become skewed because the probability of recapturing them declines as nesting range\r\n increases. In 2014, biologists with FLI expanded upon their work that began at Palm\r\n Beach County by including the beaches of Martin County, which host the highest density\r\n of leatherback nesting in the state.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n During 9-11 day nesting intervals, the majority of leatherbacks leave the beach and\r\n head east to the Florida Current. They quickly move north and stop near Cape\r\n Canaveral, remain there for 2-3 days, and then slowly move back south to nest again.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Leatherbacks observed during this study have also been observed to have international\r\n ties. One turtle tagged on a Florida beach was caught by the Canadian Sea Turtle Network\r\n in the waters off Nova Scotia as part of their ongoing inwater research. In 2014, a\r\n turtle emerged to nest on Jupiter Island with tags that had been applied while she was\r\n nesting in Costa Rica in 2001. This confirms what genetic analysis has preliminarily\r\n shown. Initial results indicate genetic similarities between turtles that nest in\r\n Florida and those that nest in St. Croix, Trinidad, and Costa Rica. It is very possible\r\n that the turtles that colonized Florida nesting beaches originated in one of these\r\n larger nesting grounds.\r\n
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\r\n Satellite data and dive profiles from turtles outfitted with transmitters have provided\r\n valuable information about leatherback behavior during the nesting season as well as\r\n after they leave for the year. Leatherbacks nest every 9-11 days and the majority leave\r\n the beach after a nest and head east to the Florida Current. They quickly move north\r\n utilizing this current system and stop near Cape Canaveral where they turn west, remain\r\n there for 2-3 days, and then slowly move back south to nest again. After their last nest\r\n of the season, they travel north along the eastern US coast and often end up in the\r\n waters off New York, New Jersey, and even as far as eastern Canada where they feed on\r\n large jellyfish aggregations. When northern waters begin to cool in the fall, they will\r\n migrate to foraging grounds in the mid or southern Atlantic and continue this pattern\r\n until returning to Florida to nest again. Leatherbacks are capable of diving more than\r\n 1,000 meters but spend a large amount of time at the surface, typically surfacing to\r\n breathe every 5-10 minutes.\r\n
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\r\n Surveys of Jupiter Island began in 2014 and expanded to include Hutchinson Island in\r\n 2016, incorporating a total of 32 km of beach. During the leatherback season that spans\r\n from March through June, biologists with FLI survey the beaches in search of nesting\r\n leatherbacks. Each leatherback encountered is first checked for tags. Since tagging has\r\n taken place for over 20 years in Florida, many turtles have tags from previous years.\r\n Tags are checked for integrity and turtles are examined for signs of undocumented\r\n injuries. Untagged turtles receive two metal flipper tags and a PIT tag. They are\r\n measured and a skin biopsy is collected. Each nesting season, 1-3 turtles are also\r\n outfitted with a satellite transmitter to look at movement, dive behavior, and\r\n post-nesting migration.\r\n
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\r\n Between March 2014 and June 2019, FLI biologists encountered leatherbacks a total of\r\n 1,716 times. These encounters were with 496 individual turtles who were observed between\r\n one and eighteen times each. 211 of these turtles were untagged. The remaining 286\r\n turtles were tagged prior to 2014 in either Palm Beach or Brevard County. 148 turtles\r\n were seen on only one occasion throughout the four-year period, confirming suspicions\r\n that leatherbacks likely have very low site fidelity. While it is possible that these\r\n turtles were nesting only a single time during the season, there were multiple turtles\r\n that were observed nesting eight to nine times within a single season. In 2018, one\r\n turtle laid 11 nests, the first time this was documented. Turtles were often observed\r\n nesting in both Palm Beach and Martin Counties throughout the season.\r\n
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\r\n The Florida Leatherbacks Team readies for another night-long survey.\r\n
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\r\n In 2018, FLI began a partnership with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada to\r\n track nesting turtles long-term with a new method of directly attaching a transmitter to a\r\n turtle’s dorsal ridge. This study was designed to look at the movements of turtles from\r\n Florida nesting beaches to Canadian foraging grounds. In 2018, a leatherback named Isla\r\n was tagged on May 11th. Isla laid a total of 11 nests during the nesting season, the first\r\n time this has been documented. This would not have been possible to determine without\r\n satellite data since she nested on various beaches throughout the east coast. Isla is\r\n still transmitting off the coast of Maryland and has traveled over 22,950 km (14,260\r\n miles), providing us with valuable data about the foraging grounds she has used.\r\n
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\r\n In 2019, two long-term transmitters were applied. Kailani was tagged on March 25th and\r\n laid at least 9 nests before leaving. She has traveled over 9,850 km (6,120 miles). She\r\n is currently in almost the same spot as Isla off the coast of Maryland. Vixen was tagged\r\n at the end of the nesting season on June 15th and has traveled over 3,470 km (2,156\r\n miles). She is currently off the coast of South Carolina. You can follow all tracked\r\n turtles at www.trackturtles.com.\r\n
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\r\n Long-term population studies are often the only way to answer many questions about life\r\n history, reproductive biology, and habitat use, particularly for long-lived and\r\n wide-ranging animals. It is important to continue to use individual identification over\r\n a multi-decadal time frame to better understand this population and the potential\r\n impacts of anthropogenic forces on its survival. Data collected from this study are used\r\n by governmental and management agencies to better understand this extremely important\r\n nesting aggregation and create recover strategies best tailored to this population. The\r\n support of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation this year made all of this\r\n possible.\r\n
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Salty Air and Sea Turtles
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\r\n By Kelly Palmateer\r\n
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\r\n Imagine a place where sea turtles thrive and salty air blows with the sea winds. Well,\r\n there is such a place. It’s a little island called St. Croix. And it is incredible. I was\r\n so blessed this past summer to have the opportunity to visit this magical island that\r\n Kenny Chesney sings so radiantly about, and it changed my life. I went to the island as\r\n part of a yoga retreat/sea turtle conservation program with Kim Depasquale and Layna Mohl,\r\n our retreat leaders, the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, led by Kelly Stewart and\r\n their volunteers, and the St. Croix Leatherback Project, led by Larry Wood. We all worked\r\n together to study and help to conserve leatherback sea turtles as they migrate to the\r\n island to lay their little eggs. The experience was impactful to say the least. These\r\n animals are unbelievably amazing. They swim thousands of miles to this small stretch of\r\n sand on the West end of the island to climb up the dunes, to then dig for hours at a time\r\n to be able to lay their eggs in what they know as a safe haven until the eggs are ready to\r\n hatch. Talk about perseverance.\r\n
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\r\n The heart-warming individuals in the yoga retreat that I traveled with, and myself, worked\r\n closely with the volunteers of each of the programs. The passion and determination these\r\n volunteers had was inspiring. For six days, we walked the beach every morning at sunrise\r\n to look for turtle tracks to new nests that had been dug the night before. And we found a\r\n lot! We would measure the width of the tracks to determine which type of sea turtle it\r\n was, because believe it or not, there are many different kinds of sea turtles. We would\r\n then study the nest and set a marker next to it with the date in order to keep track of\r\n when presumably those cute little hatchlings will want to come out. After we found all of\r\n the nests from the night before, our volunteering was put on pause and we were able to sit\r\n back and enjoy the magic this mesmerizing island has to offer. We spent our days doing\r\n yoga and snorkeling under the pier, swimming among hawksbill and green turtles in the\r\n crystal clear waters. We also went for an incredible hike up to an old lighthouse with a\r\n view that was simply indescribable.\r\n
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\r\n Most days as the sun would set into the Caribbean Sea, we would have a sunset yoga session\r\n on the sand. The tranquility we felt as the sun set and the calm waves would roll in, will\r\n never be surpassed. After the sun would set every evening – and as a side note, the\r\n sunsets from the West end of the island are some for the books, by far some of the most\r\n spectacular sunsets I have ever seen – so after the sun would set, we would prepare to\r\n walk the beach for a couple hours in the dark, hopeful to see one or two, or even three\r\n sea turtles appear from the turquoise waters and make their way up the dunes to begin\r\n digging. We thought we almost saw a few every night, but when we got closer to what we\r\n thought was the sea turtle, we learned it was just a shadow of a rock just underneath the\r\n shoreline. We were disappointed many times, unfortunately. We never did see a sea turtle\r\n come up to the beach at night, but what we witnessed one night at sunset was life\r\n changing. As we finished one of our sunset yoga sessions, we got a signal from one of the\r\n volunteers that one of the nests was actually hatching! We all ran quickly over to the\r\n nest to see what was going on. It didn’t seem that much was going on when we arrived at\r\n the nest, but within minutes, the sand in the middle of the nest began to bubble and move\r\n around and then – a baby sea turtle head popped up through the sparkling grains of sand.\r\n It was a miracle if I have ever seen one.\r\n
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\r\n We were all in awe of the little creature when one by one more started to peek their\r\n heads up through the sand. We stood back as they all emerged. It was a cluster of tiny\r\n heads and little flippers all on top of each other, and it was beautiful. As we waited\r\n patiently until all of the little babies were revealed, the volunteers allowed us to\r\n each hold one in our hands. This was the life changing part of the evening. These little\r\n creatures, so new and so tiny, had so much strength and so much determination to make it\r\n through to the top of the nest. You could literally feel the strength in their flippers.\r\n I have never felt so much nature, to put it simply, in my life. It was amazing. It\r\n doesn’t hurt that they are probably the most adorable baby animals to ever live on the\r\n planet.\r\n
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\r\n So, after we all had our time with the baby sea turtles, the volunteers took them to go\r\n conduct their research. They would then keep the hatchlings safe until it was time to\r\n release them to their fate of following after their ancestors. Later in the evening, we\r\n had the rare and heart-warming opportunity to set the babies free into the ocean.\r\n Another life changing event that putting into actual words would not even come close to\r\n the experience itself. But trust me when I tell you, it was amazing.\r\n
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\r\n As our retreat and volunteering came to an end, we all looked back on the past six days\r\n in complete awe and amazement of all of the things we had been given the opportunity to\r\n do. None of us wanted to leave the island, or the baby sea turtles, or each other for\r\n that matter. We all learned so much about sea turtles and the patience and drive it\r\n takes to study the graceful animals, along with learning so much about ourselves in the\r\n process. The passion and determination that all of the volunteers had will forever stay\r\n with me, and forever inspire me. I think that we all left the island with a little more\r\n passion, so much gratitude for all of the people we met and for these such empowering\r\n animals, and of course so many adorable memories. I cannot thank all of the people\r\n involved enough for the unbelievable trip to this magical island. And I am available at\r\n any time in the future, should they want or need any temporary volunteers for a few days\r\n during nesting season.\r\n
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2019 Sandy Point Leatherback
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The Turtles!
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55 leatherback turtle encounters
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24 individual nesting females identified
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2,100 leatherback hatchlings released
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2 turtles found that have been nesting since 1988!
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167.4 cm was the largest turtle
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142.0 cm was the smallest turtle
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6 was the record number of nests by one individual
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\r\n Since 1977, leatherback turtles have been studied and protected at Sandy Point National\r\n Wildlife Refuge. Sandy Point lies at the southwestern tip of St. Croix (US Virgin\r\n Islands), jutting out into the Caribbean Sea. It has quick access to very deep water and\r\n dynamic nearshore currents that redistribute sand around the point seasonally. It is ideal\r\n nesting habitat for leatherbacks, although green and hawksbill turtles also use it. This\r\n refuge was officially created for the protection of leatherback nesting in 1984 and has\r\n supported the densest nesting of leatherbacks under US jurisdiction since that time. The\r\n refuge is closed to the public seasonally from April through August specifically for\r\n turtle nesting. Results of the intensive work here have resulted in a wealth of knowledge\r\n about leatherbacks, their nesting habits, site fidelity, nest environment and results of\r\n conservation practices\r\n
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\r\n In order to complete the monitoring work, our team of students and volunteers patrol the\r\n 3.2-km nesting beach by foot every 45 minutes between 7:30 pm and 5:00 am to encounter\r\n each nesting leatherback. Incredibly, some females have been nesting at the refuge for\r\n over 30 years; they are identified by flipper and PIT tags. Each turtle is measured,\r\n tagged, sampled for genetics and the location of her nest is recorded by triangulation.\r\n If the nest is laid in a known erosion zone, the eggs are relocated to an area of the\r\n beach not prone to washout.\r\n
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\r\n This has been a major management goal of the refuge for some time. Over 1,000 female\r\n leatherbacks have been identified since the project began. Nesting usually begins in\r\n March and continues through July. Another major component of the monitoring program\r\n involves protection of emerging nests from May through August. Leatherback hatchlings\r\n begin emerging in the early evening before dark and we have a team in place checking on\r\n nests that are due to emerge.\r\n
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Volunteers help Refuge Manager Mike Evans fix the Sandy Point sign.
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\r\n \r\n Some team members during late June: Dana, Kelly, Claire, Nina, Emma, Angie, Shreya, and\r\n Jeremy.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Hatchlings are protected from predators (mainly birds) as they make their way up to the\r\n surface and down the beach to the water. We conduct a genetics research project with the\r\n hatchlings to determine paternity and identify male breeding turtles in the population.\r\n The Fish and Wildlife Service supports a community program called Turtle Watch that\r\n guides visitors through either a nesting event with a female leatherback (April through\r\n mid-June) or a hatching event (mid-June through July). This program allows local\r\n residents to realize the importance and wonder of leatherback nesting in St. Croix. Each\r\n year, over 1,000 people participate in this outreach effort.\r\n
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\r\n In 2017, the refuge was severely affected by Hurricane Maria and we are still evaluating\r\n the effects of the storm on nest distribution and success as well as habitat quality.\r\n The storm changed the nearshore environment by moving tremendous amounts of sand around\r\n and affecting the vegetation in a serious way. Most tall trees were knocked over,\r\n leaving gaps in the vegetation along the beach that usually block the light coming to\r\n the refuge beaches from nearby towns. Assessing the impacts of Maria will continue to be\r\n a major focus for our team this season, in addition to working with the turtles.\r\n
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\r\n Last season, the team did evaluations of nest distribution, and compared pre-hurricane\r\n and post- hurricane nest success. All of these studies will be presented at the\r\n International Sea Turtle Symposium!\r\n
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\r\n As seasons go, this past year on the Leatherback Project at Sandy Point was a weird one.\r\n We expected to see many of the females that had nested between 2009 and 2015. We hoped\r\n this might be the year, as recently turtles have been taking longer and longer to come\r\n back to nest. Instead, we had the lowest number of individual nesting turtles since\r\n 1990. To answer the question of why the turtles are not returning, or to find out where\r\n they are going, we were planning to start a satellite tagging program, and while we got\r\n our equipment ready to go (with the help of National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation), we\r\n just didn’t have the right leatherback candidates to deploy our tags. We will be\r\n starting right away at the beginning of next season with this program.\r\n
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The People!
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88 all-night patrols for nesting turtles
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80 evening hatchling patrols
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3,520 miles walked
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30 volunteers, students and interns
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Turtle Camp for the Leatherback Project.
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\r\n We did have two amazing turtle recaptures, however. Both Caroline (VI1231) and Max\r\n (VI1291) first nested in 1988, making it 31 years since they first nested. Both of them\r\n have been regular nesters over the years at Sandy Point. Between them, they have been\r\n seen over 100 times! They tie the record for maximum reproductive longevity (31 years)\r\n with AAG322, who was tagged in 1981 and last seen nesting in 2012. We think that these\r\n are possibly the longest records for a leatherback return anywhere in the world!\r\n
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\r\n Despite wishing for more turtles, our volunteer research assistants still gained\r\n plenty of experience with turtle tagging, nest relocations (especially near the end of\r\n the season), and data entry, checking and analysis. We were able to take care of many\r\n of the important data entry jobs that we just don’t have time for during a regular\r\n season. This will be very helpful as a few of our research assistants will use\r\n portions of the data in their masters degrees and presentations at the next\r\n International Sea Turtle Symposium in Cartagena, Colombia.\r\n
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\r\n We welcomed lots of visitors and short-term volunteers this season, including university\r\n students from Duke University, Winona State University and James Madison University. Dr.\r\n Larry Wood of The Florida Hawksbill Project joined us for a week along with yoga retreat\r\n participants from Breathe Salt & Yoga in Jupiter, FL. Our loyal St. Croix resident\r\n volunteers helped with night patrols, hatchling patrols and Turtle Watch. Thank you to\r\n everyone who helped this season!\r\n
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\r\n Our project is updated regularly on our website at SeaTurtleCensus.com. We also have a\r\n Facebook page (@stxleatherbacks) that we regularly update. Our sincere thanks to The\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation for the support of our program again this year!\r\n The Sea Turtle Census Initiative is a project of The Ocean Foundation, a 501(c)(3)\r\n organization, working in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA\r\n National Marine Fisheries Service Marine Turtle Genetics Program in La Jolla, California.\r\n
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Breathe Salt & Yoga volunteers compare body size to a turtle track
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\r\n Learning About Leatherbacks: Challenges of Captive Rearing\r\n
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\r\n Mike Salmon, Department of Biological Sciences
Florida Atlantic University\r\n
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\r\n The fossil evidence tells us that marine turtles arose from aquatic turtles living in\r\n brackish waters, a habitat that provided an easy transition for the evolution of other\r\n turtle species adapted to marine habitats. The result was an explosion of over 100 new\r\n marine turtles in 4 distinct families. Unfortunately two families, which produced\r\n extremely large marine turtles, have gone extinct but the remaining two families have\r\n hung on and are represented by 6 species of “hard shelled” turtles and a single survivor\r\n of the other family, the leatherback or “leathery shelled” turtle. The leatherback is\r\n without question the most unusual and distinctive representative of today’s aquatic\r\n turtles, and perhaps the most unique species of turtle that ever lived! It is those\r\n differences that make these animals so interesting to study, simply because they\r\n demonstrate just how remarkably “flexible” and varied the design of a turtle can be.\r\n
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\r\n Instead, their body is covered by smooth skin over a layer of thick connective tissue\r\n and fat, in which are embedded numerous small bony ossicles that provide strength but\r\n also, flexibility. Body flexibility is important for leatherbacks as they must withstand\r\n the extreme pressures associated with diving to depths exceeding 1500 feet in search of\r\n food. Their prey are jellyfish, salps and pelagic tunicates (collectively, “gelatinous\r\n zooplankton”). Other marine turtles also feed on jellyfish but the leatherback,\r\n uniquely, is a feeding “specialist” that exclusively feeds on these organisms. Most of\r\n the structural, physiological and behavioral features of leatherbacks are best explained\r\n as adaptations to this unique foraging strategy.\r\n
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Distinguishing Features of Leatherbacks
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\r\n Leatherbacks are easily distinguished from other marine turtles by the absence of a\r\n rigid shell of bony plates (scutes) on their top (carapace) and bottom (plastron)\r\n surfaces.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n Figure 1. You can best appreciate the size of leatherbacks when they are\r\n photographed next to a person for scale. This female came ashore to nest at Sandy\r\n Point, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Prof. Jeanette Wyneken, behind the turtle,\r\n witnessed the event.\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
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\r\n Leatherbacks as adults are huge! (Figure 1). They can reach a length that exceeds 6\r\n feet and a mass of over 2000 lbs, though most adults are smaller. Their large size and\r\n rotund shape results in a large body volume, one that allows the turtles to sequester\r\n the metabolic heat associated with muscular activity while swimming. That form of\r\n warm-bloodedness, called “gigantothermy”, is unique among turtles and, in turn, allows\r\n them to search for jellyfish in the colder, more productive northern waters where\r\n jellies thrive. Those habitats can’t be tolerated by other marine turtles so\r\n leatherbacks have no turtle food competitors.\r\n
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\r\n But a jellyfish diet doesn’t make life easy. For one thing, jellies are a\r\n nutritionally poor food source so leatherbacks have to consume them almost constantly,\r\n day and night, to obtain enough calories for growth and eventually, for reproduction.\r\n Furthermore, jellyfish often exist in low concentrations over widely scattered areas,\r\n requiring a continuous search to find them. As a consequence, leatherbacks swim almost\r\n continuously and that puts a premium on having a highly streamlined body to reduce\r\n drag, front flippers that power them efficiently through the water, and a chest that\r\n bulges with muscular power (Figure 2). Leatherbacks routinely swim slowly to conserve\r\n energy but when they have to, they can fly through the water at impressive speeds.\r\n Finally, we return to another characteristic of leatherbacks: their flexible bodies.\r\n Leatherbacks can store large quantities of fat under their skin without much change in\r\n their body shape. That’s a very handy characteristic to possess when you can’t be sure\r\n of where, or when, you’ll get your next meal. It also enables leatherbacks to overeat\r\n at locations where jellyfish are concentrated in “blooms” and store those excess\r\n calories as fat reserves.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n Figure 2. A swimming adult. Note its hydro-dynamically efficient body shape,\r\n immensely long flippers and muscular shoulders. Ridges running down the length of\r\n the carapace promote the orderly (“laminar”) flow of water across the turtle’s\r\n surface. That reduces the energetic costs of swimming. (Photo: Seapics.com)\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
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Raising Leatherbacks at the FAU Marine Lab
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\r\n Turtles generally, and sea turtles in particular, are relatively easy to captive-rear\r\n but that statement applies only to the hard-shelled species. Leatherbacks are a\r\n different story! The problems are many and varied. Leatherbacks are open-water species\r\n that do not recognize barriers and so when kept in tanks, they crash into walls and\r\n the bottom, abrade their skin and die either from infection or stress. To make matters\r\n worse, they have no ability to swim in a reverse direction. That inability just makes\r\n things worse and so to rear them, each turtle has to be tethered by use of a short\r\n leash to preserve the illusion that they are swimming in open water (Figure 3).\r\n
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\r\n Green turtle and loggerhead hatchlings are not picky about what they eat. They thrive\r\n on a diet of shrimp, fish, and veggies supplemented with reptile vitamins and\r\n minerals. They are perfectly content to enjoy a large meal once daily, which makes\r\n both food preparation and scheduled feeding easy to arrange and finite in time.\r\n Leatherbacks, unfortunately, are a different story! If fed a nutritionally rich diet\r\n once daily, they develop digestive problems and die. Instead, both food and feeding\r\n must conform to what leatherbacks experience in the wild, that is, they must be fed a\r\n low calorie (“jellyfish like”) food multiple times each day, a schedule that resembles\r\n the opportunistic and varied tempo of encounters with jellyfish that a leatherback is\r\n likely to experience in nature.\r\n
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Understand Leatherback Behavior
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\r\n Until recently, much of what we knew about leatherback behavior was based upon\r\n scattered observations and more recently, records from instruments attached to the\r\n turtles. Thanks to these studies, we now know that leatherbacks often migrate over\r\n 1000 miles between their northern feeding grounds and their southern nesting beaches,\r\n when and where they dive, and how long they can hold their breath (over 80 min!).\r\n Animals captured on their feeding or nesting grounds have been used to determine what\r\n they are eating, their internal body temperature, and their genetic relationships.\r\n While all of these findings are important, they provide only limited information of\r\n interest to behavioral biologists who want to know how these turtles perceive their\r\n environment, how they detect and recognize their prey, and how that understanding\r\n might be used to manage and protect their populations as leatherbacks are critically\r\n endangered. But how does one do behavioral experiments on an animal that is so massive\r\n and that requires a steady diet of jellyfish? The trick is instead to work with\r\n smaller, and more convenient life-history stages (young juveniles) but that, in turn,\r\n means they must be captive-raised. It turns out that rearing leatherbacks in the lab\r\n isn’t easy but studies, supported by the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, have\r\n made advances possible!\r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n Figure 3. Young leatherbacks always assume they are in open water and do not\r\n recognize barriers, like the sides or bottom of a tank. They will continue to bump\r\n into these obstructions and in the process, injure themselves. The solution is to\r\n tether each turtle on a short monofilament leash so that they never contact\r\n anything solid. Here, 3 turtles are maintained in a single rearing tank, with\r\n tethers too short to touch either any part of the tank or one another. (J. Wyneken\r\n photo)\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n Figure 4. Feeding leatherbacks is a time-consuming process. Each turtle receives a\r\n known quantity of gelatin as several bite-sized cubes containing vitamins, minerals,\r\n and a low concentration of protein and carbohydrate, comparable to the nutrition\r\n they would consume if eating a jellyfish. They eat slowly! It takes time to feed\r\n them! (J. Wyneken photo)\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
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\r\n In our lab, that means leatherbacks are fed small quantities 3 times daily (“breakfast,\r\n lunch and dinner”) on a diet that is mostly gelatin, with a bit of fish added for\r\n protein, plus vitamins and minerals. It takes a lot of help from a crew of dedicated\r\n students to feed each turtle individually, and to work all those shifts (Figure 4)!\r\n
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\r\n But as if the above didn’t make things sufficiently difficult, there is another\r\n challenge, one that was unanticipated. Leatherbacks hatch with a barely functional\r\n immune system that can’t tolerate the higher levels of bacteria and viruses present in\r\n our coastal waters, especially during the summer when that water is warm. Normally,\r\n hatchlings enter the sea from our beaches and swim swiftly and directly out to sea where\r\n the water is both cleaner and cooler. Unfortunately, our laboratory obtains its seawater\r\n from a source near shore. We found it essential that the seawater used in leatherback\r\n tanks passes through a UV filter (Figure 5) to kill microbes, is purified by a protein\r\n skimmer to remove organic compounds, and finally is cooled before it is pumped into a\r\n tank housing leatherback hatchlings or juveniles. Even with those precautions, water in\r\n those tanks must be partially changed each day to maintain those conditions.\r\n
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\r\n These are lessons that took years of trial-and-error explorations to learn. It’s not\r\n surprising that we are the only facility in the world that now raises leatherbacks. It’s a\r\n stressful, time consuming and expensive proposition. We’re still perfecting our techniques\r\n to improve our success. I’m happy to report that as a result, we are producing some very\r\n attractive, fat and healthy juveniles for further study (Figure 6). They can be observed\r\n from the Visitors Gallery at the FAU marine lab. Come visit and see for yourself our\r\n current brood of growing leatherbacks.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n Figure 6. Our preferred outcome: a fat and healthy juvenile about 10 inches in\r\n length, ready to be used in a brief experiment before it is taken offshore and\r\n released. (M. Salmon photo)\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n Figure 5. The large grey cylinder houses 4 powerful ultraviolet light tubes that\r\n kill all viruses and bacteria present in the lab’s seawater. The water that exits is\r\n then processed through another filtering system (a “protein skimmer”, not pictured)\r\n to remove organic pollutants, and cooled in a chiller. Finally, the water is\r\n funneled into tanks where we house our leatherbacks. (M. Salmon photo)\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
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\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation\r\n Scholarship Program at FAU Now in Second Year\r\n
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\r\n Larry Wood, Ph.D., Research Coordinator,
\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation\r\n
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\r\n For many years, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has partnered with Florida\r\n Atlantic University to support students, faculty, and facilities to assist with their\r\n world-class studies with sea turtles and the coastal environment. Most recently, the\r\n Foundation established a scholarship program within the Charles E. Schmidt College of\r\n Science to provide 4 undergraduate scholarships $15,000 each during the 2018-2019 academic\r\n year. The scholarships provided financial assistance to seniors enrolled at the Boca Raton\r\n Campus who demonstrated academic excellence, financial need, and a commitment to become\r\n scholars and ambassadors that represent the Marine Science program at Florida Atlantic\r\n University. As such, they are expected to develop as well-rounded, skilled, and committed\r\n individuals who are motivated to engage the public through education, research and\r\n outreach activities appropriate to both their specific interests in the field, as well as\r\n those of importance in the field of marine biology.\r\n
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\r\n As these students prepare to finish their senior year in the spring, we are looking\r\n forward to continuing our support for new students in the upcoming year. We’ll be\r\n getting updates and summaries from each of the former scholarship recipients to share in\r\n future issues of Outreach, and we wish them the very best as they continue to pursue\r\n their careers. The ideal candidate is an undergraduate about to enter their senior year\r\n with interest in any aspect of marine biology research at the ecological, evolutionary,\r\n or behavioral level and educational outreach. Preference will be given to applicants in\r\n good standing in the biology department’s Honors Thesis Program who demonstrate\r\n financial need, coupled with a commitment to community service, academic excellence, and\r\n a desire to enhance their ability to engage the public. These scholarships shall be\r\n awarded on the basis of need and merit without regard to race, color, religion, age,\r\n sex, national origin, or disability.\r\n
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\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Becomes a New Member of Nova\r\n Southeastern’s Fellows Society\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D.
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\r\n On November 12th, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation was invited to celebrate a\r\n lovely evening with Nova administrators, faculty, staff, and distinguished alumni to\r\n welcome the Foundation and 13 other new Nova Southeastern University Fellows Society\r\n Members. Each of these individuals, corporations, foundations, and trusts have committed\r\n cumulative giving to NSU that exceeds $50,000. The Foundation strongly supports the\r\n marine education center at Nova’s MEEC facility in Hollywood, Florida, and has been\r\n supporting Nova’s sea turtle nesting survey work in Broward County for well over a\r\n decade through its popular Adopt-A-Nest program.\r\n
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\r\n Barbara Buckbee (left), Kelly Flanagan (right), and Larry Wood (upper right) were\r\n welcomed by Richard Dodge, Dean of the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and\r\n Oceanography and Alissa Hechter, Senior Director of Development for Nova Southeastern.\r\n
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\r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Supports Florida Gulf Coast University\r\n
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\r\n Dr. Phil Allman
\r\n Associate Professor of Vertebrate Zoology
\r\n Florida Gulf Coast University\r\n
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\r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation recently established a scholarship program for\r\n students at Florida Gulf Coast University, located in Fort Myers, Florida. The\r\n scholarships will support senior-year undergraduate students by covering expenses related\r\n to tuition, books and fees, and provide additional support for Dr. Phil Allman’s sea\r\n turtle research and conservation projects.\r\n
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\r\n Florida Gulf Coast University and Dr. Allman’s FGCU Herpetology Research Lab provide\r\n opportunities for students interested in sea turtle research and conservation. Dr. Allman\r\n has been working on international and domestic turtle conservation issues for over 25\r\n years and is a member of the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group as well\r\n as the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group. As a US Fulbright Scholar, he initiated the\r\n first long-term sea turtle tagging and research program in Ghana (West Africa). Thirteen\r\n years later he continues to direct a network of sea turtle monitoring programs as part of\r\n the Ghana Turtle Conservation Project. The project enables undergraduate and graduate\r\n students from FGCU and the University of Ghana to obtain valuable field experience while\r\n conducting conservation-based sea turtle research.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Dr. Phil Allman’s sea turtle programs are focused both in SW Florida and Ghana, West\r\n Africa.\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
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\r\n In 2010, a group of 12 undergraduate students from FGCU participated in a Study Abroad\r\n program where they interviewed fishermen along Ghana’s coast. This research allowed us\r\n to discover many coastal communities consider it taboo to harm or even touch a sea\r\n turtle. The origin of this traditional protection is based on an oral story about sea\r\n turtles saving fishermen lost at sea during a storm. One of the undergraduate students\r\n became fascinated with this information and helped write a peer reviewed paper on the\r\n study – she was the primary author. Another student from a 2012 Study Abroad program\r\n helped publish a paper documenting loggerhead nesting activity in Ghana – a species that\r\n had not been seen in the region since the 1950s. FGCU students helped initiate a fishery\r\n observer program in Ghana to determine how many sea turtles are accidently killed as\r\n by-catch in the artisanal gill-net fishery. Over 12,000 gill-net fishing vessels operate\r\n in Ghana’s water and research indicates 4 sea turtles are killed per vessel each year.\r\n Olive ridley sea turtles are the most commonly captured, but these nets also kill a\r\n significant number of leatherback and green sea turtles.\r\n
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\r\n In 2016, the lab initiated an experiment to test the effectiveness of using green LED\r\n lights to reduce sea turtle by-catch. Three years of data indicate green lights reduce\r\n sea turtle captures by 80% in Ghana’s gillnet fishery. Because of the taboo against\r\n harming sea turtles fishermen are excited to use the green lights. Dr. Allman is leading\r\n another Study Abroad program in 2020 and hopes to install lights on more fishing boats\r\n with a goal of having lights on all boats in two fishing communities (approximately 350\r\n boats). Over 40 students at FGCU have participated in sea turtle research activities in\r\n Ghana, and many have continued conservation work through graduate research activities,\r\n Peace Corp, and even the US Fulbright program. Graduate students have also participated\r\n in sea turtle research activities in Ghana by exploring nesting patterns and population\r\n genetics among the species. We recently discovered that leatherback turtles are not only\r\n genetically similar to populations in Gabon and South Africa, but also to those of the\r\n Caribbean and US. An important study just completed in the lab provides genetic support\r\n for Archie Carr’s hypothesis that olive ridley sea turtles colonized the Atlantic Ocean\r\n from the Indian Ocean. Theses genetic studies helped the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist\r\n Group delineate sea turtle conservation management units as a tool of prioritizing\r\n conservation efforts where the most work is needed.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Dr Allman’s team works with the people of Ghana’s coast
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\r\n The lab will continue implementing conservation strategies in Ghana while simultaneously\r\n researching the animals to learn how best to implement those efforts. For example, the lab\r\n hopes to continue working with Ghana’s fishermen to further explore the most efficient use\r\n of LED lights on gillnets, but also to develop gear modifications on other fishery types\r\n (purse seine, trawlers) in Ghana that may also catch large numbers of sea turtles. It is\r\n also important to investigate migration patterns of Ghana’s sea turtles through satellite\r\n telemetry studies. This information would allow the lab to initiate multi-nation agreements\r\n to protect sea turtles that utilize Ghana’s beaches.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Team
is proud to support Florida Gulf\r\n Coast University.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The FGCU Herpetology Research Lab has recently been asked to provide oversight for sea\r\n turtle monitoring activities at Cayo Costa State Park (CCSP) through the Florida Park\r\n Service. CCSP is located in southwest Florida, on Cayo Costa Island in the Gulf of Mexico\r\n about 12 miles west of Cape Coral. It is known to host nesting populations of loggerhead and\r\n green sea turtles, and both Kemp’s Ridley and hawksbill turtles are found in nearby waters.\r\n Dr. Allman’s team will greatly augment the Florida Park Service’s abilities to study and\r\n preserve the Island’s sea turtle poulations. Four undergraduate students conduct daily\r\n morning nesting surveys and collect data using FWC and FPS protocols. Students have the\r\n opportunity to conduct their own independent research while working on Cayo Costa. A student\r\n is currently exploring the impact of coyote predation on sea turtle recruitment with hopes\r\n of improving predator control measures in the park. The Herpetology lab has only been\r\n involved at Cayo Costa for three years but the project will continue offering research\r\n opportunities for FGCU’s students. The lab hopes to investigate sand temperature and changes\r\n in nesting patterns to explore how climate change is impacting the reproductive ecology of\r\n loggerhead sea turtles in southwest Florida.\r\n
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\r\n Florida International University Leads in Global Sea Turtle Conservation\r\n
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\r\n Angela Nicoletti,
\r\n College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
\r\n Florida International University\r\n
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\r\n Sea turtle populations are in decline. Pollution, sea level rise, development, habitat\r\n encroachment, overfishing and illegal harvesting have decimated the number of turtles\r\n around the globe. FIU is committed to protecting sea turtles and restoring their habitats.\r\n Dr. Mike Heithaus — dean of FIU’s College of Arts, Sciences & Education — oversees the\r\n Heithaus Lab, which has been involved in sea turtle research since 1997 when initial\r\n studies began as part of the Shark Bay Ecosystem Research Project in Western Australia.\r\n
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\r\n Using a combination of observational and experimental studies, FIU researchers are\r\n studying the foraging ecology, diving behavior and social interactions of sea turtles; the\r\n role sharks play in shaping turtle behavior; as well as the role of sea turtles in\r\n seagrass and coral reef ecosystems. They are working in Australia, the Caribbean Sea\r\n (French West Indies and Abaco, Bahamas), French Polynesia and Madagascar.\r\n
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Uncovering the secret lives of sea turtles
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\r\n Sea turtles are difficult to observe in their natural habitat because they spend so much\r\n of their time underwater. Understanding their diet, movements and behavior is critical\r\n when it comes to managing and conserving populations. In the past, researchers would\r\n have to examine the stomach contents of dead or stranded turtles to understand more\r\n about these animals. Now, FIU researchers are deploying new technology that takes\r\n scientists along for a ride on the back of a sea turtle. Using GoPro video cameras\r\n attached to the turtles’ shells, FIU scientists are gathering detailed data on turtle\r\n diving, foraging, and social behavior. “The nice thing about using video cameras in the\r\n study was to be able to directly see what animals were doing and not having to make\r\n guesses based on other information like how long they spent underwater between each time\r\n they came up for air,” Heithaus said.\r\n
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\r\n In Shark Bay, Australia a team of researchers deployed more than 120 video cameras\r\n yielding nearly 400 hours of footage. They found strong patterns in sea turtle behavior\r\n associated with seasonal water temperatures, which have long been suspected but have\r\n previously proven difficult to observe. Specifically, they found turtles are more active\r\n during the warm season, spending most of their time swimming, surfacing, exploring vast\r\n seagrass meadows, feeding and interacting with other turtles. During the cold season,\r\n the turtles’ lives slow down as they spend most of their time resting on the seabeds and\r\n rarely surfacing.\r\n
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Hawksbill sea turtle research
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\r\n Hawksbill sea turtles are understudied relative to other species. Known to be\r\n predominantly sponge eaters, they spend their adult life on coral reefs. Previous\r\n research indicates that hawksbills have the potential to play a vital role in shaping\r\n marine ecosystems despite their small population numbers. However, the effects of turtle\r\n foraging on community dynamics between prey and habitat remain largely unclear. FIU\r\n researchers are conducting research on hawksbill foraging in Nosy Be, Madagascar using\r\n cameras attached to the turtles’ shell. The footage revealed the turtle’s comings and\r\n goings – where it went in search of food, what it ate, and whether it interacted with\r\n other turtles or marine species.\r\n
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\r\n In addition, researchers are analyzing data collected from Global Finprint, an\r\n international project focused on capturing sharks and rays on camera in their natural\r\n habitats. This project has received core funding from Paul G. Allen, co-founder of\r\n Microsoft, and is part of FIU’s Tropical Conservation Institute. Global FinPrint’s data\r\n is providing desperately needed information to protect the sharks and rays, but also\r\n giving researchers a glimpse at the health of other marine populations around the globe,\r\n including sea turtle populations.\r\n
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Green sea turtle research
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\r\n Green turtles primarily graze on seagrass. This means they have the potential to affect\r\n seagrass communities. In Abaco, Bahamas, the Heithaus Lab has had a rare opportunity to\r\n study the non-human factors affecting a recently protected green turtle population so that\r\n management agencies can apply ecologically meaningful conservation tactics. Researchers\r\n have used unmanned aerial video, baited remote underwater video and seagrass surveys to\r\n study the foraging behavior of green turtles, including the impact of grazing on seagrass\r\n communities. The lab is also studying the effects of green turtle grazing on seagrass\r\n communities using a multi-year grazer exclusion study within four tidal creek sites along\r\n Abaco’s eastern coastline.\r\n
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\r\n In 2014, Heithaus also co-authored a study that looked at the impacts of green sea turtles\r\n on seagrass communities in Bermuda, Australia, Indonesia and India, all locations with\r\n large green sea turtle populations. In each of the sites, data suggests seagrass meadows\r\n are being disrupted by heavy grazing where turtle populations are increasing and shark\r\n populations are down. “We’ve seen similar issues on land – the loss of wolves leads to\r\n population explosions of deer that then damage ecosystems,” Heithaus said. “We need\r\n efforts to protect and rebuild turtle populations in most of the world, but we also need\r\n to be working to ensure that populations of their predators are intact so the turtles\r\n don’t eat themselves out of house and home.”\r\n
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\r\n Recently, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation donated $45,000 to FIU to establish\r\n a Scholarship Fund to help marine science students advance their sea turtle research.\r\n Based on academic merit and a strong commitment to studying marine science, three\r\n senior-level student applicants will be chosen receive full-year scholarships to complete\r\n their undergraduate degrees. The remainder will support research labs in FIU’s College of\r\n Arts, Sciences & Education to further the efforts of Dr. Heithaus and his students.\r\n
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\r\n Turtle Trunks Travel South: Inwater Resarch Group
and FIU’s Center for\r\n Coastal Oceans Research Reach Students in Monroe County\r\n
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\r\n Analisa Duran
\r\n Education & Outreach Program Coordinator
\r\n Center for Coastal Oceans Research\r\n
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\r\n Cody Mott and Larry Wood deliver “Traveling Trunks” to
Analisa Duran in Key\r\n Largo. They will be shared among
Monroe County school teachers.\r\n
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\r\n The successful Travelling Turtles and Darker Skies, Darker Beaches trunk programs are\r\n now available for teachers to use in Monroe County. Inwater Research Group’s Education\r\n Manager, Rebecca Mott, developed this program to teach about sea turtles and to bring\r\n awareness to the threats and issues sea turtles face into the classroom. This is done\r\n through trunk programs where each trunk consists of lessons, materials and supplemental\r\n resources for teachers to facilitate on their own. Trunks can be moved between\r\n classrooms and even between schools. This way, resources can be shared and teachers can\r\n utilize materials and lessons in a time efficient and easy to manage way.\r\n
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\r\n The trunk program Travelling Turtles focuses on sea turtle biology and rehabilitation\r\n while the Darker Skies, Darker Beaches program focuses on sea turtle safe lighting. Both\r\n programs offer well rounded lesson plans and activities that hit a variety of standards\r\n in correlation to the Florida Standards of Education.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n The trunks provide teachers with all the
tools to provide their students with
\r\n meaningful, hands-on learning experiences.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Sea turtles can be found throughout the Florida Keys, offshore and on various nesting\r\n beaches. Teaching students about sea turtles and their importance, biodiversity and ecology\r\n at a young age is crucial to their understanding of the environment that will lead them to\r\n become environmental stewards. There are 16 schools within the Monroe County School\r\n district, most of which have a Title I status. These trunks will be used to serve these\r\n schools and give a new opportunity to teachers and students to connect real science in their\r\n classes.\r\n
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\r\n Florida International University’s Center for Coastal Oceans Research (FIU’s CCOR) will be\r\n partnering with Inwater Research on this Initiative thanks to funding provided by the\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation. Although FIU is located in Miami-Dade County, they\r\n have a very large presence in the Florida Keys. FIU scientists conduct work in relation to\r\n the seagrass, fish ecology, coral reef biology, water quality and sea level rise in the\r\n Keys. FIU has invested in the education of Monroe County community members and students in\r\n marine science through an Education and Outreach program located in Key Largo. The\r\n coordination of trunks between schools, relationships with schools and oversight of the\r\n program will be done by the FIU CCOR Education & Outreach Coordinator.\r\n
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\r\n FIU, Inwater Research Group and National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation hope to bring a\r\n new-found awareness of the environment to inspire the youth of today to be inspired to\r\n protect and conserve the resources and wildlife around them.\r\n
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\r\n Inwater Research Group Leads in Environmental Education Through Innovative Programming\r\n
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\r\n Kara Muzia, Education Outreach Specialist,
\r\n Inwater research Group, Inc.\r\n
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\r\n As the end of this decade comes to a close, we take a look at all that has been\r\n accomplished here at Inwater Research Group (IRG). Ten years ago, our amazing research\r\n crew were out in full force, collecting data, providing valuable science, but there was\r\n something missing.\r\n
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\r\n What was missing at IRG was a component to make our knowledge more widely available and to\r\n bring the science that we do out into the public eye. Education was missing.\r\n
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\r\n This was remedied in 2014, when Rebecca Mott joined IRG as the Director of Education.\r\n Rebecca wanted a way to bring conservation to the classNameroom, to educate the next\r\n generation in a fun, interactive way. Partnering with the National Save the Sea Turtle\r\n Foundation, Rebecca created the “Traveling Trunks” program, a hands-on initiative to get\r\n sea turtles into the classNameroom and get students involved.\r\n
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\r\n Rebecca has worked tirelessly with educators to create a fun, interactive program. The\r\n trunk offers four lessons, complete with plans for teachers that highlight the myriad of\r\n state standards that are targeted for each lesson. Some of the lessons mirror the research\r\n conducted at IRG, so students get excited and feel engaged, increasing retention and the\r\n likelihood that the conservation messages will stick with them for years to come. The\r\n programs cover topics such as nesting, beachfront lighting, population dynamics, data\r\n collection, and so much more.\r\n
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\r\n The result? While students turned marine biologists bustle about their classNamerooms to catch\r\n their classNamemates turned turtles, they’re learning. They’re learning common ailments that\r\n plague sea turtles such as entanglements and boat strikes. They’re learning how to create\r\n policies that may help protect turtles, while also keeping other stakeholders, such as\r\n fishermen and boaters in mind. They’re learning as they examine a model turtle they’ve\r\n “caught.” The turtle may have a hook in its mouth. It may have encrusting epibiota, such\r\n as barnacles and algae. It may look like a perfectly healthy turtle, but when it’s\r\n weighed, the scale tells a different story. These students record their observations on a\r\n datasheet that looks strikingly similar to those that actual turtle biologists use.\r\n Students learn without even realizing it. The lessons are games to them, and at the end of\r\n the program, students understand the different types of sea turtles, their diets, where\r\n they live, and some of the major threats they face.\r\n
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\r\n With testing at the forefront of most educator’s minds, the “Traveling Trunk” program\r\n strives to make the lessons not only student-friendly, but teacher-friendly as well. At\r\n the beginning of each lesson, the exact state standards that each lesson targets are\r\n listed. Teachers take comfort knowing they’re hitting their required standards while\r\n they’re teaching from the trunk.\r\n
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\r\n The trunks are set up so that they’re a “lesson plan in a box.” Teachers with no\r\n background in marine education are able to borrow these trunks and still provide a\r\n high-level education to their students. The trunk contains everything they need, from\r\n supplies and materials to lesson how-tos for teachers. The best part? Thanks to\r\n partnerships and generous support, these Traveling Trunks are offered for free. Teachers\r\n are able to borrow the trunks at no charge, effectively removing all financial barriers.\r\n This ensures that all students and schools, even the most underserved communities, have\r\n access to the same high-quality education programs.\r\n
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\r\n This incredible program has not gone unnoticed. This year, our Director of Education,\r\n Rebecca Mott was nominated for the “Blue Friend of the Year” Award at the annual Go Blue\r\n Awards hosted by Loggerhead Marinelife Center. This prestigious award is given to those\r\n who exemplify significant contributions in marine conservation through their\r\n work-related efforts. Rebecca was nominated for creating the amazing Traveling Trunk\r\n program, and was up against some stiff competition. The other nominees are amazing folks\r\n who exemplify what it means to bring ocean conservation to the public, including\r\n Jennifer Reilly who brings marine conservation to the deaf community via American Sign\r\n Language and Dr. Mariana Fuentes a lead turtle researcher with Florida State University.\r\n Rebecca and the Traveling Trunks won the “Blue Friend of the Year” Award! We’re beyond\r\n thrilled for her, and are immeasurably proud of the program she’s created, and the\r\n students it’s served.\r\n
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\r\n During the 2018-2019 school year alone, over seven thousand students in the Martin and\r\n St. Lucie County areas experienced the magic of learning from Inwater’s Traveling Trunk\r\n Program. With raving reviews from students such as “it makes me want to be a marine\r\n biologist when I grow up!” and happy teachers who are thrilled to bring “hands-on,\r\n engaging, and thoughtful lesson plans” into their classNameroom, we’re excited to see the\r\n program grow.\r\n
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\r\n IRG has partnered with other organizations across the state, including preserves, parks,\r\n and nature centers in order to bring the traveling trunk program to students all across\r\n Florida. These partnerships have allowed IRG’s programs to expand to 35 trunks offered\r\n in 17 school districts through 17 partner organizations. IRG’s marine education programs\r\n can now be found in coastal Florida counties that represent 94% of total sea turtle\r\n nesting in Florida.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation presents Ms. Rebecca Mott (4th from left)\r\n with a ‘big check’ in support of her award-winning educational programming that\r\n reaches thousands of students throughout Florida.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n As we head into the next decade, IRG is looking forward to creating new partnerships and\r\n expanding the trunk’s reach to every county in the state, including inland communities,\r\n not just those with sea turtle nesting beaches. We believe that you protect what you love,\r\n and bringing the iconic sea turtle to the classNameroom fosters a sense of responsibility in\r\n Florida’s children. By bringing this hands-on program to all students in Florida, we hope\r\n to create a sense of stewardship in the next generation, to inspire them to become\r\n advocates for the ocean and to help protect the turtles they’ve learned so much about.\r\n
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\r\n Our outstanding trunk program would not be possible without the generous support of The\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation. If you're interested in bringing this novel\r\n program to your classNameroom, please visit \r\n inwater.org\r\n for more information.\r\n
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MEEC Staff Expansion
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\r\n Thanks to the support of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, the NSU Marine\r\n Environmental Education Center (MEEC) at the Carpenter House has introduced many new\r\n educational programs and welcomed new staff members in 2019. With the support of the\r\n Foundation, the MEEC has added more educators to expand on school and public programs.\r\n Since opening in 2017, over 40,000 guests have visited the MEEC with nearly 3,000 of those\r\n participating in school programing. School children of all ages can participate in\r\n programs designed to provide more information about endangered species, ecology and\r\n conservation, and invasive species.\r\n
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\r\n In the fall of 2019, the MEEC educators started a bi-monthly Science Saturday program with\r\n various subjects for each program including ghost fishing, invasive lionfish, plankton,\r\n freshwater systems, sustainability and sea turtle nesting. Future Science Saturday program\r\n topics can be found on the MEEC website as well as Facebook and Instagram pages.\r\n
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\r\n While visiting the MEEC, guests get a chance to visit their resident green sea turtle,\r\n Captain, and learn more about the threats to our local wildlife. There is a public sea\r\n turtle feeding each day at 3:30pm where you can hear Captain’s history and learn about the\r\n different sea turtle species. In addition to Captain, guests can visit with the resident\r\n box turtle, Stella, a red-eared slider named Cashew, and Clem, the resident diamondback\r\n terrapin. As the MEEC continues to grow, additional exhibits and educational opportunities\r\n will be added.\r\n
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\r\n\r\n In the summer of 2019, the MEEC welcomed a new education coordinator, Carley Todd. Carley\r\n grew up on Long Island surrounded by the water, spending her childhood days exploring\r\n tidal pools and playing in the woods. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from\r\n Salisbury University on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. After graduating, she worked a\r\n variety of jobs until she ended up on Big Pine Key as a Marine Science Instructor at\r\n Newfound Harbor Marine Institute. She quickly realized experiential learning was a great\r\n way for students to learn while having fun. Carley then went to the west coast of Florida\r\n as a Marine Science Educator at Sanibel Sea School where she led hands-on classes and\r\n programs about the marine environment. After a stint on land as an Environmental Educator,\r\n she went back home to the ocean and ended up at the MEEC as the Education Coordinator.\r\n She’s excited to help inspire the next generation to fall in love with the ocean and all\r\n of its inhabitants. Carley enjoys hiking, cooking, reading, playing volleyball and doing\r\n yoga in her free time.\r\n
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\r\n In the fall of 2019, Kelly Martin joined the MEEC as the program coordinator. Kelly grew up\r\n in Michigan with a love for all animals. After an internship working with sea turtles, she\r\n was hooked. Kelly has worked with sea turtles in a variety of settings over the past 17\r\n years. After graduating from Michigan State University and completing an internship with\r\n leatherbacks in southeast Florida, she took a job in animal care at the Clearwater Marine\r\n Aquarium and then at Mote Marine Lab. She cared for captive loggerhead, green, hawksbill,\r\n and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. While working at Mote, she completed her Master’s in Marine\r\n Science at the University of South Florida while studying the auditory and cognitive\r\n abilities of captive sea turtles. She then moved back to the east coast where she conducted\r\n nesting surveys, leatherback tagging and tracking, and lighting compliance surveys in Palm\r\n Beach County for ten years. She is currently the president of Florida Leatherbacks Inc., a\r\n nonprofit that conducts leatherback sea turtle research in Martin County. When not spending\r\n her time with turtles she loves to travel, camp, hike, and volunteer with the dogs at her\r\n local animal shelter.\r\n
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\r\n\r\n The MEEC’s biggest event of the year is coming up on April 25, 2020. The Free Our Seas\r\n and Beyond Art Festival will be held at the MEEC on Hollywood Beach. The MEEC partners\r\n with Free Our Seas and Beyond to host a beach cleanup and a full-day festival including\r\n vendors, artists, live music, food, and more. Please make sure to check out the website\r\n and social media pages for updates. The MEEC is located in Hollywood, FL and is open\r\n Tuesday through Saturday from 10am-5pm.\r\n\r\n
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\r\n Inwater Research Group Leads in Environmental Education Through Innovative Programming\r\n
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\r\n Three students with big ambitions to curb the dwindling sea turtle population will benefit\r\n from a new scholarship at the University of Central Florida started by the National Save\r\n The Sea Turtle Foundation.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Dr. Michael Johnson, Dean of the College of Sciences , Dr. Kate Mansfield,
\r\n Dr. Larry Wood, and Dr. Graham Worthy attend UCF’s Scholarship Luncheon\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The Foundation chose to partner with UCF in recognition of the work conducted by Kate\r\n Mansfield, Ph.D., who leads the Marine Turtle Research Group (MTRG). Mansfield is a marine\r\n scientist and sea turtle biologist on the forefront of using satellite technology to track\r\n the movement of baby turtles.\r\n
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\r\n “UCF’s sea turtle program combines experience with innovation, resulting in a world-class\r\n lab” said Larry Wood, Ph.D., Research Coordinator for the Foundation. “I’m glad that we\r\n are able to give back to such an amazing academic community through this scholarship.”\r\n
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\r\n The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarship awards three senior-year\r\n undergraduate students $10,000 each in support of tuition, books, and academic fees. It is\r\n meant to alleviate financial stress so that these students can focus on their research and\r\n post-graduation plans.\r\n
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\r\n In addition, the Scholarship provides funding for general use in support of the MRTG’s\r\n ongoing research.“We are very glad to help those that have a bit more difficulty getting\r\n their projects off the ground,” said Wood. “The sea turtles are fascinating animals that\r\n provide great research opportunities. We hope that our commitment to the turtles and\r\n contribution to academic institutions will inspire others to build upon that same\r\n foundation,” said Wood.\r\n
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\r\n The first two recipients of this inaugural fellowship are Monica Reusche and Jennifer\r\n Rote. Both undergraduates were interns with the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group, Monica\r\n starting in 2018, and Jennifer in 2019. Monica is a senior conducting an Honors in the\r\n Major thesis examining the genetic diversity of green turtles in the Indian River Lagoon\r\n and other Central Florida habitats. Jennifer is also in the last years of her degree and\r\n is working with Dr. Erin Seney on a sea turtle diet study. The scholarships will be\r\n awarded for the Spring 2020 semester. Applications for the third scholarship will be\r\n accepted in the Spring semester of 2020 \r\n
\r\n UCF-National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarship Fund\r\n \r\n and will be awarded for Fall 2020.\r\n \r\n
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International Education Initiative 2019-20 Final Report
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Prepared by Rebecca Mott and the Inwater Research Group, Inc., as part of their
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International Education Initiative
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National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation
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Over the past 6 years, I have been fortunate enough to be funded by an organization who saw no limits to what we were capable of. When I came on board in 2014, my job duties were to write curriculum and manage our Facebook page while ensuring we had outreach supplies. With creativity, drive, hard work, and a wonderful support system, I have been able to put IRG and NSTSTF on the proverbial map. We have built a reputation within both the science and education realms by becoming an authority on how to combine the two. Scientists, educators, and organizations from all over seek us out to help them better their education practices.
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This is in large part due to our successful programs that reach over 30,000 students in our state each year. Hosting workshops, chairing special sessions, and presenting at meetings also brands us as experts in our field. Collaborative partnerships and finding areas of growth both from education and research sectors set us apart from most organizations.
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We currently run three trunk programs: “Traveling Turtles”, “Darker Skies, Darker Beaches”, and “Turtles to Go\". Locally, we offer 4 TT trunks and 2 DSDB trunks. Statewide, we now have 19 partner organizations in 21 school districts with over 40 trunks being implemented every year with new students. Organizations such as Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch, Indian River County, GTM Research Reserve, Sea Turtle Preservation Society, FIU, Nature Conservancy, are some of our current and prospective partners. These numbers continue to grow as more partners commission us to build trunks.
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To date, we have had 19 trunks commissioned.
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K-12 Annual Accomplishments
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\r\n - Began developing K-12 curricula, which was shipped to over 33 states and 4 countries, reaching over 110,000 students in its first year
\r\n - Developed relationship with Martin and St. Lucie County School Districts
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\r\n\r\n - Began Traveling Turtles (TT) trunk program
\r\n - Began attending professional development days for Martin and St. Lucie County School Districts
\r\n - Began attending international, out-of-state, and local conferences promoting IRG’s programs
\r\n - Began hosting workshops for state and regional meetings
\r\n - Reached over 4,000 local students in trunk program’s first year
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\r\n - Continued to promote our trunk program locally
\r\n - Continued to host workshops, present at, and host roundtables for international, out-ofstate, and local conferences
\r\n - Built two additional Traveling Turtles trunks
\r\n - Developed and beta-tested framework for statewide partnerships using our trunks across FL
\r\n - Secured funding to underwrite trunks for 5 statewide partners
\r\n - Reached over 12,000 students in statewide program’s first year
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\r\n - Began Darker Skies, Darker Beaches (DSDB) trunk program locally
\r\n - Using previous framework, turned DSDB program into statewide program
\r\n - Secured grant to underwrite 5 additional statewide trunks
\r\n - Reached over 24,000 students with both statewide programs
\r\n - Continued to host workshops, present at, and be on planning committee for international, out-of-state, and local conferences
\r\n - Invited to present at school district-only conferences
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\r\n\r\n - Continued running two statewide trunk programs
\r\n - Began developing framework for organizations requesting trunks outside of grant process
\r\n - Started partnerships with additional organizations across the state
\r\n - Continued to host workshops, present at, and be on planning committee for international, out-of-state, and local conferences
\r\n - Invited to present at school district-only conferences
\r\n - Commissioned to build additional trunks for previous partners to keep up with demand
\r\n - Reached over 28,000 students from both statewide programs
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\r\n - Continued running two statewide trunk programs
\r\n - Forged numerous new partnerships for statewide programs
\r\n - Began Turtles to Go traveling trunk program for scientists and other non-educators
\r\n - Continued to host workshops, present at, be on planning committee for, submit videos for, and chair special sessions at international, out-of-state, and local conferences
\r\n - Invited to present at school district-only conferences
\r\n - Estimated to reach 35,000 students by the end of the school year
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Other Education Endeavors
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Turtle Ambassadors Class with the YMCA (2018)
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Through hands-on stations, interactive activities, and the collaboration with YMCA staff, we were able to teach kids how to protect sea turtles through the roles of both sea turtle and biologist.
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Amigos de las Tortugas (2019-Present)
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This program developed after presenting at the 2019 Permit Holder’s Meeting. A researcher at Clearwater Aquarium approached me because she wanted to bring turtle education to Hispanic communities along the west coast but didn’t know how. In exchange for translating our Turtles to Go program entirely into Spanish, we donated them one of these trunks. Clearwater Aquarium now offers Amigos de las Tortugas for Hispanic communities in their area using nothing but IRG programming, which we hope to expand in the near future.
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Teacher Field Professional Development (2019-Present)
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We’ve hosted two field professional development days so far in Crystal River and have one booked for this school year in Martin and St. Lucie Counties. These days allow us to show teachers first-hand how our programs really do mirror the work we do every day at IRG. The days are split between a workshop in the classroom running through our trunk programs and a day in the field watching IRG biologists catch and work up turtles.
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Bridging the Gap Publication (2019-Present)
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It has been a goal of mine the past 6 years and will continue to be a large focus of mine, to bridge the gap that exists between sea turtle scientists and educators. Through workshops, roundtables, meetings, programs, and now a publication, I hope what I leave for this community achieves just that. In collaboration with a social scientist (FWC/FWRI), environmental educator (Earth Day Network), and data expert (Volusia County), I am working on locating areas of educational weakness in our sea turtle community. I plan on determining barriers, limitations, and perceptions toward education by scientists in our field so I can build a support system that will allow them to feel more comfortable taking on role of educator or at the very least, knowing how to reach out to those who do.
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This will eventually turn into a handbook detailing how each type of organization can build valuable and effective education within their group based on their resources. I plan on finding funding to turn this into statewide and eventually international workshops where scientists get hands-on experience implementing education initiatives.
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National Trunk Program (2020-Present)
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We are currently in talks with Sea Turtle Inc. about re-working our TT traveling trunk to reflect Texas-based turtle information. This would allow us to not only branch into the second largest state in the contiguous U.S., it would set the framework for upscaling our trunk to other states as well.
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We are also in talks with the Department of Environmental Protection and the Everglades Foundation to develop a consortium of trunk organizations across the state. This would allow us to walk organizations who specialize in various fields of conservation through the trunk creation process. We would then find funding to recreate our trunks and donate to participating consortium partners. This would allow each organization to offer well-rounded education programs that cater to fields outside their expertise.
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Turtle Trackers App (2020-Present)
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We are currently in talks with Gregor Shear who developed our nesting app to develop a new app for us. This app, Turtle Trackers, would employ citizen science to help locate sea turtle hotspots in various locations. This would allow us to focus our research efforts on areas of high density, locate areas of high human interaction, and provide citizens with education to help protect these animals. This app has research, rehab, and education implications and will even be able to alert boaters when they are reaching hotspots so they can change their boating behaviors accordingly.
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Youth Driven Cinema (2020-Present)
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Working with Martin County School District, we hold a film contest open to K-12 students. Videos will be judged by esteemed community members and the winners shown at the Lyric Theatre in Stuart. Canceled for 2020 due to Coronavirus.
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Go Green! Art and Conservation Shown (2020)
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Our first year hosting this education/art show fundraiser was a HUGE success. With roughly 80 Visionary School of Arts students participating, we were able to put on a collaborative, conservation-filled night for our community. In addition to this, we raised $1,585.91 for IRG’s research.
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Presentations/Meetings/Professional Development
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Youth Leadership, Martin County Chapter- Stuart, FL (2016-2018)
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\r\n - Professional Development (Presenter)“Who is Inwater Research Group?”
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Leadership, Martin County Chapter- Stuart, FL (2016-2018)
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- Professional Development (Presenter)“Who is Inwater Research Group?”
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Southeast Regional Sea Turtle Meeting- Jekyll Island, GA (2016)
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\r\n - Workshop (Host):“Education, Outreach, and Social Media”
\r\n - Workshop (Presenter):“The Importance of Free Education”
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Florida Marine Turtle Permit Holder’s Meeting- Orlando, FL (2017)
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\r\n - Meeting (Presenter):“Bridging the Gap Between Research and Education”
\r\n - Roundtable Discussion (Host):“How to Expand your Education Programs”
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Broward County Dark Sky Sustainability Workshop- Fort Lauderdale, FL (2017)
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- Meeting (Presenter): “Darker Skies Darker Beaches:Using IRG Education Programs to Teach Turtle-friendly Lighting”
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International Sea Turtle Symposium Presentation- Kobe, Japan (2018)
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- Meeting (Presenter):“Finding Innovative Ways to Bring Free Quality Education Programs Statewide”
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Southeast Regional Sea Turtle Meeting Workshop- Myrtle Beach, SC (2018)
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- Workshop (Host):“Turtle Ambassadors, How Citizens can aid in Sea Turtle Conservation”
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Florida Marine Science Educator’s Association Annual Conference (2018)
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\r\n - Concurrent Session (Presenter):“Bringing Innovative STEM Education to Classrooms Statewide”
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Florida Association of Science Supervisors- Miami, FL (2018)
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\r\n - Meeting (Presenter):“Working Together to Bring Quality Education to Classrooms Statewide”
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Florida Association of Science Teachers- Miami, FL (2018)
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\r\n - Concurrent Session (Presenter):“Bringing Innovative STEM Education to Classrooms Statewide”
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Florida Marine Turtle Permit Holder’s Meeting- Orlando, FL (2019)
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\r\n - Meeting (Presenter)“Turtles to Go: Empowering Scientists to Become Educators”
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International Sea Turtle Symposium- Charleston, SC (2019)
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\r\n - Workshop (Host):“Beyond the Brochure: Creating a Meaningful Education Component to Secure your Research Grants”
\r\n - Workshop (Presenter):“Finding Innovative Ways to Bring Quality Education to Classrooms Statewide”
\r\n - Video Night (Presenter):“What Next: Left After the Data”
\r\n - Symposium (Presenter):“Creating Tomorrow’s Scientists Using Today’s Research”
\r\n - Live Auction (Chair/Emcee)
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Florida Marine Turtle Permit Holder’s Meeting- Orlando, FL (2019)
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\r\n - Meeting (Presenter):“Turtles to Go: Empowering Scientists to Become Educators”
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Florida Marine Science Educator’s Association Annual Conference- Crystal River, FL (2019)
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\r\n - Meeting (Presenter):“Working with School Districts to Bring Hands-on Science to Classrooms”
\r\n - Meeting (Field Experience):IRG offered a one-day field experience for interested\r\n educators who accompanied us alongside our boat as we worked. They got to\r\n experience sea turtle research first-hand as we captured, worked up, and released\r\n turtles in this important habitat.
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Florida Association of Science Supervisors- Orlando, FL (2019)
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\r\n - Meeting (Presenter):“Darker Skies Darker Beaches: Using STEM to Promote Conservation”
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Florida Association of Science Supervisors- St. Augustine, FL (2019)
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\r\n - Meeting (Presenter):“Creating Connections: The True Impact of FASS”
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Florida Association of Science Supervisors- St. Augustine, FL (May 2019)
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\r\n - Meeting (Presenter):“Harnessing the Power of FASS”
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Southeast Regional Sea Turtle Meeting- Corpus Christie, TX (February 2020)
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\r\n - Workshop (Host):“Learning to Adapt: Tailoring our Message to Appeal to Multiple Granting Organizations”
\r\n - Workshop (Co-host):“We Can do it!: Navigating the Fields of STEM as a Woman”
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Teacher Professional Development
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\r\n - Martin County (2014- present)
\r\n - St. Lucie County (2014- present)
\r\n - Broward County (2016)
\r\n - Palm Beach County (2019)
\r\n - Collier County (2019)
\r\n - Citrus County (2019)
\r\n - Brevard County (2019)
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In addition to these meetings, we also give outreach presentations for career day, garden clubs, STEAM nights, etc.
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\r\n - Keep Martin Beautiful: Environmental Stewardship Award (2014)
\r\n - Ecology Project International: John Denham Award Finalist (2018)
\r\n - Loggerhead Marinelife Center: Blue Friend of the Year Award (2019)
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\r\n Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination Unraveled: An Interview with Dr. Alex Lolavar\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D.
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\r\n Dr. Lolavar is a recent graduate of Florida Atlantic University’s Integrative Biology Ph.D.\r\n program. Her research on sex determination in sea turtles has been critical to future\r\n conservation measures given the expected effects of climate change. She is now the Research\r\n Coordinator and an Affiliate Instructor in the Department of Educational Leadership and\r\n Research Methodology at FAU Hight School, located in Boca Raton, Florida. Her research was\r\n partially funded through a gift to FAU’s Graduate Program from the National Save The Sea\r\n Turtle Foundation.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Hi Alex! Congratulations on your Ph.D.! How did you originally develop an interest in\r\n science?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Thank you, great to be here! Since I was very young, I have always been interested in\r\n learning new things about the world we live in. I have many memories of my father and I\r\n having long, in-depth discussions on different scientific topics, ranging from astronomy to\r\n animal behavior. Growing up, I was surrounded by different animals including cats, dogs,\r\n turtles, horses, hermit crabs, and many others. My childhood love of animals evolved into a\r\n desire to learn more and more about them and I quickly learned that science or research was\r\n how I could answer all these questions.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Were sea turtles always a passion, or just a good model organism for your research\r\n interests?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n To be honest, I didn’t realize how amazing sea turtles are when I first began working with\r\n them. When I started working in Dr. Jeanette Wyneken’s lab as an undergraduate student, I\r\n really didn’t know much about them at all. However, I quickly realized what amazingly cool\r\n animals they are. Now, they are not just my study organism, but also a passion of mine for\r\n the rest of my life.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Temperature Dependent Sex Determination (TSD) may be something new to some of our readers,\r\n how does it work compared to genetic sex determination?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n TSD is a fascinating mechanism used by some invertebrate and vertebrate species to\r\n determine sex. In organisms with Genetic Sex Determination (GSD), like humans, the sex of\r\n the developing embryo is determined by the sex chromosomes inherited by the parents. Many\r\n of us are familiar with the terms “XX” and “XY”, which signify the chromosomes that\r\n females and males have, respectively. The presence of these chromosomes triggers the\r\n complicated pathways and mechanisms that result in the embryo developing as a female or\r\n male. The overall process in TSD is similar to GSD with one major difference. In TSD, that\r\n initial trigger is not caused by sex chromosomes (because many of these organisms do not\r\n have them), but rather temperature. In organisms with TSD, sex is determined by the\r\n temperatures the embryo experiences during development.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Evolutionarily speaking, how long has TSD been around? What types of organisms\r\n demonstrate TSD?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Temperature dependent sex determination (TSD) has been around for ~300 million years and\r\n in turtles, co-evolved with genetic sex determination ~200 million years ago. TSD can be\r\n found in many reptiles, including some species of lizards and snakes, many turtle species,\r\n and all crocodilians. Many species of fish also demonstrate TSD. Interestingly, all of\r\n these different organisms have evolved TSD multiple independent times, meaning there does\r\n not seem to be direct evolutionary lineage that results in an organism with TSD. In the\r\n case of other vertebrate species, TSD has not been observed in birds nor mammals, but some\r\n amphibians possess both genetic sex determination and TSD. Several invertebrate species\r\n also demonstrate TSD, as well other forms of environmental sex determination including sex\r\n determination by photoperiod, pH, and nutrition.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n In turtles, what adaptive advantages does TSD provide the species who demonstrate it,\r\n and why might sea turtles be among those?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The adaptive advantage of TSD still remains in question and there are several hypotheses\r\n for why a species would evolve this sex determining mechanism. The most prominent and\r\n well-studied idea is that TSD promotes differential fitness, which basically suggests that\r\n there are sex-specific fitness benefits and some developmental temperatures are better for\r\n one sex. However, even this well-studied hypothesis has its short-comings as slight\r\n impacts on fitness are not easy to detect in long-lived animals with TSD. Another reason\r\n for the presence of TSD could be the quasi-neutral hypothesis which suggests that TSD\r\n actually provides a disadvantage but one that is so slight that it persists in these\r\n organisms.\r\n
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\r\n There are several potential reasons why sea turtles are among those species with TSD. TSD\r\n may be a more advantageous sex-determining strategy for organisms like sea turtles in\r\n which survival of early life stages is heavily affected by temperatures. Specifically,\r\n high temperatures can increase mortality of early stages like the embryonic stages. By\r\n increasing production of females at these temperatures, sea turtles may be buffering the\r\n negative effects of high temperatures on the population in the future. Other studies\r\n suggest that TSD is a better strategy when offspring inhabit “patchy” or spatially\r\n differing environments, such as beaches. Sea turtle nesting beaches can vary greatly in\r\n many different factors including weather and beach characteristics and developing sea\r\n turtle embryos incubate in fluctuating and variable conditions. For these reasons, TSD is\r\n likely a better approach for sex determination in sea turtles.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n I’ve heard that alligator nests, for example, produce more males at higher temperatures\r\n while sea turtle nests produce more females. Are all turtles that demonstrate TSD like\r\n the sea turtles, or do some follow the alligator model? Is it known why these\r\n differences exist?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n There are three different patterns of TSD. Sea turtles demonstrate TSD I-a which is\r\n defined by cooler temperatures producing more males and warmer temperatures producing more\r\n females, which is demonstrated by many turtle species. In organisms with TSD I-b, we see\r\n the opposite with cooler temperatures producing more females and warmer temperatures\r\n producing more males, which can be found in some turtle species as well as tuataras.\r\n Lastly, TSD II is characterized by females being produced at both low and high incubation\r\n temperatures, but predominantly males are produced at intermediate incubation\r\n temperatures. We observe TSD II in some turtle, lizard, and crocodilian species. It’s\r\n interesting that you mention alligators. Though some studies report them as having a\r\n female-male pattern (TSD I-b), other studies suggest that they in fact have a\r\n female-male-female pattern (TSD II) but experience an increase in mortality at higher\r\n temperatures.\r\n
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\r\n Similar to other aspects of TSD, the reason for these different TSD patterns is still\r\n debatable. Different TSD patterns may exist because the fitness of one sex may be higher\r\n at certain temperatures and the fitness of the other sex may be lower or unaffected by\r\n temperature. Defining which pattern a species demonstrates can be tricky because of the\r\n effect of temperature on both mortality and sex ratios, such as the case of alligators.\r\n There is a theory that suggests that organisms may not differ in which TSD patterns they\r\n demonstrate, but instead their survival at different temperatures directs which TSD\r\n pattern we observe.\r\n
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\r\n Based on this pattern of TSD, male fitness might be expected to be greater than female\r\n fitness under conditions that produce more male offspring; the converse might be true for\r\n female fitness or female fitness might be independent of temperature according to the\r\n Charnov–Bull model.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Could you explain the difference between the ‘pivotal temperature’ and the ‘transitional\r\n range of temperatures’ (TRT) in a turtle nest?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Both of these values help us describe the relationship between nest temperatures and sex\r\n ratios but they tell us different things. We can illustrate this relationship as a sigmoid\r\n or S-shaped curve. The transitional range of temperatures (TRT) is the range of\r\n temperatures that results in a mix of both sexes and where the sex ratio goes from all\r\n male to all female. The approximate midpoint of this range and the temperature that\r\n produces a 1:1 sex ratio is called the pivotal temperature. Both the pivotal temperature\r\n and TRT vary among species, populations, and even individuals. It is important to remember\r\n that both of these values are derived by incubating eggs at constant temperatures in the\r\n lab so they are not extremely accurate when applied to nests incubating naturally in the\r\n field.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n What basic question did you seek to answer with your research, and how did you formulate\r\n your experimental design to answer it?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The basic question for my research is how does moisture influence sex determination in sea\r\n turtles? From past literature, we know that changes in nest moisture, usually from either\r\n periods of drought or rainfall, affect nest temperatures which then influence sex\r\n determination. I wanted to better understand how nest moisture affects sex determination\r\n beyond this effect on temperature. In order to do this, I used an experimental approach\r\n where I could control for different variables in the lab. Groups of eggs were incubated at\r\n different temperatures and one of three sand moistures that represented moisture\r\n conditions during years with drought, average conditions, or excessive rainfall.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Sea turtles are Federally protected species, how did you obtain authorization to conduct\r\n your research?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Most of my past research has involved relocating eggs and incubating them in the lab or\r\n another site on the nesting beach. Jeanette and I coordinate closely with FWC to obtain\r\n authorization to use these necessary methods in my research. There are certain guidelines\r\n and protocols that I always follow to ensure the safety of the eggs and turtles involved\r\n in my projects. Over the past several years, I have been able to demonstrate the success\r\n of these projects and my ability to relocate and incubate eggs safely.\r\n
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\r\n Were you able to answer your question? What were your primary results?\r\n
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\r\n The results of my study are very exciting and begin to shed light on this interesting\r\n question that I’ve been working on for several years now. The overall purpose of my\r\n research and this study was to determine if moisture conditions during incubation\r\n influence sex ratios beyond a temperature effect. This study identifies that loggerhead\r\n embryos respond to temperatures differently based on sand moisture while they incubate.\r\n Basically, eggs that incubate in moisture extremes, very dry or very wet, have a more\r\n rapid transition from one sex to another. Another way to describe these results is that\r\n the TRT (range of temperatures that produce all male to all female) is narrower for these\r\n embryos.\r\n
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\r\n What new research questions may have arisen from your conclusions?\r\n
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\r\n We still have a lot more to learn about how moisture conditions during incubation affect\r\n sex determination. My research has centered around the relationships in loggerhead sea\r\n turtles but I would like to branch out to other species that nest in Florida, such as\r\n leatherback and green sea turtles. Previous literature has shown us that these sea turtle\r\n species exhibit different temperature-sex ratio responses, primarily by demonstrating\r\n narrower TRTs compared to the loggerhead. The other big question on my mind is how\r\n moisture may affect development and sex determination on a molecular level. Identifying\r\n moisture’s effects on the mechanism of sex determination would help us better understand\r\n its role outside of any temperature effects.\r\n
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\r\n How might your results be applied to ongoing sea turtle conservation concerns?\r\n
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\r\n As sea turtle biologists and conservationists, one of the biggest concerns we have on our\r\n minds is the ongoing threat of climate change. A better understanding of moisture’s\r\n overall effects on sea turtle development and biology will provide us with more accurate\r\n predictions of current and future sex ratios. Besides increasing temperatures, another\r\n effect of climate change is shifts in our precipitation patterns. In Florida, we can\r\n expect decreases in annual precipitation and increases in both periods of drought and\r\n storm severity. This means that Florida nests may be incubating in either very dry or very\r\n wet conditions, which can affect how they respond to temperatures and, ultimately,\r\n hatchling sex ratios.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Publishing your work in a peer-reviewed journal is a big accomplishment! What advice\r\n would you give to a young person thinking about pursuing a degree and/or career in\r\n biological research?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The best advice I can give is what I’ve learned from sea turtles themselves: Be resilient!\r\n There can be plenty of trying or frustrating moments while pursuing a degree and/or career\r\n in biological research but it is important to push through these times.\r\n
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\r\n Another piece of advice I would give is to embrace different opportunities and never\r\n hesitate to expand your network. Meeting new people and learning about their unique\r\n scientific backgrounds is how you learn new techniques or approaches which will ultimately\r\n make you a better researcher. Lastly, and likely most important, never forget why you\r\n entered this field in the first place. If you’re contemplating pursuing a career in\r\n biological research or you’ve already begun, it means you have an innate curiosity and\r\n passion for your field. Reminding yourself of why you chose this path makes the difficult\r\n times more bearable and the good times even better.\r\n
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\r\n Life History Characteristics of Marine Turtles: What Are They and Why Are Adults and\r\n Juveniles So Different?\r\n
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\r\n Mike Salmon, Ph.D., Research Professor
\r\n Florida Atlantic University .\r\n
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\r\n There is no question that the way living creatures go about the business of reproduction\r\n is complicated, so much so that there seems to be no end to how the process is\r\n described. Biologists, in an attempt to make some order out of this apparent chaos, have\r\n tried over the years to come up with overarching “principles”. These are largely based\r\n upon what qualities are characteristic of the two main actors, specifically, males and\r\n females.\r\n
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\r\n Darwin, as so often is the case, was the first to do so with competence. His\r\n distinctions were based upon behavior. He characterized males as the sex most likely to\r\n spend time competing with other males for access to females, using aggression or\r\n conspicuous displays both to inhibit other males and to attract as many females as\r\n possible for mating. A consequence of those habits, incidentally, was the increased\r\n likelihood of risk-taking*. Unfortunately, aggression and other forms of competition\r\n often led to injuries and attracted predators, so males invariably suffered an earlier\r\n death than females. But for males, success was measured by the number of accomplished\r\n matings, not by how long they lived! Females, in contrast, were often drab in color,\r\n favored being inconspicuous, chose their mates carefully, stayed safe as long as\r\n possible, and used their time to convert food to as many surviving offspring as\r\n possible. Thus, as Darwin suggested, each sex had the same goal (maximizing offspring\r\n production) but went about the process behaviorally in entirely different ways.\r\n
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\r\n An alternative perspective was developed by ecologists who while interested in\r\n behavioral differences between the sexes, were far more concerned with relationships\r\n between reproduction, on the one hand, and on the other hand by adaptations shown by\r\n populations to favor survival in their environment. They came up with a scheme based\r\n upon what they called “life-history characteristics”. According to this idea,\r\n “environments” can be characterized as either relatively stable (that is, changing\r\n slowly over long time periods) or unstable (subject to frequently unpredictable, sudden\r\n and drastic change caused by fire, storms, drought, flooding, etc.).\r\n
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\r\n Organisms living in those contrasting environments exhibited very different reproductive\r\n strategies. In stable environments, organisms tend to be large, slow growing, live a\r\n long time, exist in populations that show little fluctuation in numbers, and produce\r\n only a few offspring over a long reproductive life span. Those youngsters receive lavish\r\n parental care and usually survive. In contrast, organisms living in unstable\r\n environments showed the antithesis of these characteristics. They tend to be small in\r\n size, grow quickly to sexual maturity, and produce many offspring in just one or a few\r\n reproductive episodes. Most of their offspring fail to survive. That’s because when\r\n conditions suddenly change, both adults and juveniles have to migrate elsewhere in\r\n search of another habitat. More often than not, they starve to death or are taken by\r\n predators before they can find a new home. But because so many offspring are produced, a\r\n few lucky ones usually find a new home so the cycle is repeated once again. Obviously,\r\n populations of these animals, again compared to species in stable habitats, fluctuate\r\n wildly over time. Those numbers are best described by the phrase “boom or bust”!\r\n
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\r\n Ecologists soon recognized that most species didn’t fall neatly into one or the other\r\n category; instead, they exist along a continuum reflecting the extent to which their\r\n environment varied in its stability. Perhaps most interesting of all, some creatures,\r\n especially those found in marine habitats, show combinations of these life history\r\n characteristics, even within a species. Marine turtles are an excellent example (Figure\r\n 1).\r\n
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\r\n powerful animals capable of effectively searching for, and finding, habitats favorable\r\n for feeding and resting. When they do, they stay there, often for years at a time. They\r\n depart only when the time comes to breed. For females, that’s after several years of\r\n feeding to accumulate enough energy for egg production, and to migrate hundreds of miles\r\n to nest at natal beach sites. For males, it’s usually an annual migration to intercept,\r\n court and mate with as many females as possible. But breeding takes only a few weeks and\r\n then both sexes use their superb navigational skills to return to their traditional\r\n foraging areas.\r\n
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\r\n But the environments occupied by the eggs, hatchlings and juvenile marine turtles are,\r\n from their perspective, best characterized as unstable. Female marine turtles can’t\r\n defend nests and so after depositing their eggs in the sand, they hide the nest location\r\n as best they can and leave. Abandoned nests are subject to calamities that can occur\r\n suddenly, and at any time. The eggs (if found) are consumed by predators, washed out by\r\n storms, or invaded by ants and plant roots. If the beach sands get too cold, the eggs\r\n won’t develop; if too hot, the embryos will die; too wet, and the eggs will suffocate.\r\n The hatchlings that emerge from nests lucky enough to survive an unprotected 45- 60 day\r\n incubation period, must immediately complete a dangerous migration offshore to nursery\r\n areas hundreds of miles distant. Reef fish predators await them in the shallows and sea\r\n birds as well as pelagic fishes (tunas, dolphin, snappers and sharks) hunt for them in\r\n the open ocean. Small turtles have few defenses other than to hide but they must find\r\n food to grow. Searching for food exposes them to danger and so most of them are taken by\r\n predators or die from starvation, if or when their food supply vanishes. As they grow,\r\n the turtles gradually become less vulnerable to predators but even then, danger is never\r\n far away. Growing juveniles occupy different “developmental habitats” as they increase\r\n in size, or as the seasons change. They have to locate those habitats, a search that\r\n requires migration in open water (Figure 1). Those journeys always increase exposure to\r\n predators.\r\n
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\r\n To compensate for these losses, female marine turtles produce hundreds of eggs during\r\n each breeding season, apportioned within several nests at different local beaches where\r\n there’s a good chance that at least a few nests will survive long enough to produce\r\n hatchlings. (Females obviously avoid putting all their eggs in one basket!) But\r\n producing that many eggs requires an ability to store lots of energy, and that can only\r\n happen if the turtles become large enough to accumulate huge reserves of fat. That’s why\r\n marine turtles are so much larger than most other turtles, and why they produce many\r\n more eggs than most turtle species living on land. Marine turtle nests can contain\r\n anywhere between 50 and 200 eggs, with the number depending upon both egg size and\r\n species. The bottom line: we’re left with a large, long-lived animal occupying a stable\r\n habitat that breeds just like small, short-lived creature occupying an unstable habitat.\r\n Why?\r\n
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\r\n Adult marine turtles are extremely large, slow growing, take years to reach maturity and\r\n once they do live a long time. We know from historical observations made as little as\r\n 500 years ago that before humans began over exploiting them, populations of marine\r\n turtles were stable at numbers many times greater than exist today. Clearly, these are\r\n attributes of species that occupy stable environments and adult marine turtles do\r\n exactly that! They are big,\r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Figure 1. Generalized description of the life history cycle of marine turtles. The\r\n left side of the diagram illustrates the juvenile stages of development; the right\r\n side illustrates what transpires during the adult stages.\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
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\r\n To repeat, it’s because marine turtles during their lifetime occupy two environmental\r\n extremes, just like the ones described earlier by ecologists - stable habitats as adults and\r\n unstable habitats as eggs, hatchlings and juveniles - and so they uniquely combine the life\r\n history characteristics we described above for different species into those for one species.\r\n Doing so is just another feature of their biology that makes these animals so unique, so\r\n interesting to study, and so remarkably different in both their ecology and behavior as they\r\n transition over the years from hatchlings and juveniles, leading dangerous and stressful\r\n lives, to adults who if they survive long enough to achieve that status, may finally get\r\n some relief. It’s also why those of us who study marine turtles have come to realize that\r\n what we learn about one life history stage doesn’t necessarily apply to other life history\r\n stages. In essence, we are faced with understanding the behavioral and ecological\r\n characteristics of two kinds of animals, both of which belong to the same species!\r\n
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FAU’s Dr. Mike Salmon Joins the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s Research Team
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We are pleased to announce that our long-time colleague and friend Dr. Mike Salmon will be joining the NSTSTF team as our new Research Professor. Mike has had a long and distinguished career in marine biology, and will complement the Foundation’s research efforts as he continues to pursue his interests in sea turtle research and public education.
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I first came to know Mike as a valued mentor when I began my work with sea turtles in the 1990’s, then again when I became a student at Florida Atlantic University. As I made my way through FAU’s graduate programs, I would turn to Mike for that extra help and encouragement when things weren’t going according to plan; as most biology grad students know there are times when you kind of get stuck in some aspect of your research, and not sure how to move forward. Mike was always there to calm me down, refer me to some new references, and give that spark of hope that there was a way to get back on track!
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Mike is a pioneer of sea turtle biology, and one of the foremost experts in the world on the behavior of hatchling sea turtles. Among other things, he has extensively studied how hatchlings orient themselves to the sea after emerging from their nests, and how they navigate their way, both directionally and energetically, from the beach to the offshore environment. The results of his work have aided enormously in the conservation and management of sea turtles along developed coastlines, and have no doubt saved untold numbers of hatchlings that otherwise would never have found the sea.
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Over his career, he has advised and mentored dozens of graduate students, some of which are among the brightest minds working today in sea turtle biology. His partnership (and marriage) with Dr. Jeanette Wyneken has resulted in the establishment of a world-class marine turtle program at Florida Atlantic University, which remains a leader in the advancement of our understanding of these species. Mike’s remarkable career and contributions were recognized by the International Sea Turtle Society with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 39th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium last year in Charleston, SC.
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I’m excited and honored to have Dr. Salmon working with us, and I look forward to his aid in expanding the scope and impact of the Foundation’s research goals. Don’t tell him, but I’m gonna get him hooked on hawksbills... :-)
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\r\n First Recipients of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarship Fund\r\n Chosen at the University of Central Florida\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D.
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\r\n Recently, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation established a scholarship fund at\r\n the University of Central Florida in support of their Marine Turtle Research Group, led in\r\n part by Dr. Kate Mansfield (visit
https://sciences.ucf.edu/biology/marineturtleresearchgroup/ ). The funds will support\r\n tuition and fees for one full academic year for each of three qualified students, along\r\n with the various equipment and publishing costs associated with their research projects.\r\n So far two students have been selected to receive their scholarships, and we wish them the\r\n best of luck as they embark on their academic careers! Here are their stories:\r\n
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\r\n Hello I’m Jen Rote! I’m originally from Pennsylvania and transferred to UCF in the Fall\r\n 2018 semester. I had my first research experience when I took a tropical ecology course\r\n with a study abroad trip to the Bahamas at the Gerace Research Center. This learning\r\n experience on collecting and analyzing data on intertidal invertebrates gave me clarity\r\n that I wanted to pursue a career in field research. Once I finished my Associate’s degree\r\n I started to explore universities to transfer to.\r\n
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\r\n I stumbled across UCF and discovered the Marine Turtle Research Group. Based on my\r\n previous research experience, I knew working with the turtle lab would be something I\r\n would enjoy and provide me with further knowledge on properly collecting data, various\r\n field research methodologies, and inferential analyses. The UCF MTRG ended up being a\r\n major deciding factor for me choosing to transfer to UCF. Despite having no guarantee of\r\n working in the turtle lab, I made it a top priority to reach while attending UCF. I\r\n completed the UCF MTRG internship last summer. After the internship I started working with\r\n Dr. Erin Seney, researching Kemp’s ridley turtle diets, by analyzing samples collected in\r\n the Gulf region from 2011-2015.\r\n
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\r\n My research interests include studying population ecology, animal behavior, and\r\n biodiversity conservation methods. My ultimate career aspiration is to develop\r\n conservation and management strategies for IUCN (International Union for the Conservation\r\n of Nature) red list species. Working with imperiled species, like marine turtles, provided\r\n me with the knowledge and skills to one day become a successful naturalist and\r\n conservation biologist. I hope to continue working alongside the turtle lab and I have set\r\n a new goal to present research at the 2021 International Sea Turtle Symposium. Thank you\r\n for the generous scholarship to students like me who want to help conserve our planet and\r\n all its inhabitants. I know someday I’ll make a difference.\r\n
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\r\n My name is Monica Reusche and I am a recent graduate of the University of Central Florida.\r\n My undergraduate degree was in biology with a focus on ecology, evolutionary, and\r\n conservation biology. I have been a member of the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group for\r\n three years and have loved every moment of it. I began my turtle journey as an intern and\r\n did my first research project using stable isotopes to evaluate habitat use of juvenile\r\n green turtles in the Indian River Lagoon with and without fibropapillomatosis. From there\r\n I continued to work with sea turtles and began a new project that became my undergraduate\r\n honors thesis which used mtDNA to study the population structure and diversity of juvenile\r\n green turtles foraging on the coast of Florida.\r\n
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\r\n Now that I have graduated, I have begun looking into graduate programs that will allow me\r\n to continue studying sea turtles to further our knowledge of their biology and facilitate\r\n their conservation. Ultimately my goal is to have a better understanding of how the\r\n different life stages of sea turtle populations can be protected to ensure their\r\n long-lasting existence. I think the biggest tool we have for conservation is educating the\r\n public and creating a sense of awe and responsibility. Because turtles are so long lived\r\n it can be hard to see the long term impacts that everyday actions may have on their\r\n survival, but when people are able to see and understand how intricate and connected the\r\n world is the idea becomes less abstract. As I continue to work and study, I hope that I\r\n can share my perspective and love for sea turtles with others who may never have the\r\n chance to experience it for themselves.\r\n
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\r\n The University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle\r\n Hospital: Advancing Sea Turtle Disease Research\r\n
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\r\n David Duffy, Ph.D.
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\r\n Assistant Professor of Wildlife Disease
\r\n Genomics.The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle Hospital,\r\n University of Florida, St. Augustine, Florida 32080, USA.\r\n
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\r\n Department of Biology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida,\r\n Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA.\r\n
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\r\n The University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle\r\n Hospital (www.whitney.ufl.edu) is located on Florida’s Atlantic coast near historic St.\r\n Augustine. This research institute is a hive of activity, conducting cutting-edge marine\r\n bioscience and conservation research and training, and extensive public outreach\r\n activities. The marine research carried out here is greatly facilitated by its unique\r\n location, bordering sea turtle nesting beaches to its east and extensive brackish\r\n estuarine and mangrove habitats to its west. The institute conducts basic biological\r\n research of marine organisms and environments to better understand marine animals and to\r\n apply novel results to problems of human health, natural resources and environmental\r\n conservation.\r\n
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\r\n Key areas of focus at the Whitney Lab include understanding the evolution of animal form\r\n and function; how genetic programs regulate every aspect of animal life and how disease\r\n occurs when these programs are perturbed; understanding cellular development and the\r\n evolution of animal traits; understanding human senses using marine models; conducting\r\n drug discovery from environmental sources; and improving coastal conservation and habitat\r\n restoration\r\n (www.whitney.ufl.edu/conservation--sea-turtle-hospital/citizen-science-projects/oyster-restoration-initiative\r\n and www.whitney.ufl.edu/conservation--sea-turtle-hospital/clams).\r\n
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\r\n For the last five years the institute has had a renewed focus on the protection of sea\r\n turtles, with the opening of our Sea Turtle Hospital in 2015\r\n (www.whitney.ufl.edu/conservation--sea-turtle-hospital). Unfortunately, as with the human\r\n Covid-19 pandemic, sea turtles globally are suffering from a pandemic of their own,\r\n fibropapillomatosis, which is caused by the destructive combination of viral infection and\r\n environmental degradation. Our hospital rehabilitates stranded sea turtles, from\r\n post-hatchlings to adults and has particular expertise in rehabilitating sea turtles\r\n suffering from the fibropapillomatosis tumor disease. Having our hospital embedded in an\r\n active research institute offers unique opportunities to research this disease as well as\r\n the rehabilitation process. We can provide direct conservation services to individual\r\n turtles, while simultaneously enabling broader research to better understand\r\n population-level events. To obtain information that is widely relevant to the conservation\r\n of diverse sea turtle populations, we also partner with other rehabilitation facilities\r\n and researchers throughout the state and beyond.\r\n
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National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Support
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\r\n \r\n A young green sea turtle with large fibropapilloma
tumors will undergo\r\n treatment at Whitney Lab’s Sea
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\r\n Fibropapillomatosis is continuing to spread globally including throughout US regions beyond\r\n Florida. For instance, between 2009 and 2018, fibropapillomatosis prevalence in stranded\r\n green sea turtles in Texas has gone from 0% to 35%, while in Florida, greens\r\n fibropapillomatosis prevalence also continues to rapidly increase, now standing at over 40%\r\n in stranded turtles. We are pioneering a novel approach to fibropapillomatosis in Florida’s\r\n sea turtles, wildlife precision oncology, which draws heavily from emerging human medicine\r\n genomic approaches. This precision medicine approach has already provided unprecedented\r\n insights into this sea turtle disease. Our work on external fibropapillomatosis tumors has\r\n proven that they share many genetic similarities to human cancer types, most prominently\r\n human skin cancers. Our profiling of tumor genomes has also successfully identified drug\r\n treatments for fibropapillomatosis. Furthermore, our novel approaches to fibropapillomatosis\r\n have enabled us to obtain new information about how the fibropapillomatosis-associated\r\n herpes virus is shed into the water column and the environmental factors triggering this\r\n disease. We are also resolving the specific uncertainty about how the herpes virus interacts\r\n with the turtle immune system to give rise to tumors.\r\n
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\r\n Without improved understanding of this disease and its environmental trigger, treatment,\r\n containment and mitigation options are severely hampered. Therefore, with funding generously\r\n provided from the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation (NSTSTF) for the\r\n Fibropapillomatosis Training and Research Initiative (FTRI), the Whitney Lab and Sea Turtle\r\n Hospital and our collaborators are addressing crucial knowledge gaps in our understanding of\r\n fibropapillomatosis. We are applying cutting-edge techniques from human cancer research to\r\n reveal the environmental drivers of fibropapillomatosis, the dynamic interactions between\r\n the herpes virus and its turtle hosts and novel treatment and management strategies. FTRI is\r\n helping to support three studentships, enabling students to be trained in ultra-modern\r\n approaches, meaning that they will be poised to tackle not only fibropapillomatosis, but the\r\n host of wildlife diseases predicted to emerge over the coming decades.\r\n
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Building Future Capacity
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\r\n Unfortunately, marine turtles are not immune to the growing number of threats and increasing\r\n rates of wildlife disease. Therefore, in addition to training and research expansions, the\r\n Whitney Lab is preparing to meet future challenges by undertaking capital investment in a\r\n new sea turtle hospital building and research laboratories. The project will provide a\r\n state-of-the-art
www.whitney.ufl.edu/articles/expanding-our-facilities-to-meet-research-and-conservation-demands.html Nancy Condron Family Sea Turtle Research Center and Hospital, to secure our sea turtle\r\n activities. This ambitious project will greatly expand our capacity for rehabilitating sea\r\n turtles as well as further improve our research and training capabilities. Although plans\r\n are well advanced, gifting and naming opportunities for the new institute still exist https://www.whitney.ufl.edu/articles/expanding-our-facilities-to-meet-research-and-conservation-demands.html\r\n \r\n , with construction of Phase One scheduled to commence shortly.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n It is vital that we continue to improve how we tackle wildlife diseases and that we train\r\n large numbers of researchers and clinicians in how to apply these techniques as sea turtle\r\n and wildlife disease events are predicted to occur at greater frequency over the coming\r\n decades, due to ongoing detrimental human activities. Wildlife pathogens have been shown to\r\n exacerbate the effects of environmental degradation, habitat loss and the climate emergency\r\n on population levels, potentially leading to deteriorated health and eventually to local and\r\n global extinctions. Furthermore, in a vicious feedback loop, as the risk of extinction\r\n increases for a given species, the detrimental effect of disease on the population worsens.\r\n Human activities are not only stressing habitats, but the rapid environmental changes\r\n induced by these activities are also likely to be increasing cancer rates in wild\r\n populations. With a predicted rise in the number and incidence of diseases affecting\r\n wildlife populations set to soar in coming decades, NSTSTF-supported programs such as our\r\n FTRI are crucial to improving our ability to respond to wildlife pandemics, and ensure the\r\n health of sea turtles and other keystone species.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Fibropapillomatosis Training and
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\r\n addressing crucial knowledge gaps in our understanding of fibropapillomatosis.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Vero Beach’s Coastal Connections, Inc. Makes an Impact in Indian River County\r\n
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\r\n Kendra Cope, M.S.
\r\n Founding Director, Coastal Connections, Inc\r\n
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\r\n Coastal Connections, Inc (CCinc) is located in Vero Beach, Florida and was incorporated in\r\n 2017 to provide opportunities for people to connect with coastal wildlife through\r\n educational and engaging programs. Studies have shown that people who interact with\r\n charismatic protected species, for example nighttime sea turtle walks in Florida, are more\r\n likely to feel connected to the focal species and will react by changing their behaviors to\r\n more educated and conservation-minded habits. In addition, ecotourism programs focused\r\n around protected species impel and increase eco-minded travel, attract more responsible\r\n visitors, and infuse more funds into the local economy surrounding the focal species than\r\n traditional tourism, thus, benefiting the entire community. CCinc uses this strategy and\r\n approach to benefit wildlife, people, and the local economy in all of our programs. This is\r\n what makes CCinc truly unique among Florida sea turtle conservation organizations.\r\n
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\r\n CCinc has three main initiatives to meet their mission of protecting coastal habitats. These\r\n initiatives include: Vero Goes Zero, a sustainability initiative, Sea Turtle\r\n T.R.A.C.K.E.R.S., a sea turtle conservation, education and research initiative, and Sea\r\n Turtle Friendly Certified, a synergistic and incentivizing initiative which challenges\r\n businesses to be environmentally friendly. Each of these initiatives includes a multitude of\r\n programs to help reach initiative goals including:\r\n
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\r\n Turtle Digs - These are FREE daytime public educational nest excavations. Hundreds of people\r\n regularly attend each event to watch CCinc conduct a full hatched nest evaluation while\r\n receiving an educational presentation, watching for the possibility of saving a straggler\r\n hatchling or two. This program has introduced 2,000+ people each summer to sea turtle\r\n conservation. All data collected during nest marking, daily nest monitoring, and nest\r\n excavation is provided to the County and State to be incorporated into annual reports and\r\n management strategies.\r\n
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\r\n Turtle Stranding Rescue and Release - Volunteers also coordinate closely with the County,\r\n FWC, and rehabilitation facilities to respond to stranded sea turtles, transport turtles to\r\n rehabilitation centers and help facilitate large educational turtle release events on the\r\n beaches of Indian River County. Volunteers help with approximately 75% of the recorded\r\n stranding events in Indian River County each year.\r\n
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\r\n Turtle Friendly Business - This is an incentivizing program that holds beachside businesses\r\n to novel standards to ensure the success of sea turtle reproduction on our beaches.\r\n Businesses voluntarily pledge to meet turtle friendly operating standards. For example,\r\n having on-site recycling, complying with local lighting ordinances, removing barriers to\r\n nesting from the beaches each day, and offering educational materials to guests.\r\n
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\r\n The impacts of COVID-19 have extended far greater and longer than many initially imagined.\r\n The need for social distancing and new safety protocols has called for the cancelation of\r\n community outreach events, fundraising celebrations, and has challenged CCinc to adapt to a\r\n new normal. CCinc was awarded a $15,000 gift from the National Save The Sea Turtle\r\n Foundation to supplement financial losses due to COVID-19, allowing CCinc to grow, adapt and\r\n ultimately continue its impactful summer Turtle Dig program and redevelop the certification\r\n and inspection processes for Turtle Friendly Businesses, which will be initiated in Fall\r\n 2020.\r\n
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\r\n During the months of July and August CCinc hosted twelve (12) COVID-19 adapted Turtle Dig\r\n events. In-person reservations were limited to allow for 6ft distancing during each event. A\r\n new “donut” like set up with 6ft distancing reminders was created to greet and space family\r\n groups to ensure the ultimate experience while remaining safe. Approximately 250 people were\r\n able to enjoy the on site events, not including beachgoers who were interested and listened\r\n from afar. However, the addition of Virtual Turtle Digs was new this year to provide the\r\n same connection and experience with those not able to attend in person. An estimated 10,000\r\n viewers watched a Turtle Dig online safely from afar this summer, expanding CCinc’s reach\r\n and impact far greater than any previous year.\r\n
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\r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s generous gift has also allowed CCinc to\r\n develop educational resources to provide to Turtle Friendly Businesses, including a\r\n Turtle-Safe Light Test. These free take-home tests were piloted by adults and children alike\r\n at the CCinc Turtle Dig education table this summer. This resource has become the perfect\r\n souvenir for those who attended a Turtle Dig, allowing them to take their new enthusiasm for\r\n sea turtle conservation with them to think about what they can do at home to help save our\r\n sea turtles.\r\n
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\r\n If you would like to support Coastal Connections, Inc or become more involved in their\r\n programs and events, please visit their website and event calendar to get connected.\r\n www.coastal-connections.org/events. Please follow them on Facebook @coastalconnectionsinc or\r\n Instagram @coastalconnections_inc for regular updates on their impact in Indian River County\r\n and the Florida Treasure Coast. Our award-winning collaborative Sea Turtle Trunk Program\r\n created by Inwater Research Group (IRG) is reaching new heights! Until now, this Statewide\r\n program, which reaches tens of thousands of students each year, has relied on the usage of\r\n plastic model turtles that weren’t quite anatomically correct. The program teaches students\r\n about sea turtle biology and conservation through the use of these models so it was an\r\n important feature we just didn’t have…until now.\r\n
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\r\n Recently, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation funded an endeavor to create new and\r\n improved sea turtle models based on a real juvenile green turtle encountered during a\r\n research trip. The turtle was part of a population study conducted by IRG in Jupiter, FL.\r\n While in hand, it was kind enough to allow us to take a number of photographs from all\r\n angles. The images were then used to create a 3D model created by our partners at Digital\r\n Life 3D (\r\n
\r\n http://digitallife3d.org\r\n \r\n ). This model is now being transformed into an anatomically correct, tangible model that\r\n will be a part of our Trunk Program in perpetuity.\r\n
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\r\n Journey, as the turtle has been named, will educate hundreds of thousands of students over\r\n its “lifetime” and will bring a new atmosphere of authenticity to our programs. Children\r\n from all over Florida will learn what it means to be a sea turtle biologist and how they can\r\n protect sea turtles in their daily lives. We are so excited to take this Journey into the\r\n classroom and hope the students love it as much as we do!\r\n
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FAU Marine Science Laboratory Refreshed
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\r\n Jeanette Wyneken, Ph.D.
\r\n Director, FAU Marine Science Laboratory\r\n
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\r\n Thirty years ago the walls were clean, the floors spotless, counters gleaming, and the\r\n promise of marine studies to come were still dreams. Twenty years ago a few small-scale\r\n studies of sea turtles, algae, sea grasses and cryptic marine fish were starting. The\r\n floors were no longer spotless, some counters were stained from a decade of chemicals,\r\n but the lab was about to get a more public face. The visitors’ gallery was cleaned, some\r\n modest signage was hung, and the labs activities were about to become more accessible.\r\n Initially, through some modest grants, then through the concerted efforts of the\r\n National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation and the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., the lab’s\r\n walls, visitors’ gallery, and the now abundant turtle and ray tanks as well as their\r\n associated life support systems, have received some much needed TLC.\r\n
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\r\n The FAU Marine Laboratory, one of the facilities within the Gumbo Limbo Environmental\r\n Complex, is owned and run by Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of\r\n Science. Like many University facilities, the Marine Lab depends upon donors to help\r\n support its infrastructure and programs directed toward student training. Thanks to the\r\n generosity of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, this year we were able to\r\n repair the facility’s 30 year-old siding, give the interior walls a fresh coat of paint,\r\n repair the superstructure providing the electricity and freshwater to the turtle tanks,\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 1. Overview of the FAU Marine Lab showing the improved and repaired\r\n superstructure over the tanks, tank lighting with full spectrum lights hung at the\r\n necessaryheight to supply the turtles with essential UV light, and the newly\r\n installed sea water tank is seen in the upper left.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 2. All sea turtles require ultraviolet light to metabolize calcium. The light\r\n fixtures over these green turtle hatchling tanks must be close enough to provide the\r\n turtles with the appropriate light levels, and the fixtures have to be\r\n rust-resistant in this saltwater environment.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n hang new rust-resistant light fixtures over the tanks, and install a 3000 gallon sea\r\n water treatment tank which is essential for maintaining the leatherback turtles. The\r\n cost for these improvements was more than $37,000. Such generosity and investment in\r\n marine lab essential infrastructure makes possible the expansion and success of our sea\r\n turtle, shark, and marine algal research programs, thus enabling 5 internationally known\r\n faculty, as well as their associated undergraduate and graduate students, to pursue\r\n their research plans, and to communicate what they do and its importance to the general\r\n public.\r\n
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\r\n To date, 65 leatherback turtles, more than 120 loggerheads, and 40 green turtles have\r\n come through the lab in summer 2020; our season is not yet over. Ongoing studies include\r\n continued work on annual variation in hatchling sea turtle sex ratios, experimental\r\n studies of the effects of rising beach temperatures on hatchling loggerhead learning,\r\n comparative studies of the success of newly formulated diets for leatherback neonates,\r\n lab testing of novel satellite tracking tags for neonate leatherbacks, and measures of\r\n the impact of accumulated Sargassum seaweed on the ability of hatchling loggerheads to\r\n locate the sea from the nest.\r\n
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\r\n Figure 3. The repaired super structure over these leatherback tanks supports the\r\n full spectrum lights and freshwater showers (vertical blue hoses) that provide the\r\n turtles with drinking water. GFI electric outlets are also supported along the\r\n pressure treated wood structures.\r\n
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\r\n Figure 4. The newly installed 3000-gallon seawater tank allows us to prepare enough\r\n cleaned and sanitized seawater for the leatherbacks when they are in the lab. The\r\n FAU Marine Lab has the only successful leatherback husbandry program in the world.\r\n Improvements to the husbandry system , made possible by our generous donors, make it\r\n possible for our pioneering work in husbandry of this fragile species.\r\n
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Florida Gulf Coast University Awards National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarships
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The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation recently established an undergraduate scholarship fund at Florida Gulf Coast University in Ft. Meyers, Florida. Under the guidance of Dr. Phil Allman, the student awardees will be working on understanding the effects of increasing temperature on nest success and movements of leatherback turtles in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
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My name is Conner Sharrow, and I’m a senior undergraduate student at Florida Gulf Coast University. I am pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in biology with a concentration in organismal biology and ecology. The courses I have taken (i.e. Conservation Biology, Biological Statistics) made me realize there are tangible ways I can contribute to the conservation of wildlife by conducting research. My introduction to field research came when I began participating in projects developed by the FGCU Herpetology Research Laboratory. I worked at both Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park and Railhead Scrub Preserve. In the lab we use radio telemetry on populations of gopher tortoises to track their movement patterns in order to learn how these animals utilize different habitats in southwest Florida. The information will inform future conservation and management activities. I have since become a Research Assistant for a sea turtle nesting survey program at Cayo Costa State Park. We conduct nest surveys on primarily two species of sea turtle (loggerhead and green), but we did document a leatherback nest in summer 2020. The team ensures the nests are protected, marked, and inventoried as instructed by Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission’s sea turtle management protocols. This experience has allowed me to develop my field research skills as well as my passion for sea turtles and ocean conservation.
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My career aspirations are to become a wildlife biologist in order to explore organisms and how they interact with their ecosystems. I hope my work will contribute to wildlife conservation and management. For my senior research project I plan to explore the movement patterns of endangered leatherback sea turtles in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Identifying their migratory routes will help us identify human-caused mortality risk they may face in these locations. This generous scholarship can ensure this project can come to fruition while also securing my senior year for further productivity. Through my experiences conducting field research, I have come to realize and appreciate the significance of a scientists’ work, no matter how big or small. This is because our actions for these animals will always have an impact. As I continue my studies onwards towards my research and graduate school, the lessons I learn will prove fundamental in the protection of these incredible creatures and spreading the word on what we can do to help. Thank you for helping me on this journey, and I know I can create a positive impact for the sea turtles and the pursuit for their conservation.
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Black Saltmarsh Mosquitos - Things That Hum In The Night
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\r\n David S. Addison
\r\n Conservancy of Southwest Florida
\r\n Naples, Florida 34116\r\n
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\r\n Scott Alexander Ritchie, Ph.D.
\r\n James Cook University
\r\n Cairns Queensland 4870, Australia
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\r\n \r\n Fig.3. Flooded pond in mangrove basin forest. The larvae
and pupae congregate\r\n in large assemblages called “rafts”.
The presence of rafts can be detected\r\n because the larval
activity makes water’s surface shimmer.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Florida’s fame as a mosquito factory goes back to the 1500’s when Spanish explorers\r\n dubbed the entire east coast “Los Mosquitos”. Their numbers did not diminish over time\r\n either. In 1824, the area between Volusia and Palm Beach Counties was designated as\r\n Mosquito County. Florida’s southwest coast was equally infested if not more so. They\r\n were so ubiquitous that people mostly avoided the region until the late 19th century.\r\n Colloquially, they were referred to as the, “Defender of the Everglades”.\r\n
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\r\n Anybody who has conducted night surveys on sea turtle nesting beaches, especially in SW\r\n Florida, can tell you that, in spite of habitat loss and modern abatement measures, they\r\n are still around in what at times are stupefying numbers. How is this so? Thirty years\r\n ago a colleague (an entomologist) and I studied the ecology of the black saltmarsh\r\n mosquito (Aedes taeniorhynchus). We spent two years trudging about in the mangrove\r\n forests of SW Florida as we studied the ways of this oh so successful species.\r\n
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\r\n A. taeniorhynchus or “Taenies” for short, are a floodwater species that depends on\r\n fluctuations in water levels to drive their population dynamics. Florida’s 1,300 miles\r\n of coastline, flat topography and subtropical climate work in concert to create what\r\n amounts to an ecosystem made in heaven for Taenies. Those who have conducted field work\r\n in South Florida’s coastal ecosystems appreciate better than most just how well Taenies\r\n utilize their environment. So just how does this all work to produce so many mosquitos?\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Fig. 2. Surface contour plot showing the
subtle changes in the topography of\r\n the
floor of a mangrove basin forest. Tic marks
on left are at 6.1 cm\r\n intervals. The study
plots were is 6.1 m x 30.5 m.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n For starters, Taenies lay their eggs in moist soil where they can remain viable for\r\n months. The females lay about 25 eggs without a blood meal, however, with a blood meal\r\n they produce 50-200 eggs. The eggs hatch when the substrate floods. They are aggressive\r\n biters and will take a blood meal from any available source (Fig. 1). In South Florida,\r\n the fringes of the mangrove forests are regularly flooded by tides so their eggs don’t\r\n accumulate in great numbers, and most of the larvae that result are eaten by fish\r\n introduced by frequent tides. Further into the forest, there is typically a berm or\r\n natural levee that prevents inundation by all but the most extreme high tides. Forests\r\n with a lower berm are still frequently flooded by tides that introduce fish. However,\r\n forests with higher berms that contain potholes and depressions can become fish-free\r\n ponds when flooded by heavy rain (Fig. 2). These areas become ever dryer in late winter\r\n and during the dry season in spring. It is in these times of the year that their eggs\r\n accumulate in the soil. Sporadic rainfall triggers the intermittent production of broods\r\n of mosquitoes in these ponds. Taenies actively avoid oviposition in tidally flooded\r\n areas that contain predators such as fish, preferentially laying eggs in the higher,\r\n rain-flooded basins. The hatched eggs (or eggshells) persist in the substrate for years.\r\n By collecting soil samples and separating and counting the eggshells we were able to\r\n identify these features as preferred sites for oviposition. With flooding, the extant\r\n eggs hatch synchronously (Fig. 3). The cycle from larvae to adult proceeds quickly. The\r\n larvae feed on leaf litter and become pupae in 5-7 days, with adults then emerging 2\r\n days later (Fig. 4). For the first 24 hrs. after emerging, the females are not\r\n interested in a blood meal. They remain close to where they emerged. Mating occurs\r\n during this period of quiescence. One can walk through the forest, literally through\r\n clouds of mosquitoes (Fig. 5) during these periods and be totally ignored. Afterwards,\r\n they migrate out of the mangroves and begin looking for a blood meal. The distance they\r\n can migrate is impressive, as much as 50 miles. The shear density of these migratory\r\n swarms has, at times, confounded radar.\r\n
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\r\n Fig. 1. Taenies feeding near the eye of a nesting
loggerhead turtle. They are\r\n most active during
crepuscular periods and at night; however, when
\r\n they are out and about during the day, their numbers
will be even more\r\n daunting after sunset.\r\n
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\r\n Fig. 4. A raft of pupae in a rain-flooded
mangrove forest. The reflected\r\n objects
among the newly emerged adults are their
molts or exuvia.\r\n They can be used to identify
mosquitos to species and sex.\r\n
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\r\n Several factors control the size of the broods of adults produced. Eggs gradually\r\n accumulate in basin forests over the course the winter and spring dry periods. Monthly\r\n high tides and infrequent rainfall produce smaller broods late in the spring. These\r\n adults, of course, continue to oviposit in the basin forests and, depending on the\r\n frequency and amount of rainfall, more adults are produced. Or, if rainfall is\r\n infrequent, more eggs accumulate in the substrate, which, given the right circumstances,\r\n can result in stupendous numbers of eggs accumulating. For example, the spring of 1988\r\n was unusually dry. No precipitation occurred through the normally rainy month of June\r\n until the last two days of the month when over 10 cm were reported.\r\n
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\r\n This rainfall event flooded local basin forests and triggered the synchronous production\r\n of a brood of Taenies whose numbers were almost beyond belief. The basin forests we were\r\n studying were so thick with them that without a bug veil we would have had difficulty\r\n breathing. A week or so after the onset of this event, three cows in a pasture about 5\r\n km from Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve died from complications\r\n resulting from blood loss. The good news about an event like this is that Taenies in\r\n this region are not known to vector human disease, however, they are a vector of the\r\n filarial worm Dirofilaria immitis, commonly known as the dog heartworm. But that is\r\n little comfort to those unlucky enough to be “carried away” on some warm, humid night by\r\n this, “Defender of the Everglades”.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Fig. 5. Newly emerged adults on black mangrove pneumatophores.
At times,\r\n there can be so many Taenies perched on
pneumatophores, leaves and twigs that\r\n they appear to be fuzzy
or hirsute as a Botanist would say.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n References\r\n
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\r\n Addison, D. S., & S. A. Ritchie, (1989). Characterization of preferred habitats of Aedes\r\n taeniorhynchus in coastal mangroves habitats. FL HRS Grant #LCNP4. Jacksonville, FL. 106\r\n pp.\r\n
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\r\n Addison, D. S., & Ritchie, S. A. (1993). Cattle fatalities from prolonged exposure to\r\n Aedes taeniorhynchus in southwest Florida. Florida Scientist, 65-69. Ritchie, S. A.\r\n (1992). Mosquito Control Handbook: Salt Marshes and Mangrove Forests. In Mosquito\r\n Control Handbook, 1-9.\r\n
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\r\n Ritchie, S. A., & Addison, D. S. (1992). Oviposition preferences of Aedes taeniorhynchus\r\n (Diptera: Culicidae) in Florida mangrove forests. Environmental entomology, 21(4),\r\n 737-744\r\n
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\r\n Ritchie, S. A., & Johnson, E. S. (1991). Aedes taeniorhynchus (Diptera: Culicidae)\r\n oviposition patterns in a Florida mangrove forest. Journal of medical entomology, 28(4),\r\n 496-500.\r\n
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\r\n What’s in a Diet? An Interview with Dr. Erin Seney, Assistant Research Scientist,\r\n University of Central Florida\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D.
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\r\n \r\n Hello Erin! I’ve always been facinated by your work, how did you originally become\r\n interested in studying sea turtles?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n As a kid, I loved visiting the turtles in a neighborhood pond, and I also liked the ocean.\r\n In high school, I was able to volunteer at a small aquarium and later had the opportunity to\r\n work with and study sea turtles in graduate school. I have been very fortunate to combine my\r\n interests in turtles and the ocean into a career working on sea turtles.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Your studies often explore what sea turtles eat. Though there is some overlap, it seems\r\n that most species have their own specialized diet. Can you help explain how these\r\n differences may have evolved?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Sea turtle diets are very diverse. There are species that largely consume plants (green\r\n turtles), sponges and corals (hawksbills), bottom-dwelling invertebrates (loggerheads and\r\n Kemp’s ridleys), and gelatinous animals like jellyfish (leatherbacks). These specializations\r\n likely evolved along with the species’ habitats and need to have a unique enough “niche” to\r\n survive alongside other organisms in those environments. The level of specialization among\r\n sea turtle species is reflected in their different head and beak shapes, as well as their\r\n digestive tract anatomy.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Given these semi-specialized diets, how impactful might different sea turtle species be on\r\n their respective environments?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Sea turtles can impact their environments in several ways through their feeding habitats.\r\n Consumption of a particular food item has impacts on the entire food chain, including not\r\n only the population of plant or animal that was eaten, but also other species that may\r\n compete for the same foods. Some animals may change their behavior to reduce the chance of\r\n being eaten or shift to other food items that are more readily available to them. Sea turtle\r\n foraging may also change the structure of the habitat, either by removing portions of\r\n stationary habitat features, such as seagrasses, sponges, and corals, or by digging into the\r\n seabed for food. Additionally, sea turtles circulate nutrients within the marine system by\r\n digesting food and excreting waste; this may be locally or over larger distances when\r\n individuals transition to new habitats or undertake seasonal migrations.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n I see you’ve worked extensively with the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. Can you tell us a\r\n little about this species and why you decided to work with them?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n I met my first Kemp’s ridleys while I was a master’s student in Virginia, where I studied\r\n their diets alongside that of the more-abundant loggerhead. There are important nearshore\r\n areas for Kemp’s ridley juveniles along the U.S. Atlantic coast, including the Chesapeake\r\n Bay, but Kemp’s ridleys are primarily found in the Gulf of Mexico, and I moved to Texas to\r\n study them for my Ph.D. The Kemp’s ridley is the smallest sea turtle species and has the\r\n smallest range of any species that occurs in the U.S. They reach a shell length of about two\r\n feet and weights up to about 100-120 pounds. Kemp’s ridleys are also one of the most\r\n conservation dependent species and were very close to extinction in the 1980s. Thanks to\r\n conservation and management efforts by Mexico and the U.S., the species has rebounded, but\r\n it remains endangered. I chose to study Kemp’s ridleys for my Ph.D. to learn more about\r\n their in-water biology and threats they experience, and I was able to satellite track\r\n nesting females from the upper Texas coast, as well as younger ridleys that were\r\n accidentally caught at local fishing piers. The Kemp’s ridley also has a personal appeal to\r\n me, in that they are small, tough, and feisty!\r\n
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\r\n What techniques do you use to determine the diets of your research subjects?\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Dr. Seney (center) and her most recent (June 2019)
necropsy session sampling crew\r\n (photo credit to Sarah Shaver,
UCF MTRG, selfie)\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The primary method I have used to study sea turtle diet is collecting and examining the gut\r\n contents of dead stranded sea turtles. While the death of any sea turtle is an unfortunate\r\n event, I have strived to help get the most information possible out these dead animals. In\r\n Virginia, my colleagues and I conducted necropsies (animal autopsies) of loggerheads and\r\n Kemp’s ridleys and collected all of the contents of the digestive tracts, which I later\r\n washed in a sieve and then identified visually. In Texas, live ridleys under observation\r\n after being accidentally hooked on fishing gear typically left me a sample in their tank;\r\n because ridleys eat mostly hard prey like crabs and snails, not everything they eat is\r\n digested and their poop is full of information about what they ate! More recently, I have\r\n been able to collaborate with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and\r\n National Marine Fisheries Service to collect gut content samples from stranded loggerheads,\r\n Kemp’s ridleys, and green turtles from Florida and the northern Gulf of Mexico. For the\r\n loggerheads and ridleys, most prey identifications are done visually, and I have had a\r\n wonderful crew of past UCF Marine Turtle Research Group interns who have helped collect\r\n data. Green turtle samples, typically full of algae and/or seagrass, require a slightly\r\n different approach using microscopes to more closely examine the samples and cutting algae\r\n into sections to look at their cell structures to better identify species. I am still\r\n learning but have been fortunate to have the help of a colleague who is an expert on green\r\n turtle diet. I am also collaborating with a UCF colleague and one of her students to develop\r\n a molecular technique for characterizing green turtle diet, which will allow us to better\r\n identify food items using DNA sequencing.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n How will the data you collect be used? Do you have hypothesis-driven research or are the\r\n data mostly descriptive?\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Dr Seney releasing a loggerhead turtle. Photo credit goes
to Chris Long, UCF\r\n MTRG, and permits are NMFS 19508
and FWC MTP-231.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Characterization of sea turtles’ diet provides valuable information on their habitat,\r\n ecosystem role, and potential for interaction or competition with human activities. At the\r\n root of all of my diet research is the question “what do sea turtles eat?” but more\r\n specifically, I seek to better understand what different species eat in different locations,\r\n at different turtle sizes, and during different periods of time. This information fills gaps\r\n in our understanding of sea turtles and allows for better management of these protected\r\n species and the habitats they rely on. Diet research may also identify threats, such regions\r\n where sea turtles feed heavily on discarded fish from human fishing activities, which puts\r\n turtles at risk of entanglements, drowning, and boat strikes. With the larger sets of\r\n samples I have available for Florida and building on my existing knowledge from past\r\n studies, my students and I have started to ask more targeted research questions and make\r\n hypotheses about differences in a species’ diet in geographic regions or at different life\r\n stages. Recent student projects have examined the diets of turtles with different causes of\r\n death and the occurrence of fish in diets in the northern Gulf of Mexico. While we are\r\n interested in describing the diets of each species as a whole, it is really a moving target\r\n over space and time, so I hope to continue diet research over the long-term and continue to\r\n integrate other data, such as necropsy findings, with diet results.\r\n
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\r\n Do you have other research interests you are also pursuing?\r\n
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\r\n I am involved in several other research projects within the UCF Marine Turtle Research\r\n Group, including the lab’s long-term research and monitoring programs on central and\r\n southern Brevard County, Florida nesting beaches and in the central Indian River Lagoon. I\r\n am also involved in several collaborative projects related the movements, distribution, and\r\n ecology of smaller, oceanic-stage sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. Another newer project I\r\n am involved in, which is an offshoot of my diet research, is working with a UCF colleague to\r\n characterize the gut bacteria of sea turtles and examine connections to health and disease.\r\n
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\r\n Do have any advice for young people considering a career in biology?\r\n
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\r\n I would urge anyone considering a career in biology to explore things they are curious about\r\n by getting outside, visiting parks, aquariums, gardens, and museums (in person or\r\n virtually!), and taking advantage of public or online science events. It’s also important to\r\n ask questions and not be afraid to make mistakes – biology, like all sciences, is a learning\r\n process, driven by the urge to know more and address challenges. I would also urge them to\r\n broadly explore (and eventually study) a wide range of science and math-related fields. As a\r\n marine and conservation biologist studying sea turtles and working with diverse\r\n collaborators, I often need to think about oceanography, geology, physics, math, and\r\n statistics alongside ecology and biology.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Thanks Erin! Your work is really fascinating! Best of luck, and hope to see you at a\r\n conference soon!\r\n \r\n
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A Star is Born! New Sea Turtle Model Under Development at the Inwater Research Group, Inc.
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Rebecca Mott, Director of Education,
Inwater Research Group, Inc.
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Recently, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation funded an endeavor to create new and improved sea turtle models based on a real juvenile green turtle encountered during a research trip. The turtle was part of a population study conducted by IRG in Jupiter, FL. While in hand, it was kind enough to allow us to take a number of photographs from all angles. The images were then used to create a 3D model created by our partners at Digital Life 3D (http://digitallife3d.org). This model is now being transformed into an anatomically correct, tangible model that will be a part of our Trunk Program in perpetuity.
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Journey, as the turtle has been named, will educate hundreds of thousands of students over its “lifetime” and will bring a new atmosphere of authenticity to our programs. Children from all over Florida will learn what it means to be a sea turtle biologist and how they can protect sea turtles in their daily lives. We are so excited to take this Journey into the classroom and hope the students love it as much as we do!
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University of Central Florida Awards National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Undergraduate Scholarship
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Christine Sarkis, University of Central Florida
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I am a senior majoring in Biology at the University of Central Florida. I am a Learning Assistant for Calculus 1, and this is my fourth semester aiding incoming freshmen in their STEM journey through Calculus 1. This year I am also a peer coach for the Knights Major Exploration and Transition Center, assisting students in their major exploration. In addition, I am working with Dr. Anna Forsman on a research project in collaboration with Dr. Erin Seney from the Marine Turtle Research Group on using genomic methods to identify the diet of green sea turtles. I started working on this project my freshman year and have learned a lot about sea turtle conservation as well as how genomics can be an effective tool in conservation efforts. It has taught me how to be a better scientist and the true impact that science can have on the world around us.
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Being chosen to receive the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarship was deeply humbling and I am honored to be chosen. This scholarship will transform the time I have left at the University of Central Florida. It relieves the financial burden associated with pursuing a degree and enables me to focus on my research project. This scholarship allows me to dedicate more time to my research project and furthering sea turtle conservation. It gives me the freedom and confidence to focus on experiences outside the classroom. It empowers me to continue my journey in science and conservation, and not be limited by financial concerns.
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\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Partners with the University of the Virgin\r\n Islands to Study Hawksbill Turtles\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D.
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\r\n For a number of years now, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has supported a\r\n leatherback sea turtle research and conservation program at Sandy Point National Wildlife\r\n Refuge on the beautiful island of St. Croix, USVI. This Refuge was created to protect the\r\n large leatherback population that uses their beaches to nest. On one of our recent visits,\r\n we were lucky enough to observe a hawksbill turtle nesting as well, which led to a\r\n discussion of how we may also be able to help that species in the Refuge, and by extension,\r\n in the whole USVI. Turns out, the Virgin Islands are a great place to study and protect\r\n hawksbills, so we’ve decided to develop an Action Plan to determine the current status of\r\n hawksbills in the Islands and create a roadmap for future studies and conservation programs.\r\n
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\r\n While we’re developing the Action Plan, we’ve created an associated scholarship program for\r\n graduate students at the University of the Virgin Islands who plan to focus on hawksbill\r\n turtles for their theses. Under the direction of Dr. Paul Jobsis, these students will have\r\n the opportunity to work with experts to begin our journey toward the full recovery of this\r\n species in these historically rich foraging and nesting grounds.\r\n
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\r\n This year’s scholarship recipients are Jessica Michael, Makayla Kelso, and Katie Ayres, who\r\n will be focusing on hawksbill genetics and population densities on St. Croix and St. John.\r\n We wish them luck!\r\n
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\r\n My name is Jessica Michael and I am a Masters student at the University of the Virgin\r\n Islands. I completed my undergraduate degree in biology with a focus on Caribbean ecology at\r\n Hollins University in Virginia. During my time at Hollins I participated in two research\r\n trips to St. John, US Virgin Islands where I studied tropical fish biodiversity and found my\r\n passion for exploring marine life. The summer between the two trips, I lived at the research\r\n field station for two months and taught marine biology to summer camp students. After\r\n graduation, I decided to pursue my love of sea turtles by interning with US Fish and\r\n Wildlife in Georgia on Blackbeard Island where I did nesting beach work. From there I\r\n decided to apply to the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) in order to work more closely\r\n with sea turtles. Working with the turtle program at UVI has allowed me to be very involved\r\n in the in-water research on green and hawksbill sea turtles in Brewers Bay.\r\n
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\r\n I am currently working with Dr. Paul Jobsis and the sea turtle program at UVI to complete my\r\n Masters thesis on the relative abundance of green and hawksbill sea turtles in the US Virgin\r\n Islands. We have completed turtle surveys in thirteen locations around St. Thomas and St.\r\n John. We have gathered some interesting data that contradicts anecdotal accounts and appears\r\n to show the effects of legal harvest of sea turtles in the British Virgin Islands. My\r\n abstract was accepted to the International Sea Turtle Symposium in Cartagena which was\r\n unfortunately postponed. I hope to present at the rescheduled Symposium in 2021. As I\r\n continue my studies, my goal is to be able to continue researching sea turtles, share my\r\n passion for these animals, and educate people on the importance of conservation.\r\n
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\r\n Paul Jobsis did not always dream of being a sea turtle researcher but knew that he was most\r\n happy when in or near the ocean. So after studying engineering and working in manufacturing\r\n for he returned to college to study marine biology at the University of the North Carolina\r\n Wilmington. After finishing his studies in Wilmington in 1988, he traveled across the\r\n country to work as a laboratory technician for Dr. Gerald Kooyman at Scripps Institution of\r\n Oceanography. This work was ideal for him as he could use his marine biology degree and his\r\n engineering expereince to help with Dr. Kooyman’s diving physiology and behavior research\r\n first as a technician and later a graduate student. His work on tissue oxigenation during\r\n diving/breath-holding in harbor seals is still cited today. Following a teaching position in\r\n Iowa and a post-doctoral position at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, Dr.\r\n Jobsis felt the need to return to the ocean and follow the path of marine science researcher\r\n and professor at the University of the Virgin Islands. Being aware of the research of his\r\n friends and colleagues Scott and Karen Echart on St Croix, as well as Robert van Dam and\r\n Carlos Diez in Puerto Rico he hoped to pursue a research career on sea turtles and other\r\n large marine vertebrates.\r\n
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\r\n His arrival at UVI coincided with the start of the masters in Marine and Environmental\r\n Science program which was extremely fortuitous. Quickly Dr. Jobsis found himself with\r\n excellent graduate students and very motivated undergraduates who wanted to study sea\r\n turtles with him. This lead to research collaborations with local and international experts\r\n on critical nesting parameters, habitat selection, movement ecology, and genetic\r\n determination of sea turtle origins. Located on Brewer Bay St Thomas, the University is an\r\n excellent location to study sea turtles, for not only is it near to known research sites on\r\n St Croix and Puerto Rico, but the bay itself is a foraging ground for juvenile green and\r\n hawksbill sea turtles. In the past six years, Dr. Jobsis and his students have tagged 160\r\n juvenile turtles in Brewers Bay alone. Many have been tracked with acoustic tags, which as\r\n shown the extremely high residency of hawksbills and greens in the bay despite the effects\r\n of major hurricanes. His research focus now is to better understand the factors that attract\r\n significant numbers of juvenile hawksbills to an artificial reef created by the extension of\r\n the St Thomas airport runway, and the effects of invasive seagrasses on the diet and\r\n behavior of juvenile green sea turtles. The in-water research is understandably his passion,\r\n but he wants to integrate research on sea turtle nesting, space use, behavior, biogeography,\r\n genetics, and physiology to better inform the management of these endangered animals.\r\n
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\r\n Hello, I’m Makayla Kelso! I’m originally from Texas, and attended Texas A&M University at\r\n Galveston where I completed a double degree program in Marine Biology and Marine Fisheries\r\n in 2017. During my undergraduate career I took every opening I could find to be involved in\r\n a diverse array of marine biology related research topics and hands-on field experiences,\r\n and it was there that I determined I wanted to pursue a career in scientific research!\r\n Following my graduation, I wanted to spend some time gaining more field experience before\r\n deciding on a path to graduate school. In 2018 I was invited to participate in a volunteer\r\n research assistantship in St. Croix, USVI working on the Leatherback Monitoring Project at\r\n the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge. I spent the summer working alongside Dr. Kelly\r\n Stewart (The Ocean Foundation) and her colleagues at NOAA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife to\r\n collect nesting activity data for leatherback, green, and hawksbill sea turtles at Sandy\r\n Point, and I absolutely fell in love with the work being done there!\r\n
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\r\n Upon leaving St. Croix at the end of the summer, I accepted a two-year employment offer as a\r\n contractor for USGS in Ohio, where I worked on a team focused on identifying and monitoring\r\n spawning grounds for the invasive Grass Carp in Lake Erie and its tributaries. While I\r\n thoroughly enjoyed my time there and gained some invaluable fisheries management experience,\r\n my heart was still in the Caribbean. As my term there came to an end, and I began my search\r\n for a graduate program, I decided to pursue programs that would allow me to conduct research\r\n related to sea turtles, and that led me to apply to the University of the Virgin Islands in\r\n St. Thomas, USVI.\r\n
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\r\n The generous scholarship awarded to me by the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation will\r\n support my pursuit of a Masters in Marine and Environmental Science at UVI, where I will be\r\n working under the mentorship of Dr. Paul Jobsis and Dr. Kelly Stewart on a project focusing\r\n on nesting activities of hawksbill sea turtles in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Through this\r\n study, I hope to use historical nesting data and current data being collected to analyze the\r\n changes in hawksbill nesting in the USVI over time. This information is crucial to hawksbill\r\n conservation, and to efforts to establish the USVI as a priority for future protective\r\n measures and continued monitoring. This important work would not be possible without the\r\n support of the NSTSTF, and I am so grateful and excited to have the chance to contribute to\r\n the conservation efforts of these incredible creatures!\r\n
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\r\n My name is Katie Ayres. I am originally from Washington State, where I received my degree in\r\n Environmental Science with a focus on Marine Ecology. At Western Washington University I\r\n studied rocky intertidal ecosystems, but I decided to broaden my marine knowledge to include\r\n tropical ecosystems. This gave me the opportunity to learn more about my favorite marine\r\n organism, the sea turtle. Much like how the sea turtle travels thousands of miles to find\r\n the best feeding grounds, I have traveled over 3,000 miles to discover more about Hawksbill\r\n sea turtles and their marine environment. The first stop on my journey was an internship at\r\n the NOAA Regional Office in St. Petersburg, Florida. There, I organized NOAA’s Sea Turtle\r\n Stranding data base and I discovered the many threats that sea turtle species are faced with\r\n every day. These include boat strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, and plastic ingestion.\r\n While reading through this data, I became curious as to what happened to these turtles after\r\n they were rescued. This curiosity led me to an internship at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Centers\r\n Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Facility. I spent five months at Gumbo Limbo learning about the\r\n rescue and rehabilitation process. One of the common themes that we saw throughout the\r\n rehabilitation process was plastic. Plastic is not only entangling sea turtles but is also\r\n being found in the digestion tracts of turtles of all ages, including hatchlings. Plastic\r\n ingestion causes many hatchlings to become lethargic and wash back up onto nesting beaches.\r\n We cared for hundreds of hatchlings that were washed back into shore, many of them suffering\r\n from microplastic ingestion. Seeing this issue first hand inspired me to do more educational\r\n outreach while I continued to learn about different sea turtle species.\r\n
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\r\n To gain more educational outreach experience, I traveled to Jekyll Island, GA, to become an\r\n AmeriCorps member at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. For five months I was able to interact\r\n with the public while observing sea turtle behaviors during night tagging activities,\r\n actively protecting sea turtle nests by screening the nests from predators, and excavating\r\n nests to determine hatch success and related nesting data. It was very rewarding to be able\r\n to share the nesting process with community members that had never seen a sea turtle before.\r\n
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\r\n The excitement that I feel when seeing a turtle is one that I hope to continue to be able to\r\n share with others in the future. The survival rate of a hatchling is very low, possibly less\r\n than 1 in 1,000. Human interactions with sea turtles and the environment can cause this\r\n number to either increase or decrease. I hope to create better resource management practices\r\n in the future to increase their odds and ensure the survival of all turtle species\r\n populations. In order to achieve my goals, the next stop on my journey is the University of\r\n the Virgin Islands to earn my Masters in Marine and Environmental Science, where I will be\r\n studying hawksbills and gaining the skills needed to become a successful marine ecologist.\r\n
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2020 Florida Hawksbill Project
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\r\n Even though 2020 turned out to be a big challenge in many ways, the Florida Hawksbill\r\n Project still managed to reach some important milestones. It’s a little hard to believe,\r\n but the Project is now going into its 17th year! As a quick recap, the Florida Hawksbill\r\n Project’s mission is to describe in detail the abundance, distribution, and ecology of\r\n hawksbill turtles in Florida waters. Over the years, we have explored the genetic\r\n origins, movements, gender ratio, health, and diet of these beautiful turtles from the\r\n offshore reefs of Jupiter all the way to Key West.\r\n
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\r\n The most significant thing that has come from our work so far is that we’ve determined\r\n that rather than being a permanent home, Florida is a ‘stop along the way’ for\r\n hawksbills that had hatched elsewhere in the Caribbean, mostly the beaches of Mexico’s\r\n Yucatan Peninsula. After leaving their nests, they spent some time floating in the Gulf\r\n of Mexico before returning to the Caribbean via the straights of Florida. The\r\n semi-random dispersal of these young turtles lead some of them to take up residence in\r\n the Florida Keys,\r\n
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\r\n The particular configuration of this ‘natural laboratory’ permits us to explore a number\r\n of fascinating aspects of the biology of hawksbills as they negotiate through these\r\n formative stages of life.\r\n
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\r\n We are nearing the completion of several interesting studies that have been in the works\r\n for some time. As someone who has worked in sea turtle rehabilitation, I appreciate the\r\n value of having reference material on hand when evauating a new ‘patient’. Blood is\r\n routinely extracted and analyzed, resulting in data that guide treatment plans. Though\r\n data were available for other sea turtle species, I realized that there were no\r\n clinically-useful reference intervals from which hawksbill blood parameters could be\r\n directly compared, so I teamed up with Dr. Nicole Stacy from the University of Florida\r\n to start collecting blood samples from the turtles I encountered during our field\r\n surveys. After three years of collecting, our team just met our goal of 70 samples,\r\n allowing us to move forward with the analysis and publication of the results. We’ve\r\n welcomed Dr. Justin Perrault of the Loggerhead Marinelife Center to our team as our\r\n expert statistician, and we’re looking forward to publishing what will be by far the\r\n most comprehensive evaluation of hawksbill health and physiology yet available.\r\n
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\r\n which happens to be the southern end of the SE Florida Continental Reef Tract that hugs\r\n Florida’s SE coast all the way up through Palm Beach County. This long line of reefs\r\n will become home to these little turtles for the next 15-20 years or so before they\r\n reach maturity themselves, and hear the call to return to their origins of birth to\r\n continue the cycle. Once they’ve gone, it seems Florida is ‘old news’, and we’ll very\r\n likely never see those turtles again in Florida waters.\r\n
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\r\n Florida’s hawksbills, from what we’ve seen so far, are considered ‘specialists’ in their\r\n approach to life; they pretty much stick closely to specific coral reef neighborhoods\r\n where they consume a narrow selection of sea sponges. The Florida Keys provide ample\r\n shallow reefs for newly arrived juveniles, and as they grow, they become more able to\r\n fend for themselves on deeper reefs that are more prevalent in the northern part of the\r\n reef tract. As they broaden their habitat choices, they encounter new food choices,\r\n predators, and competitors.\r\n
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\r\n While the turtles were in-hand, we also collected small samples of their shell and skin to\r\n help us reveal their dispersal patterns after they had arrived in Florida’s waters. Since\r\n the old adage “you are what you eat” actually rings true, we are able to use unique\r\n signatures of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur that accumulate in their tissues to trace their\r\n activities for up to 10 years prior to sample collection. Since the outer layers of the\r\n turtles’ shells grow very slowly, just like our hair and fingerhails, we are able to look\r\n back in time to explore subtle dietary changes that the turtle may have experienced over\r\n time. Some of these shifts may represent shifts in foraging location, which will be\r\n revealed in the corresponding site-specific combinations of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur\r\n signatures we discover in their tissues. Although there have been some coronavirus-related\r\n delays, the samples are on-deck for analysis by our colleagues Dr. Simona Ceriani and Sue\r\n Murasko at the Florida Marine Research Institute, so results are soon on the way\r\n
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\r\n\r\n Meanwhile, the core effort to document the abundance and distribution of hawksbills\r\n continues. We isolated ourselves as much as possible from unintended exposure to covid-19\r\n on our field days by chartering a dive boat exclusively for the team. Our long-time friend\r\n Captain Sandy Brammier from Ocean Quest Scuba provided expert transport for us, and\r\n inspired us to re-visit reef sites in Palm Beach that we hadn’t surveyed in a number of\r\n years. Not only did we find plenty of new turtles to add to our study, we also encountered\r\n individuals we had tagged before, including some from five, nine and even twelve years\r\n ago, still hanging around the same places we’d found them the first time around.\r\n
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\r\n Though we could only get there once this year, our team also had a very productive weekend\r\n in Key West. We happened across stellar water conditions for snorkel surveys, and were\r\n able to capture several little hawksbills, including a captive-reared one we had released\r\n there in 2019. As I mentioned before, many of Mexico’s young hawksbills float around in\r\n the Gulf prior to reaching Florida. Unfortunately, some wash ashore on Texas beaches,\r\n usually after hurricanes. The National Marine Fisheries Service helps operate an aquarium\r\n and research center in Galveston that specializes in sea turtle rehabilitation, so they\r\n care for all the small hawksbills that wash ashore each season. Once recovered and\r\n fostered for about a year, they are usually of the size that they would be otherwise\r\n transitioning to coral reefs for food and shelter, so they are best released in places we\r\n know this process to occur, for example, Key West. This particular little fellow showed\r\n the resilience of sea turtles by not only surviving, but matching the impressive growth\r\n rates of its wild counterparts after arriving from a captive setting.\r\n
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\r\n All totaled, we captured 19 ‘new’ turtles and recaptured 7 ‘known’ turtles this year,\r\n which is really great considering the restrictions we were facing. We’re now up to a grand\r\n total of 264 turtles captured, and as a matter of coincidence, we captured the 250th\r\n turtle on the 1000th survey of the Project this July. I’d like to give my heartfelt thanks\r\n to our fantastic team of volunteer divers and snorkelers, and the National Save The Sea\r\n Turtle Foundation for financial and logistical support. I’m excited to see what the new\r\n decade will bring!\r\n
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\r\n **All activities authorized by State and Federal Research Permits \r\n
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Inwater Research Group Studies Green Turtles at the Jupiter Inlet
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\r\n Leatherbacks, Light, and the Comparative Study of Seafinding Behavior\r\n
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\r\n Samantha Trail and Michael Salmon Florida Atlantic University .\r\n
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\r\n Sea turtles are unique in that they are large, long-lived species, but they produce a\r\n large number of offspring with very few surviving to reach maturity themselves. Assuming\r\n ideal nest conditions, that treacherous struggle to survive begins almost immediately.\r\n As hatchlings, sea turtles emerge from the sand with their clutch mates, experiencing\r\n the beach environment outside of the buried egg chamber for the very first time. The\r\n immediate objective: get to the ocean as quickly and accurately as possible.\r\n
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\r\n This journey from the nest to the ocean is called “seafinding” – an innate behavior\r\n under intense selection pressure requiring a consistent, reliable cue. It is now well\r\n documented that hatchlings of all species accomplish this feat by crawling in the\r\n direction of the lowest and brightest horizon. Regardless of lunar phase or position\r\n under natural lighting conditions, that lowest, brightest horizon will be toward the sea\r\n (Figure 1). The turtles then use a “positive phototaxis” (attraction to the brightest\r\n location) to crawl in that direction.\r\n
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\r\n However when animals respond to visual cues, they favor some wavelengths over others -\r\n those that are particularly important for promoting adaptive behavior. For example,\r\n foraging honeybees use the pattern of ultra-violet (UV)\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 1. A view of the nesting beach at night. Hatchlings emerging from the nest will\r\n use vision to scan their environment before crawling toward the sea. The view toward\r\n land (here, a dune) will be darker as light is absorbed by vegetation. In contrast,\r\n light from the stars (and moon, if present) is reflected from the water surface making\r\n the view toward the sea brighter. This difference tells the hatchlings where the ocean\r\n is located, even if they can’t directly see it from the nest site, and triggers a\r\n positive phototaxis.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 2. A Y-maze is used to reproduce a light intensity difference, similar to the\r\n one found at the nesting beach. A projector (P) is used to present a light stimulus in\r\n one of the Y-maze arms; the other arm remains dark. If hatchlings can detect the\r\n light, they will crawl into the illuminated arm. When the light intensity is reduced\r\n to a level that they can’t see, hatchlings are equally likely to crawl into either\r\n arm. That difference enables investigators to obtain wavelength phototaxis thresholds.\r\n CB is the clear barrier that keeps the turtle in the start area until the light is\r\n presented.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n That exquisite sensitivity meant they could easily distinguish between differences in\r\n light intensity in a landward vs. seaward direction, even on the darkest of evenings.\r\n
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\r\n Those results piqued our interest into whether leatherback hatchlings, which are\r\n distantly related to both green turtles and loggerheads, had evolved a similar or\r\n different pattern of sensitivity. Leatherbacks diverged from their hard-shelled\r\n relatives ~ 100 million years ago and are also very unique turtles! They are exclusively\r\n oceanic, deep-diving residents throughout their life, as opposed to mature loggerheads\r\n and green turtles that live primarily in shallow coastal waters. So, though visual cues\r\n are required for seafinding by all marine turtle hatchlings, those ecological\r\n differences and the long evolutionary separation between the two groups provide the\r\n potential for significant differences in how they accomplish their crawl to the ocean.\r\n Our objective was to find out the extent to which that potential was realized.\r\n
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\r\n We used the same methods and obtained turtles from the same nesting beaches as Celano’s\r\n group to measure leatherback spectral sensitivities (Figure 3).\r\n
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\r\n To investigate this question, we headed to the beach to observe and compare the natural\r\n paths of loggerhead and leatherback hatchlings crawling under full (or nearly full) and\r\n new moon conditions. Though loggerheads showed similar seafinding paths under full or\r\n new moon conditions, the same could not be said of the leatherbacks. Two major\r\n differences were revealed: under new moon conditions, leatherbacks (1) showed\r\n considerably more circling during their crawl (Figure 4) and (2) their crawling\r\n orientation angles under those conditions were significantly more variable (Figure 5).\r\n We think that outcome is related to their light sensitivity. Under new moon conditions,\r\n leatherback phototaxis thresholds are only slightly below background light levels (red\r\n lines in Figure 3), so distinguishing between landward and seaward light intensities\r\n might be more challenging. It’s likely, then, that circling follows in an attempt to\r\n make that intensity distinction clearer. Even so, leatherbacks usually manage to find\r\n the sea during new moon. It’s just more difficult!\r\n
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\r\n Our findings should be of interest to conservation managers as they also suggest that\r\n leatherback seafinding, whether by hatchlings or adult females after nesting, will be\r\n more prone to disruption by artificial light sources, including sky glow that currently\r\n poses a serious threat worldwide to all marine turtles at nesting beaches. We suspect\r\n that as a consequence, leatherback hatchlings at urban beaches may fail to locate the\r\n sea more often than the hard-shelled hatchlings. Given that various leatherback\r\n populations worldwide are in serious decline, further research into this problem is\r\n certainly appropriate.\r\n
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\r\n wavelengths shown by flowers to identify those that are currently producing nectar. Pit\r\n vipers, hunting at night, are sensitive to the longer, infrared wavelengths that\r\n generate heat as heat also radiates from their warm-blooded mammalian prey; that “heat\r\n image” directs the snake’s venomous strike. Similarly, we expect sea turtle hatchlings\r\n to be particularly sensitive to the light wavelengths present at the beach at night,\r\n especially if they can be used to distinguish between a landward and an oceanic view.\r\n But, how can that sensitivity best be measured? The solution is to create an environment\r\n in which, once again, hatchlings need to choose between two spatially separate\r\n locations, one visually darker than the other, so that a positive phototaxis response is\r\n released.\r\n
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\r\n Master’s graduate Lisa Celano and her colleagues were the first to use this technique to\r\n measure light spectral sensitivities in loggerhead and green turtle hatchlings, two\r\n species of “hard-shelled” marine turtle. They used a Y-maze with light wavelengths\r\n projected from one arm but not the other (Figure 2), and sequentially presented\r\n individual light wavelengths between 340 and 600 nm (near-UV to orange). They knew from\r\n measurements made at the beach that these light energies were present at night.\r\n Initially, the light stimulus was bright enough to induce all the turtles to crawl into\r\n the illuminated arm. That intensity was then systematically reduced until the preference\r\n for the illuminated arm was eliminated. The lowest light intensity that still induced a\r\n group of hatchlings to crawl into the illuminated arm was recorded as the “phototaxis\r\n threshold”, or sensitivity measure, for that particular wavelength.\r\n
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\r\n The data from that study (Figure 3) revealed three trends. First, loggerheads and green\r\n turtles had almost identical sensitivities, a sure sign of what biologists call\r\n “convergent evolution.” That finding meant that the two species, even though separately\r\n evolved for ~ 63 million years, had settled on the same solution to the seafinding\r\n problem. Second, both species were most sensitive to the shorter (<500 nm)\r\n wavelengths. Third, both species were up to 100 times more sensitive to those\r\n wavelengths than to the background illumination presented by the stars or moonlight at\r\n the beach (Figure 1).\r\n
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\r\n Our results provide support for the idea that seafinding was accomplished in\r\n leatherbacks through somewhat different, or “divergent,” means. Like loggerheads and\r\n green turtles, leatherbacks were most sensitive to shorter wavelengths (<500 nm) but\r\n leatherbacks were consistently less sensitive to all the tested wavelengths than their\r\n hard-shelled relatives. This difference in overall sensitivity was profound, as it meant\r\n that leatherbacks required upwards of 10 times more light at nearly all the utilized\r\n wavelengths to direct their crawl to the sea.\r\n
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\r\n Intrigued by these differences, we explored another question: How might this reduction\r\n in sensitivity translate into behavioral differences during seafinding on the beach?\r\n Previous observations by other naturalists (Archie Carr and Nicholas Mrosovsky) suggest\r\n that one peculiar seafinding behavior occurred more often in leatherback hatchlings than\r\n others: circling. More specifically, orientation circles are characteristic when a\r\n hatchling (or nesting females) during their crawl does not head in a straight direction\r\n but instead makes brief, tight circles, and less often as a larger, sweeping path. Was\r\n that circling somehow related to differences in light sensitivity between the two groups\r\n of marine turtles?\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 3. Phototaxis thresholds for Green Turtles (\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n ) and Loggerheads (\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n ) plotted relative to the mean thresholds for Leatherbacks (\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n ) between 340 - 400 nm, 400 - 500 nm, and 500 - 600 nm. Thresholds are shown relative\r\n to background lighting measured during a full moon, quarter moon and new moon (paired\r\n colored lines, above). All three species can detect the presence of light well below\r\n background, including the ultraviolet range (below 400 nm) that humans do not see but\r\n that is present at night. The two hard-shelled species are between 10 - 100 x more\r\n sensitive to light than leatherbacks and under all conditions should easily\r\n distinguish between the darker view toward land and the brighter view toward the sea.\r\n However, leatherbacks are much less sensitive and especially during new moon, when\r\n thresholds are not much lower than background, might find that task more difficult.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Figure 4. A comparison of leatherback hatchling crawling tracks during seafinding\r\n under full moon (blue) and new moon (red) lighting conditions. Hatchlings were\r\n released from the nest site and allowed to crawl unencumbered to the wrack line on the\r\n beach. During new moon, leatherback hatchling orientation was less accurate and\r\n contained several bouts of circling, as seen in this track record.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 5. Diagrams showing how leatherback (top row) and loggerhead (bottom row)\r\n
\r\n hatchlings oriented during their crawl between the nest and the location of the ocean,\r\n
\r\n as indicated by the blue arrow, on nights when exposed to a full moon (left column)\r\n
or a new moon (right column). Each line represents the track of one turtle.\r\n Leatherback
accuracy declines during new moon but not during full moon when\r\n light intensity cues
are easier to distinguish from background (see Figure\r\n 3). A similar decline does not occur
in loggerheads, probably because of\r\n their greater sensitivity to nocturnal lighting.\r\n \r\n
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Sandy Point 2020
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\r\n Despite all the challenges of 2020, the Sandy Point Sea Turtle Project emerged stronger and\r\n better this year than ever before! We were able to begin our leatherback satellite tagging\r\n program (delayed from 2019), complete leatherback night patrols, expand training for green\r\n and hawksbill monitoring and re-initiate our tagging of green and hawksbill turtles in the\r\n refuge. We accomplished a lot with a very small team this year.\r\n
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\r\n When Covid-19 struck, we had plans (and flights) for students and volunteers to join us, and\r\n also to present our work at the International Sea Turtle Symposium in Cartagena, Colombia.\r\n All of this had to be postponed initially and then canceled. By late March, we were denied\r\n access to nesting beaches due to a stay at home order from the governor in St. Croix. But\r\n working with our colleagues at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, we got special permission\r\n to go ahead with night patrols for leatherbacks. Thanks to the National Save the Sea Turtle\r\n Foundation, who had provided funds previously to purchase a Pioneer 500 UTV, we were able to\r\n do these patrols safely and following all precautions. Our skeleton crew of Kelly Stewart\r\n (TOF), Claudia Lombard and Mike Evans (USFWS), patrolled for 43 consecutive nights,\r\n identifying five individual leatherback turtles. We deployed satellite tags on the three\r\n best candidates and tracked them during the internesting season. Maps of their travels can\r\n be found at STXTurtles.com. We will continue this program in 2021 by deploying new tags in\r\n St. Croix and also in Puerto Rico with our partners there. This year we coordinated with\r\n other nesting beach programs and volunteers on the island for leatherback season, and we\r\n documented 76 leatherback nesting activities island-wide.\r\n
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\r\n Even though our turtle team was not together in one place, we still worked on projects\r\n remotely, including data analyses, report writing, and the creation of educational\r\n materials for future programs.\r\n
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\r\n We had been working toward improving our green and hawksbill sea turtle monitoring\r\n protocols over the past few years and this year we made great strides! We developed and\r\n used mobile app questions for collecting all data for these species. We did training for\r\n the app and for identifying turtle crawls for volunteers, who patrol seven days a week.\r\n
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\r\n By the end of November, we had recorded 1,350 green turtle nests and 110 hawksbill nests!\r\n The mobile data collection made this work much more efficient, and ties in seamlessly to our\r\n database. In addition, we re-initiated our tagging program for greens and hawksbills,\r\n spending two sessions of eight days each over the full moon periods in late July and August.\r\n We tagged 26 greens and nine hawksbill turtles. We even found a hawksbill that had begun\r\n nesting at Sandy Point in 2006!\r\n
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\r\n More than ever this season, the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation was instrumental in\r\n our success. Without the UTV for patrols and tagging exercises, we would not have been able\r\n to comply with Covid restrictions, and get this critical conservation work done. We are so\r\n grateful!\r\n
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\r\n Our project is updated regularly on our website at SeaTurtleCensus.com. We also have a\r\n Facebook page (@stxleatherbacks) and post on Instagram (#stxturtles). Our sincere thanks to\r\n National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation for the support of our program this year! The Sea\r\n Turtle Census Initiative is a project of The Ocean Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization,\r\n working in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA National Marine\r\n Fisheries Service Marine Turtle Genetics Program in La Jolla, California.\r\n
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\r\n A hawksbill turtle returns to the water after nesting\r\n
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\r\n Preparing a satellite tag for deployment by testing signal strength.\r\n
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\r\n Training volunteers for green and hawksbill season.\r\n
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\r\n The Pioneer 500 UTV made patrols safe and efficient\r\n
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\r\n Sandy Point is a busy place during green and hawksbill season\r\n
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\r\n A hawksbill hatchling found during a nest excavation.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n During the time we could not access the beach, we recorded leatherback
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\r\n Turtle Camp was home once again for the project.\r\n
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\r\n A green turtle digs a nest at Sandy Point in the moonlight \r\n
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\r\n Meet the Students:
National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarship\r\n
Recipients Chosen at the University of Florida\r\n
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\r\n David Duffy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor1,2 Sandra Loesgen, Ph.D., Associate Professor1,3\r\n
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\r\n 1The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle Hospital, University of\r\n Florida, St. Augustine, Florida 32080, USA.
\r\n 2Department of Biology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida,\r\n Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA.
\r\n 3Department of Chemistry, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida,\r\n Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA.
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\r\n The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle Hospital\r\n (www.whitney.ufl.edu/conservation--sea-turtle-hospital) on Florida’s Northeastern Atlantic\r\n coast is a research institute of the University of Florida (UF). With support from the\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s (NSTSTF) Scholarship Fund, we are advancing our\r\n understanding of and ability to mitigate threats to marine turtles, primarily the sea turtle\r\n tumor disease fibropapillomatosis. Fibropapillomatosis is thought to be caused by a\r\n combination of viral infection and environmental degradation, and as such requires better\r\n understanding of the complex interplay between viral pathogens, the sea turtle immune system\r\n and environmental pollutants. NSTSTF has generously supported the research of three\r\n promising graduate students who are tackling various aspects of this devastating disease,\r\n Jessica Farrell, Elizabeth Kaweesa and Dorothy Mitchell.\r\n
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\r\n Jessica A. Farrell (Duffy & Martindale Labs) Project: Genomic and Environmental FP drivers.\r\n
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\r\n My name is Jessica Farrell and I am a PhD candidate at the University of Florida’s (UF)\r\n Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle Hospital. Originally from England,\r\n my dream has always been to study marine biology, and an Operation Wallacea research\r\n expedition to Indonesia in 2011 inspired me to go after my dream career in marine\r\n conservation. In 2016 I graduated with a BSc from the University of Sheffield, UK, with a\r\n new-found love for using virology and pathology to help protect endangered species, and in\r\n 2017 I was lucky enough to intern with the University of Sydney and Sydney Institute of\r\n Marine Science on a “Marine Cloud Brightening” project to save the Great Barrier Reef,\r\n Australia. It is this combined love for marine conservation and the study of aquatic\r\n diseases that guided me to UF’s Whitney Lab and Sea Turtle Hospital, where I get to pursue\r\n both areas of biology when investigating the FP panzootic (animal pandemic) in Florida’s\r\n vulnerable green sea turtle populations.\r\n
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\r\n The Whitney Lab’s Sea Turtle Hospital specializes in treating sea turtles afflicted with\r\n this debilitating tumor-causing disease and is therefore the perfect facility to use this\r\n unique opportunity to learn more about FP and how we can mitigate it, while sea turtles are\r\n cared for and rehabilitated by the highly experienced veterinary team. Fibropapillomatosis\r\n is a complex disease, involving not only the presence of a sea turtle specific herpesvirus,\r\n but the exposure to an environmental stressor. Juvenile green turtles are the species and\r\n life-stage most impacted by FP, and their unique habitat of shallow, human-proximate coastal\r\n regions highly suggests that the environmental stressors responsible for exacerbating the\r\n severity of this disease are due to human activities. As such, my PhD research, although\r\n focusing on FP, utilizes a variety of approaches and scientific disciplines to tackle this\r\n disease from as many angles as possible. I have profiled FP tumor growth and examined the\r\n effect of targeted drug treatments (human precision-medicine inspired) on slowing such\r\n growth (Farrell et al. 2021, Farrell et al. 2018, Yetsko et al. 2021). I’ve applied advanced\r\n microscopy to determine fine detail tissue and cellular information regarding the make-up of\r\n the tumors themselves and I have investigated the host and virus gene expression activity\r\n within tumors (Farrell et al. 2021; Yetsko et al. 2020). I have also used molecular biology\r\n approaches to compare the level of virus in different tumor types, as well as to develop a\r\n highly specific methodology (environmental [e]DNA) to detect and monitor several species of\r\n sea turtle and their FP-associated virus (ChHV5) from just sand and water samples (Farrell\r\n et al. 2021). In addition, as environmental stressors are a key piece to the FP-puzzle, I\r\n have examined plastic ingestion in Florida’s vulnerable post-hatchling “washback” turtles\r\n (Eastman et al. 2020), with shocking results (96% of turtles had plastics in their GI\r\n tract). This work would not be possible without the donation of such generous scholarships,\r\n like that from the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation. Thank you so much for helping us\r\n to expand our knowledge on this devastating disease and helping us get closer day by day to\r\n helping conserve these beautiful marine creatures.\r\n
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\r\n Elizabeth N. Kaweesa (Loesgen Lab) Project: Viral Drivers of FP and Anti-Cancer Drugs.\r\n
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\r\n Hello. My name is Elizabeth Kaweesa and I am a graduate student at the Whitney Lab for\r\n Marine Bioscience at the University of Florida. I joined Prof. Sandra Loesgen’s laboratory\r\n in 2015 with an interest in drug discovery. I employ cellular biology to better understand\r\n cancer, its progression, metabolism, and metastasis. This work helps us to develop\r\n anti-cancer drugs to fight these malignant diseases.\r\n
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\r\n I grew up in a fishing village on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, Africa. The\r\n delightful tropical weather and thick rainforest gave me a deep appreciation for the\r\n environment and wildlife. From early on, my family instilled in me the importance of\r\n conserving the environment as well as the values of education. From my primary and secondary\r\n education in Uganda, to college and graduate school here in the United States, I’ve been\r\n mentored by amazing educators and researchers who have inspired me to pursue a career in\r\n academia.\r\n
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\r\n Thanks to the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarship I am now combining the\r\n cancer research techniques developed during my PhD, with sea turtle FP research, to gain a\r\n greater understanding of the viral drivers of FP, and identify novel drug treatments for\r\n this debilitating disease. My doctoral research involves the screening of natural sources\r\n for new cancer drug leads. For example, the widely used clinically anti-tumor drugs\r\n doxorubicin and paclitaxel are both derived from natural sources, from bacteria and plants\r\n respectively. In fact, over 50% of all FDA approved drugs are inspired by metabolites found\r\n in nature. The Loesgen laboratory is screening microbe derived metabolites for new cancer\r\n treatments and drug leads. We have found several new chemical entities and tested them in\r\n vitro in our laboratory and in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute. In one of\r\n my projects, I have been investigating the mode of action of the new bacterial metabolite\r\n called mensacarcin. The compound was tested by the US National Cancer Institute and\r\n exhibited potent and selective activity against some tumor types. I have characterized in\r\n depth its cellular and anti-tumor properties and discovered that mensacarcin’s unique\r\n ability to disrupt cell energy metabolism gives it selective cellular toxicity to skin\r\n cancer (melanoma) cells, even having potent activity in treatment-resistant melanoma.\r\n
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\r\n In collaboration with Dr. Dave Duffy, we have been looking at the chemo-induction of tumors\r\n in Floridian sea turtles. His laboratory has been studying fibropapillomatosis, a now common\r\n potentially fatal virulent tumor-causing disease in Floridian sea turtles. My National Save\r\n The Sea Turtle Foundation supported work includes investigating anti-tumor drugs in FP and\r\n imaging of virions in turtle tissues and creating imaging probes to better understand the\r\n relationship of viral load and tumor progression in afflicted sea turtles.\r\n
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\r\n Dorothy Mitchell (Martindale Lab) Project: Genomic and Cellular Drivers of FP\r\n
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\r\n Hi, I’m Dorothy Mitchell and I am a graduate student in Prof. Martindale’s lab at the\r\n University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, where I study the genetic\r\n control of stem cells and their involvement in health and disease.\r\n
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\r\n I grew up on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Fairhope, Alabama. I have always been\r\n passionate about protecting and learning from the environment. My interest in marine\r\n wildlife is longstanding; I have been interested in the various marine organisms in the\r\n diverse coastal estuary systems surrounding my home, from the numerous invertebrates to\r\n charismatic megafauna like sea turtles. I received my Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology\r\n from Auburn University in Alabama. During college, I discovered a passion for using marine\r\n model systems to study cellular processes when I started working on tentacle formation in\r\n the comb jellyfish Mnemiopsis leidyi. I previously completed an undergraduate research\r\n project which allowed me to become familiar with the innovative research going on at the\r\n Whitney Lab. I then joined Dr. Mark Martindale’s Lab for my graduate studies, for which I\r\n investigate stem cell development and evolution in relation to reproduction and regeneration\r\n in comb jellies 1. SeaTurtleHospital-Logo-Teal.jpg. Thanks to the National Save The Sea\r\n Turtle Foundation Scholarship I am now using my computational, molecular biology and stem\r\n cell expertise to investigate the genome and cancer stem cells of FP. Cancer stem cells are\r\n crucial in driving the growth of tumors, and their spread around the body. Cancer stem cells\r\n are often also responsible for the regrowth of tumors after surgery or chemotherapy.\r\n Regrowth of tumors after surgical removal is a huge issue when treating FP-afflicted\r\n turtles. Over 70% of eye tumors that are removed by surgery end up regrowing. Based on the\r\n known role of cancer stem cells in human and other animal cancers, they are also very likely\r\n to be the key agents responsible for FP tumor regrowth. My ongoing work is examining which\r\n cancer stem cell genes are activated in FP, and visualizing those cancer stem cells within\r\n established and regrowth tumors. Improved understanding of the precise role of cancer stem\r\n cells in FP tumor growth, regrowth and spread (metastasis), can ultimately lead to improved\r\n anti-cancer treatments to lessen the burden of FP tumors, especially post-surgical regrowth\r\n on sea turtles.\r\n
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Future Research Directions
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\r\n We are extremely grateful to the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation and its donors, for\r\n supporting our sea turtle research. In future years we hope to expand our research to\r\n encompass additional threats to sea turtles (unfortunately, of which there are many). We\r\n have recently begun to investigate the effect of plastic ingestion in sea turtles, from even\r\n the earliest life stages (Eastman et al. 2020). The next step of our plastic ingestion work\r\n is to apply the molecular health assessment tools (molecular biology and histology-based)\r\n developed for our FP research, to determine what the health consequences are of so much\r\n plastic in these vulnerable post-hatchlings. In Fall 2021 we will host an NSTSTF supported\r\n collaborator meeting to discuss current needs and future research directions of FP research,\r\n in order to progress our ability to rehabilitate and release FP-afflicted turtles as\r\n efficiently and successfully as possible. In future (post-Covid) years we plan on developing\r\n this meeting into an open invitation symposium (oral and poster presentations) on the latest\r\n sea turtle fibropapillomatosis molecular research. It is an exciting time for sea turtle\r\n disease research, advances in technology are allowing us to figure out many of the\r\n long-standing mysteries about sea turtles, particularly in relation to the enigmatic\r\n fibropapillomatosis disease. With continued support we will uncover yet more mysteries of\r\n sea turtle health, and make meaningful impacts towards the rehabilitation and conservation\r\n of these marvelously enigmatic animals.\r\n
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Florida's Amazing Mantas!
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Jessica Pate saw her first manta ray on a dawn beach patrol while working as a sea turtle nest monitor. The large black ray was a surprise to her. As marine biologist and diver she was unaware that mantas occurred in Florida. It was also big and incredibly close to shore! She consulted the existing scientific literature and learned that next to nothing was known about the mantas on Florida’s coasts. This sparked the idea of studying mantas in Florida, but she was uncertain if such a study would be feasible. She held on to the idea for years, until in 2016 she realized a dream in founding the Florida Manta Project (FMP). That year Jessica, who is my partner, and I began conducting boat based surveys of coastal waters during our free time, using a rented boat. With initial modest successes, Jessica grew the project into a full time pursuit. Today, she is a Senior Scientist with The Marine Megafauna Foundation and has made some breakthrough discoveries about mantas in Florida. In studying South Florida’s mantas, Jessica’s team conducts regular boat surveys of coastal waters. Locating mantas is tricky as their large dark shapes can look deceptively like rocks, and vice versa. Large rays can also disappear surprisingly quick when conditions of visibly are anything less than perfect. To aid in finding mantas, Jessica has learned to fly a drone from her boat giving her a birds eye view of the ocean. Once a manta is located a snorkeler is dropped in the water with an underwater camera. The snorkeler collects data that includes information on size, sex, maturity status, anthropogenic impacts, behavior, habitat, and associated species. Individuals are identified by their unique ventral spot pattern, and data about recurring sightings is used to understand site fidelity, habitat preference, seasonality, migration, and wound healing. In addition to these boat surveys, Jessica has begun conducting aerial surveys to aid in understanding distribution and seasonality, and also collaborates with the NOAA National Marine Fisheries research on a satellite tagging project.
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In 2020, Jessica released the first published long term study on Florida’s mantas, entitled “Urban manta rays: potential manta ray nursery habitat along a highly developed Florida coastline”. In the study, which was published in Endangered Species Research, she describes some of the most significant and exciting findings so far. In the teams’ first 5 years of work, nearly all of the individuals sighted proved to be juvenile. Maturity in male mantas is distinguishable by the size of the paired reproductive organs, known as claspers. Maturity in females is inferred by size, and the lack of visual evidence of mating or pregnancy. This lack of adults indicated that South Florida is a probable nursery habitat for manta rays. A nursery is habitat that is used preferentially by juveniles on a long term basis. These habitats are thought to provide young rays with advantages in finding foods or protection from predators. Globally, only two other manta ray nursery habitats are known to science. The fact that this nursery habitat occurs along South Florida’s developed coastline makes it unique among the few known nursery habitats, but also may make the population vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts.
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Throughout the ongoing study, the FMP team has documented manta injuries due to human activities. Twenty seven percent of individuals were seen entangled by fishing line. A third of documented injuries were caused by boat propellors. This is perhaps not surprising given the size of the population that uses coastal waters for recreation and commercial purposes. Jessica has teamed up with Miami based education and research nonprofit, The Field School, to better understand how fishing line entanglement occurs and what can be done to prevent it. The results of this work were released in her second published study, Surveys of recreational anglers reveal knowledge gaps and positive attitudes towards manta ray conservation in Florida, in the journal Aquatic Conservation. The researchers found that the majority of manta ray line entanglement happens accidentally when mantas swim into lines set from shore. The results of these interactions are detrimental to both the manta, which may be impaired in feeding and swimming, and the angler, who usually loses tackle not rated for such a large species. Jessica is now conducting outreach campaigns aimed at encouraging fisherman to watch for mantas and to retrieve lines whenever they are sighted to reduce these instances of foul hooking. It is also critical that boaters in Florida’s waters keep a sharp lookout and operate at safe speeds to avoid hitting mantas and other sensitive marine life like manatees.
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The welfare of this South Florida juvenile manta ray population is critical as manta ray populations are declining around the world. Mantas suffer many additional threats, and their conservative reproductive strategy (females have only one pup approximately every two years) means that populations can decline rapidly and take many years to recover. Mantas feed on plankton by filtering it from the water using specialized structures called gill rakers. Their diet may make them particularly susceptible to plastic pollution as micro-plastic pollutants are of a similar size to their preferred food. Mantas are also illegally targeted in some parts of the world for those same gill rakers, which are used as an ingredient in traditional eastern medicines. Further manta populations suffer habitat loss from coastal development and impacts from climate change.
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The Giant Manta Ray, M. birostris, was recently upgraded to endangered by the IUCN and has been listed on the United States Endangered Species Act since 2018. Despite these listings conservation efforts are challenging for myriad reasons. In Florida, existing scientific data is still insufficient to understand how best to protect mantas. Juvenile manta rays are known to return to certain nearshore locations, as demonstrated by repeat sightings, but preliminary satellite tag data shows that they can also travel from Miami to Daytona and far offshore in-between sightings. These far ranging travels make it necessary to prioritize critical habitats for protections. Ongoing work by Jessica and her collaborators will seek to define where and how to best protect mantas.
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Another big surprise about manta ray habitat use in South Florida came from citizen scientist reports during the Covid-19 lockdowns of spring 2020. During this time, Jessica began receiving reports of manta rays feeding in murky inshore waterways, sometimes miles from ocean inlets. The FMP team had observed mantas swimming within ocean inlets prior to these reports, but the extent of their apparent inshore forays was a surprise. Imagine looking down from a Miami high-rise at a canal reinforced on both sides by cement sea walls and seeing a 10 foot manta ray feeding! Maybe you have? I personally suspect that this behavior is not new for these rays, but rather with so many people stuck at home bored during the lockdown more sightings were made.
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In the future, Jessica and her FMP team will continue working to understand the many remaining mysteries of Florida’s manta rays. She also plans to expand this work northward along the coast of Florida where large aggregations of adult rays are known to occur seasonally and to investigate if this population is related to the nearby juvenile one. Education and conservation work are also priorities. Continued outreach efforts, and new ones relating to fishing pressures that the central Florida population faces, will seek to mitigate anthropogenic impacts on these sensitive rays. Jessica has also developed elementary school level lesson plans for use in classrooms, which meet Florida and national science standards, to instill a love of the oceans and a conservation ethic in the next generation.
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National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s Coastal Cleanup Program Still Afloat\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D., NSTSTF Research Coordinator
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Over three decades ago, the founding members of the Foundation’s Board of Directors became very concerned with the seemingly ever-degrading condition of the natural environment in their beloved Florida Keys. They realized that they could make a real difference with tools at their disposal, and developed the idea into one of the most successful non-profit sea turtle-related conservation organizations in the world. Since then, the Foundation has maintained a number of donated boats for use in coastal cleanup projects from Broward County all the way through Key West. One of the Foundation’s primary goals is to make the best use of the donated vessels while they are temporarily owned by the Foundation. Currently, the Foundation maintains two research vessels, the Hawksbill I and Hawksbill II that are used for various projects that range from the Florida Hawksbill Project to FWC’s nesting surveys in the Marquesas Keys to hosting university-based game-fish research. Due primarily to covid-related restrictions last year, however, most of the hosted research projects were cancelled, so the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s Marine Operations Manager, Captain Mike Osborne, and his associate Captain Troy Phillips doubled-up on their efforts to collect trash and marine debris from the waters around Key West.
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The stuff they’ve found even within a short ride from the dock is simultaneously amazing and disheartening. They’ve collected tons (literally) of debris ranging from toothbrushes to lawn chairs, untold yards (probably miles) of fishing lines and ropes of all gauges and materials, and even helped a small Kemp’s Ridley turtle free itself from a big, tangled, garbage-filled drift net out in deep water. The hardest part of the job is sorting and disposing of the debris they bring back, but nonetheless Captains Mike and Troy separate out the recyclables, load them into their pickups and make sure the non-recyclables are disposed of properly. It is amazing how much difference a few hours can make, and we encourage all vessel operators to boat responsibly and do their part in the larger effort to keep Florida’s waterways clean. Photo on right: Captain Troy (left) and Captain Mike aboard the Hawksbill II with s small sample of the debris they’ve collected
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Sea Turtle Adventures Continues to Expand its Conservation Programming
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Jacquelyn Kingston, Executive Director
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Sea Turtle Adventures (STA) embarks on its 22nd year in 2021 monitoring local beaches in Palm Beach County for nesting sea turtles. The three-mile section of beach monitored by STA encompasses all of the Town of Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes, and a portion of Ocean Ridge. This section averages 900 nests annually and in 2021 reported a total of 740 nests and 623 false crawls. Although its total nest count was slightly less than average, leatherback nesting hit a new high with 19 nests (the previous record was 16 nests in 2009). Over 75% of all nests are inventoried by a team of hardworking permitted volunteers.
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During the hatching season, STA offers a popular and one-of-a-kind “Ride Along” program. Interested individuals hop on STA’s 5-seater ATV, equipped with cup holders and high powered fans and enjoy an ATV beach ride in route to sea turtle nests that are ready for inventory. Guests look on as the sea turtle monitor excavates the nest. Guests help record data and learn about sea turtles. From July through September 2020, STA offered 54 ride-alongs to families, groups of friends, and even a pair of Catholic nuns!
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In July 2020, STA worked successfully with a large condo in Town of Gulf Stream to retrofit its exterior lighting (see below). Palm Beach County and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC) were instrumental in helping STA interact with the condo association and identify the optimal lights for the building to not attract nearby sea turtles but also keep condo residents safe.
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Additional conservation efforts that occur year-round include our efforts to respond to calls of injured and dead sea turtles. With over a dozen rescues and salvage events in 2021, STA frequently works with Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) to coordinate transfer of injured sea turtles and weak hatchlings to their facilities. STA also assists with the rescue of injured seabirds and shorebirds and transports them to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary for treatment.
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STA also partners with LMC to help implement its Responsible Pier Initiative. Members of STA’s iCare Program (a nature based program for adults with special needs) are responsible for visiting 18 piers and fishing locations in Palm Beach County on a regular basis to collect used fishing line. The monofilament is then prepared for recycling before LMC ships it off to Berkley Fishing.
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STA recently finished its research and testing of more environmentally friendly materials to use as opposed to plastic for sea turtle nest signs. After evaluating over 25 materials (including edible plastic and waterproof paper) and field testing seven, STA concluded that .040-gauge aluminum stood superior. In April 2020, FFWCC polled all 122 Florida Marine Turtle Permit Holders and of the 50% who responded, 80% were interested in switching to a non-plastic sign. In 2021, STA will be deploying 5,000 aluminum sea turtle nesting signs to various permit holders throughout Florida as part of a pilot project to further test the durability and overall use of these signs compared to the traditional plastic nest signs. The aluminum signs are projected to have an 8-year life span compared to 2-3 years for the currently offered plastic signs. If you are interested in receiving aluminum signs to test out on your beach, contact Jacquelyn Kingston at
jkingston@seaturtleadventures.com.
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\r\n Insights from Keewaydin Island, II.
How Are Reproductively Superior Female\r\n Loggerheads Made?\r\n
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\r\n Mike Salmon, Research Professor, Florida Atlantic University\r\n
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\r\n There is no question that the way large creatures go about the business of reproduction\r\n is complicated and diverse, so much so that there seems to be no end to how the process\r\n is described. Biologists have tried over the years to come up with overarching\r\n “principles” based upon characteristic of the two main participants, specifically, males\r\n and females.\r\n
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\r\n Figure 3. Graph showing the variation in hatchling production that occurs among the\r\n nests at Keewaydin Island. On average, 67 hatchlings emerge from each nest but those\r\n numbers are vastly different for the least (red distribution) and most (blue\r\n distribution) successful females. (5)\r\n
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\r\n Darwin was the first to do so with competence. His distinctions were based upon both\r\n morphology and behavior. He characterized males as the sex most likely to possess\r\n specialized weaponry (e.g. horns, claws, teeth) used to compete aggressively with other\r\n males for access to females. A consequence was the increased likelihood of injuries and\r\n a shortened life span. But for males, “success” was measured by the number of matings,\r\n not by how long they lived! Left relatively unstudied until recently, however, was an\r\n understanding of the qualities serving as indicators of success among females.\r\n
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\r\n When Hoover examined the data, she found that clutch size (the number of eggs/nest)\r\n averaged 102 eggs per nest, but was highly variable among females (Figure 2). In\r\n addition, so was hatchling production (Figure 3). The 55 most successful females (the\r\n upper 17 % of the population) on average placed more eggs (118) in each nest than the 60\r\n least successful (bottom 17 % of) females, that placed 90 eggs in each nest. More\r\n hatchlings (mean of 93 turtles) emerged from the nests of the successful than the\r\n unsuccessful females (mean of 42 hatchlings; Figure 3). The two female groups, however,\r\n did not differ in remigration intervals (on average, 2 years), in where on the beach\r\n they placed their nests, or in their age and breeding experience. The most obvious\r\n difference was that the successful females were about 1.3 x larger than the unsuccessful\r\n females. That difference was important because larger females at Keewadin (and in\r\n loggerheads nesting elsewhere) produce larger clutches (1).\r\n
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\r\n Isotope Ratios and Female R.S.: Yakushima Island and the Refuge\r\n
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\r\n Two additional studies took advantage of a relatively new and important tool for\r\n identifying differences among females in r.s.: ratios between carbon and nitrogen\r\n isotopes. Those ratios reflect the nutritional value and abundance of prey where females\r\n feed during the remigration interval. The basic rule in isotope research is: you are\r\n what you eat! That means that the isotope ratios in small tissue samples (skin and\r\n blood) from females reflect the ratios present in the food they consumed so those ratios\r\n can be used to explore relationships between where females forage, what they eat and\r\n their r.s.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 3. Graph showing the variation in hatchling production that occurs among the\r\n nests at Keewaydin Island. On average, 67 hatchlings emerge from each nest but those\r\n numbers are vastly different for the least (red distribution) and most (blue\r\n distribution) successful females. (5)\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Smaller turtles fed on planktonic prey found in less productive oceanic sites whereas\r\n larger turtles fed on bottom-dwelling, nutritionally richer prey found in shallow\r\n coastal waters (Figure 4). However, and unlike the Keewaydin turtles, a similar\r\n proportion of the eggs placed in the nests of both groups developed into hatchlings that\r\n left the nest. There were also no differences between those hatchlings in either their\r\n growth rates or vigor, nor was there any evidence that the two groups of females\r\n differed genetically; they differed only in size and in choice of foraging location\r\n that, once made, didn’t change (3).\r\n
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\r\n Isotope analyses revealed that females nesting at the Refuge on Florida’s East Coast\r\n foraged at one of 4 locations: sites to the north of Cape Hatteras, in the Bahamas, in\r\n the Florida Keys, and in the shallows of the southeastern Gulf of Mexico (4). The most\r\n productive sites were northern and, as expected, the largest females nesting at the\r\n Refuge fed there. But contrary to expectations, those females produced clutches similar\r\n in size to the females feeding in the Bahamas and Florida Keys. The smallest clutches\r\n were produced by females foraging in the SE Gulf. That outcome may have resulted from\r\n the interaction costs associated with food availability and migration distance. Females\r\n feeding at northern sites and in the SE Gulf experienced high migratory costs as they\r\n swam longer distances than others to reach the refuge. But those costs for the northern\r\n females were probably tempered by their access to a rich food supply. The Gulf of Mexico\r\n females, however, fed where food quality was low and so experienced a combined negative\r\n migratory as well as foraging cost. And so while larger adult females have the potential\r\n to express greater r.s., whether that happens depends not only upon where she feeds, but\r\n also upon where she nests! (4)\r\n
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\r\n Those are now better appreciated and include remaining inconspicuous, avoiding conflict\r\n or danger whenever possible, using food to grow efficiently and producing as many\r\n quality offspring as possible over a long life span. Females, unlike males, also\r\n selected mates carefully using either direct benefits (nuptual gifts; prime territories\r\n or nesting sites; help defending and rearing offspring) or indirect benefits (attractive\r\n courtship displays that might be passed on to that female’s sons; dominance in contests\r\n with other males). Under yet other circumstances, females let males sort themselves\r\n though contests, then mated with the winner.\r\n
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\r\n In marine turtles, any benefits provided by males are indirect as after mating, males\r\n depart leaving females to select nesting sites and deposit clutches of eggs. Mating\r\n (Figure 1) occurs at sea, usually while females are migrating from their foraging sites\r\n to the nesting beach. Females, once receptive, do not appear to exert much mate choice;\r\n after mating with two or three males, they avoid additional suitors as overly zealous\r\n males, fighting with one another for matings, can inadvertently injure females.\r\n Biologists studying female reproductive success (r.s.) were thus forced to shift focus\r\n to more relevant and obvious variables: (i) the number of eggs she deposits in her\r\n nests; (ii) the proportion of those eggs that develop into hatchlings that enter the\r\n sea; and (iii) the number of years she takes to accumulate enough energy to nest again\r\n (the “remigration interval”). Studies done at two sites in Florida (Keewaydin Island;\r\n the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge [hereafter, the Refuge]), and at Yakushima\r\n Island, Japan, have begun to illuminate what it takes to be a “superior” female. Most\r\n surprising, it appears that chance events during earlier development play a dominant\r\n role in determining a female’s r.s. years later, once she achieves sexual maturity.\r\n
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\r\n Female Reproductive Success at Keewaydin Island.\r\n
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\r\n As a graduate student at Florida Atlantic University, Shelby Hoover took on the\r\n formidable task of analyzing 33 years of data (1986 - 2018) obtained from the loggerhead\r\n nesting beach at Keewaydin Island on the West Coast of Florida. Each summer, most of the\r\n nesting females are tagged so they can be identified when they return, years later.\r\n Their nests are also monitored to determine how many hatchlings ultimately enter the\r\n sea.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 2. Graph showing the distribution of clutch sizes in nest deposited by females at\r\n Keewaydin Island. Nests on average contain 102 eggs but clutch size shows lots of\r\n variation. (5)\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Other studies, in which female movements have been tracked using satellite telemetry,\r\n have established that they return with great fidelity to specific foraging sites. As one\r\n might expect, more productive females feed at sites where food is abundant and rich,\r\n whereas less productive females feed at sites where food is scarce or of lower\r\n nutritional value.\r\n
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\r\n We’ve also learned that once a female loggerhead reaches sexual maturity, she stops\r\n diverting energy to growth; instead, that energy is used to fuel migration from the\r\n foraging site to the nesting beach, and to produce hundreds of eggs. Thus, females\r\n achieving greater than average size do so while still immature, most likely because on\r\n average they also show strong fidelity to generally richer foraging sites than do other\r\n females. This leads to the conclusion that differences between females in size (and\r\n r.s.) are to a large extent the consequence of events that occur years before they reach\r\n sexual maturity. Recent studies done on turtles inhabiting the Pacific and Atlantic\r\n ocean basins reinforce these ideas.\r\n
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\r\n Pacific loggerheads usually nest in Japan. In studies done at Yakushima Island (2),\r\n females differed significantly in size and, as expected, smaller females (16 % of the\r\n nesting population) deposit fewer eggs in fewer nests/season than did larger females.\r\n Their remigration intervals were also longer (~ 4 years) than those of the larger\r\n females (~ 2 years). Isotope analyses revealed that both female groups showed strong\r\n fidelity to specific foraging areas.\r\n
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![\"\"]({CarbonRatio} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n Figure 4. Ratios of nitrogen to carbon found in tissue samples taken from loggerhead\r\n females nesting at Yakushima Island, Japan. Those ratios are lower at the less\r\n productive oceanic sites where the smaller females forage (open circles) and higher at\r\n the more productive coastal sites where the larger females forage (closed circles;\r\n modified from [2]).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Conclusions and Speculations\r\n
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\r\n Collectively, these studies reveal that female marine turtles vary from one another in r.s.\r\n and that this variation is strongly associated with how large they grow. Growth rates in all\r\n animals are determined by both genetics and environment. We raise loggerheads in our lab and\r\n commonly observe that hatchlings, even siblings from the same nest reared under identical\r\n conditions, grow at different rates. Those differences are manifestations of genetics. But\r\n the correlation between female size and her food supply is a consequence of the environment\r\n where she feeds. Thus, both genetics and environment shape how females grow.\r\n
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\r\n Unfortunately, we don’t know what processes are involved in the selection of foraging sites.\r\n Based upon presently available information, it appears that chance plays a major role. For\r\n example, juvenile loggerheads shift between foraging sites both seasonally, and as they\r\n grow. Those sites vary in productivity, every bit as much as those selected by adult turtles\r\n that do not shift foraging location over time. The obvious conclusion is that in a highly\r\n migratory species like a marine turtle, environmental factors that eventually determine a\r\n female’s r.s. are highly variable. How they might affect the development of any individual\r\n turtle can’t be predicted in advance of sexual maturity. At the same time, that uncertainty\r\n may explain why differences among females in r.s. persist. Natural selection can’t impose\r\n penalties on less productive females if the hatchlings they produce are, like those at\r\n Yakushima Island, as likely as those of more productive females to produce offspring with an\r\n equal potential for growth. (Thanks to Dave Addison and Samantha Trail for comments that\r\n improved the quality of this essay.)\r\n
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\r\n Further Reading and References\r\n
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\r\n (1) K. R. Phillips et al. 2021. Postnesting migration routes and fidelity to forging sites\r\n among loggerhead turtles in the western North Atlantic. Bulletin of Marine Science\r\n https://doi.org/ 10.5343/ bms.2019.0099.
(2) H. Hatase et al. 2013. A mechanism\r\n that maintains alternative life histories in a loggerhead sea turtle population. Ecology 94:\r\n 2583-2594
(3) H. Hatase et al. 2018. Effect of maternal foraging habitat on\r\n offspring quality in the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). Ecology and Evolution\r\n 8:3543–3555. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3938
(4) S. A. Ceriani et al. 2015.\r\n Carry-over effects and foraging ground dynamics of a major loggerhead breeding aggregation.\r\n Marine Biology 162(10):1955–1968. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00227-015-2721-x
(5) S.\r\n Hoover et al. 2019. Establishing baselines to identify the correlates of declining emergence\r\n success of loggerhead nests at Keewaydin Island, Florida, U.S.A. Poster presentation,\r\n International Conference on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. 4
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East Coast Biologists, Inc. Investigates How Young Loggerhead Turtles Use Artificial Reefs in Brevard County
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Karen Holloway-Adkins, Ph.D., East Coast Biologists, Inc.
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East Coast Biologists, Inc. (ECB) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2003, whose mission is to support scientific research and education for the benefit of preserving and maintaining natural resources for present and future generations.
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The greater part of our work is centered on marine research, specifically uncovering the movement, foraging behavior, and status of sea turtles. One of the greatest threats to the recovery of threatened and endangered sea turtle species is the loss of adequate habitat necessary for foraging, shelter, and refuge from predators. This is what pre-empted our study of sea turtles on nearshore reefs off the central east coast of Florida. During the first couple of decades, we primarily encountered juvenile green turtles in our main study area in Brevard County. We found that juvenile greens were using nearshore hardbottom reefs as developmental habitat (i.e., foraging on macroalgae and resting among narrow ledges in shallow water). We’ve captured >200 juvenile green turtles, examining their size, feeding habits, and condition. We also have tracked 30 of these green turtles using acoustic telemetry. So far, our research has uncovered that green turtles in this coastal area primarily forage on red macroalgae, they are free of fibropapilloma tumors (caused by the herpes-type virus fibropapillomatosis),
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and they remain in the area for months at a time, and, in some cases, return or remain for more than a year along these shallow reefs. In 2019, some interesting changes to the marine turtle composition began to occur in the Brevard County coastal waters. Previously, only 1 out of 100 marine turtles observed along the nearshore waters was a loggerhead sea turtle. However, when mitigation (or artificial) reefs were built just offshore in 15’ (~5m) water depth, loggerhead observations increased. These artificial reefs were built in advance of Brevard’s Beach Restoration project to offset anticipated impacts to intertidal and shallow subtidal (0-3m water depth) hardbottom reef habitat used by juvenile green turtles (see photos on facing page). While some of the loggerhead turtles we observed were adults resting along the mitigation reefs in summer during the mating and nesting season, others were subadult loggerhead turtles. We decided to investigate how these subadult loggerheads use these new reef areas - if they are foraging and resting in these areas – and for how long?
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Funding from National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation is supporting efforts by ECB to explore how these non-mature loggerhead turtles are using the artificial reefs. ECB researchers plan to collect skin and scute (thin layers of shell) tissue samples and place acoustic transmitters on several of these younger turtles.
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Analysis of the tissue samples will indicate what the turtles are foraging on and if the turtles are foraging locally. A regional array of acoustic receivers formed by the FACT (Florida Acoustic Coastal Telemetry) network will allow researchers to discover how long the turtles stay in the area and where they journey to after leaving Brevard County waters. It will be interesting to find out if the subadult loggerheads follow the same, or a different path, than adult turtles that we already know a lot more about from other researchers’ work. Information gained from ECB’s study will help state and federal agencies better understand how effective mitigation reef habitats are at providing necessary feeding and resting areas for marine turtles.
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*Marine turtle research activities are approved through appropriate permits from NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission permitting agencies.
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\tThe Effects of Warming Temperatures on Olive Ridley Sea Turtle Hatchlings
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Conner Sharrow & Alannah Lofquist, NSTSTF Scholarship Recipients
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Our planet is growing warmer each year, with more animals starting to experience some strange side effects such as polar bears moving inland or the delayed southward migration of our beloved North American monarch butterfly. But there may be an even stranger effect felt on sea turtles across the globe. Studies are beginning to find that some sea turtle nesting sites are producing almost all female young!
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Unlike many organisms, sea turtles do not have sex-specific chromosomes that determine if the individual will become a male or female. Instead, it is almost all about the temperature the eggs incubate in. Warmer temperatures will produce more female offspring, while cooler temperatures will produce more males. Time spent above or below the species pivotal temperature (30.5°C in olive ridley sea turtles) is crucial in determining the offspring’s sex. A sea turtle hatchling is going to have a greater likelihood of becoming a female if the nest experiences temperatures above this pivotal temperature during the middle third of their development. More males are likely to be produced below that temperature.
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Understanding the full influence of temperature on whether an offspring will be male, or female, is often complicated due to the natural fluctuations of sand temperature, as well as the cooling effect of rainwater during storms. Furthermore, sea turtle embryos will begin to produce metabolic heat toward the end of development, and this collectively increases the temperature inside the nest.
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Sand temperatures on some sea turtle nesting beaches are now reaching temperatures that approach, or exceed, the upper lethal temperature that developing embryos can tolerate (35°C in olive ridleys). Eggs incubating near this temperature has a higher likelihood of developmental problems and even mortality. So it is no surprise that many sea turtle biologists are concerned that climate change may lead to beach temperatures increasing 2 or 3 degrees by the end of this century. Even in places where temperatures do not reach the upper limit, increasing temperatures may result the production of more females. Scientists are not sure what the population impacts will be of a highly skewed sex ratio, but it may reduce reproductive success and individual fitness of the females.
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Researchers have documented warming temperatures on many sea turtle nesting beaches across the globe. However, very little is known about the beach temperatures in West Africa where its shoreline supports nesting populations of five sea turtle species (olive ridley, leatherback, green, loggerhead, hawksbill). To help fill this gap of knowledge, we explored the temperatures of olive ridley nests in Ghana, West Africa. To measure nest temperatures, temperature data loggers were placed into the nest chamber after the mother laid 50 eggs. The mother would then finish the nest as the second temperature logger was buried at the same depth, 2 meters east/west of the nest location. This ensured the data logger in the sand was the same distance from the high-tide line as the one in the nest. This allowed us to measure the temperature of the nest core and compare it to just the sand (control). We could then document the beginning of metabolic heat production in the embryos at the point when the nest temperature began to exceed that of the sand temperature. We recorded temperatures from seven nests throughout the olive ridley nesting season in Ghana between September 2020 to January 2021.
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A female Olive Ridley returns to the ocean after nesting. Photo: Rod Mast; S.W.O.T.
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As expected, the nest temperatures consistently exceeded the pivotal temperature of olive ridleys, indicating these nests were likely producing more females than males. Most of the nesting activity takes place during Ghana’s dry season, so we expected these high temperatures since Ghana is a tropical nation positioned near the equator
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Our study suggests there is a strong female-biased sex ratio for olive ridley nests in Ghana, which is fundamentally important for providing a historical reference in anticipation of temperature increases due to climate change. As more beach temperatures are recorded, it will be important to carefully document changes in nesting patterns that may suggest behavioral responses to increasing temperatures. For example, more individuals may begin nesting in the wet season when the rain keeps the sand temperatures cooler. We also need to explore nest success to document any loss of hatchling production due to increasing sand temperatures.
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This scholarship allowed us to participate in vital sea turtle research that will inform conservation efforts for sea turtles nesting throughout the tropics. We very much appreciate the support from the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation because we would not have been able to do this work without them.
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Legendary Sargasso Sea May Be Sea Turtles’ Destination During Mysterious ‘Lost Years’
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A new study is helping solve the mystery of where sea turtles go during their “lost years” and\r\n will inform conservation efforts to protect the threatened animals.
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New research indicates that the legendary Sargasso Sea, which includes part of the Bermuda Triangle and has long featured in fiction as a place where ships go derelict, may actually be an important nursery habitat for young sea turtles. In a study led by a University of Central Florida researcher and published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers presented evidence of baby green sea turtles arriving at the Sargasso Sea after entering the ocean off the east coast of Florida.
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The study was the first time that green sea turtles have been tracked during their early “lost years,” which is defined as the time between hatching from their nests along Florida’s Atlantic coast and heading into the ocean and their “teenage years,” when they return to coastal habitats after several years in the open ocean. Not much is known about where sea turtles go during these years, which is where the “lost years” description comes from. The new findings echo the team’s previous research that showed baby loggerhead sea turtles arrive at the Sargasso Sea. The results are helping to solve the mystery of where the turtles go and will also inform efforts to conserve the threatened animals, especially during their delicate first years at sea. Florida’s Atlantic coastline is a major nesting area for green and loggerhead sea turtles, which are iconic species in conservation efforts and important for their role in helping maintain ocean ecosystems, says UCF Biology Associate Professor Kate Mansfield, who led the study in collaboration with Jeanette Wyneken at Florida Atlantic University.
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Scientists have long assumed that after hatching and going into the ocean, baby sea turtles would passively drift in sea currents, such as those circulating around the Atlantic Ocean, and ride those currents until their later juvenile years. “That green turtles and loggerheads would continue in the currents, but that some might leave the currents and go into the Sargasso Sea was not ever considered or predicted by long-held hypotheses and the assumptions in the field,” Mansfield says. “We found that the green turtles actively oriented to go into the Sargasso Sea and in even greater numbers than the loggerheads tracked in our earlier work. Granted, our sample sizes aren’t huge, but enough turtles made this journey that it really throws into question our long-held beliefs about the early lives of sea turtles.”
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The Sargasso Sea, located off the east coast of the U.S. in the North Atlantic Ocean, has often been featured in popular culture, such as in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, as a place where ships could become derelict when trying to travel through thick mats of the floating, brown, Sargassum algae for which it is named.
\r\n The researchers were able to track the turtles by attaching advanced, solar-powered tracking devices, about an inch in length, to their shells. This also required determining the optimum adhesive for applying the sensor, which was different for the green sea turtles than for loggerheads because of the greens’ waxier-feeling shells. The tracking device is designed to fall off after a few months and does not hurt the turtles or inhibit the turtles’ shell growth or behavior, Mansfield says.
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ceanic stage green sea turtle released with solar-powered satellite tag in Sargassum habitat. Permit number NMFS-19508. Photo credit: Gustavo\r\n Stahelin, UCF MTRG
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In the current study, 21 green sea turtles less than a year old, had transmitters affixed and were released into the Gulf Stream ocean currents about 10 miles offshore from the beach where they were born. The turtle release dates were from 2012 to 2013, and the researchers were able to track the turtles for up to 152 days. Of the 21 turtles, 14 departed the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic gyre of circulating currents and entered the western or northern Sargasso Sea region in the western Atlantic Ocean, according to the study. This is compared to seven out of 17 loggerhead turtles that left the Gulf Stream and entered the Sargasso Sea in the previous study.
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Wyneken, a professor of biological sciences and director of Florida Atlantic University’s Marine Science Laboratory at Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex, worked with Mansfield to collect, raise, tag and release the turtles.She says the research is important because it sheds light on where the baby turtles go during a delicate period in their lives. “These studies in which we learn where little sea turtles go to start growing up are fundamental to sound sea turtle conservation,” Wyneken says. “If we don’t know where they are and what parts of the ocean are important to them, we are doing conservation blindfolded.”
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Jiangang Luo, PhD, a scientist with the Tarpon Bonefish Research Center at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and study co-author, has a background in mathematical biology, oceanography and advanced scientific data visualization. As part of the research team, he helped process and analyze the data and graphed and animated the results. “It feels great to see how the little turtles are traveling and utilizing the ocean,” Luo says. “The ocean is our future, and we must have the ocean to save the sea turtles.”
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The Sargasso Sea Commission, which works as a steward for the area with support from multiple governments and collaborating partners, will use data from the research as part of its upcoming ecosystem diagnostic project, says the commission’s Programme Manager Teresa Mackey. The project will quantify threats and their potential impact on the Sargasso Sea, including climate change, plastics pollution and commercial activities, as well as investigate ways to counter challenges the area faces and establish a baseline for ongoing monitoring and adaptive management. “Dr. Mansfield’s research into the critical habitat that this area provides for turtles early in their life cycle gives concrete evidence of the importance of the Sargasso Sea for endangered and critically endangered species and is one of the many reasons why conservation of this high-seas ecosystem is vitally important for marine biodiversity,” Mackey says.
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UCF’s Marine Turtle Research Group, which Mansfield directs, has been one of the commission’s collaborators since 2017.\r\n Mansfield says next steps for the “lost years” research will include looking more closely at differences in orientation and swimming behavior between turtle species, understanding the role Sargassum plays in early sea turtle development, and testing newer, smaller, and more accurate tracking devices to learn more about the places the baby turtles go and how they interact with their environment. The research was funded largely through the Florida Sea Turtle Specialty License Plate grants program, Disney Conservation Fund and the Save Our Seas Foundation. Mansfield received her doctorate in marine science from William & Mary University’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science. She joined UCF’s Department of Biology, part of UCF’s College of Sciences, in 2013. In addition to directing UCF’s Marine Turtle Research Group, Mansfield is a member of UCF’s Sustainable Coastal Systems cluster and National Center for Integrated Coastal Research. For the latest updates and to learn more about UCF’s Marine Turtle Research Group, follow them at @UCFTurtleLab on Twitter and Instagram.
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Reprinted with permission from UCF TODAY, May 5 2021, Copyright University of Central Florida
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Insights from Keewaydin Island, II. How Are\r\n Reproductively Superior Female Loggerheads Made?\r\n
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Mike Salmon, Research Professor, Florida Atlantic University
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There is no question that the way large creatures go about the business of reproduction is complicated and diverse, so much so that there seems to be no end to how the process is described. Biologists have tried over the years to come up with overarching “principles” based upon characteristic of the two main participants, specifically, males and females.
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Figure 1. A mating scene in which a female loggerhead is courted by two males, only one of which (clinging to her shell) is mating with her. The second (top) male will periodically attempt to dislodge the male below him, and then also try to inseminate the female
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Darwin was the first to do so with competence. His distinctions were based upon both morphology and behavior. He characterized males as the sex most likely to possess specialized weaponry (e.g. horns, claws, teeth) used to compete aggressively with other males for access to females. A consequence was the increased likelihood of injuries and a shortened life span. But for males, “success” was measured by the number of matings, not by how long they lived! Left relatively unstudied until recently, however, was an understanding of the qualities serving as indicators of success among females.
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Those are now better appreciated and include remaining inconspicuous, avoiding conflict or danger whenever possible, using food to grow efficiently and producing as many quality offspring as possible over a long life span. Females, unlike males, also selected mates carefully using either direct benefits (nuptual gifts; prime territories or nesting sites; help defending and rearing offspring) or indirect benefits (attractive courtship displays that might be passed on to that female’s sons; dominance in contests with other males). Under yet other circumstances, females let males sort themselves though contests, then mated with the winner.
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In marine turtles, any benefits provided by males are indirect as after mating, males depart leaving females to select nesting sites and deposit clutches of eggs. Mating (Figure 1) occurs at sea, usually while females are migrating from their foraging sites to the nesting beach. Females, once receptive, do not appear to exert much mate choice; after mating with two or three males, they avoid additional suitors as overly zealous males, fighting with one another for matings, can inadvertently injure females. Biologists studying female reproductive success (r.s.) were thus forced to shift focus to more relevant and obvious variables: (i) the number of eggs she deposits in her nests; (ii) the proportion of those eggs that develop into hatchlings that enter the sea; and (iii) the number of years she takes to accumulate enough energy to nest again (the “remigration interval”). Studies done at two sites in Florida (Keewaydin Island; the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge [hereafter, the Refuge]), and at Yakushima Island, Japan, have begun to illuminate what it takes to be a “superior” female. Most surprising, it appears that chance events during earlier development play a dominant role in determining a female’s r.s. years later, once she achieves sexual maturity.
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Female Reproductive Success at Keewaydin Island.
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As a graduate student at Florida Atlantic University, Shelby Hoover took on the formidable task of analyzing 33 years of data (1986 - 2018) obtained from the loggerhead nesting beach at Keewaydin Island on the West Coast of Florida. Each summer, most of the nesting females are tagged so they can be identified when they return, years later. Their nests are also monitored to determine how many hatchlings ultimately enter the sea.
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When Hoover examined the data, she found that clutch size (the number of eggs/nest) averaged 102 eggs per nest, but was highly variable among females (Figure 2). In addition, so was hatchling production (Figure 3). The 55 most successful females (the upper 17 % of the population) on average placed more eggs (118) in each nest than the 60 least successful (bottom 17 % of) females, that placed 90 eggs in each nest. More hatchlings (mean of 93 turtles) emerged from the nests of the successful than the unsuccessful females (mean of 42 hatchlings; Figure 3). The two female groups, however, did not differ in remigration intervals (on average, 2 years), in where on the beach they placed their nests, or in their age and breeding experience. The most obvious difference was that the successful females were about 1.3 x larger than the unsuccessful females. That difference was important because larger females at Keewadin (and in loggerheads nesting elsewhere) produce larger clutches (1).
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Isotope Ratios and Female R.S.: Yakushima Island and the Refuge
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Two additional studies took advantage of a relatively new and important tool for identifying differences among females in r.s.: ratios between carbon and nitrogen isotopes. Those ratios reflect the nutritional value and abundance of prey where females feed during the remigration interval. The basic rule in isotope research is: you are what you eat! That means that the isotope ratios in small tissue samples (skin and blood) from females reflect the ratios present in the food they consumed so those ratios can be used to explore relationships between where females forage, what they eat and their r.s.
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Figure 3. Graph showing the variation in hatchling production that occurs among the nests at Keewaydin Island. On average, 67 hatchlings emerge from each nest but those numbers are vastly different for the least (red distribution) and most (blue distribution) successful females. (5)
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Figure 2. Graph showing the distribution of clutch sizes in nest deposited by females at Keewaydin Island. Nests on average contain 102 eggs but clutch size shows lots of variation. (5)
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Other studies, in which female movements have been tracked using satellite telemetry, have established that they return with great fidelity to specific foraging sites. As one might expect, more productive females feed at sites where food is abundant and rich, whereas less productive females feed at sites where food is scarce or of lower nutritional value.
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We’ve also learned that once a female loggerhead reaches sexual maturity, she stops diverting energy to growth; instead, that energy is used to fuel migration from the foraging site to the nesting beach, and to produce hundreds of eggs. Thus, females achieving greater than average size do so while still immature, most likely because on average they also show strong fidelity to generally richer foraging sites than do other females. This leads to the conclusion that differences between females in size (and r.s.) are to a large extent the consequence of events that occur years before they reach sexual maturity. Recent studies done on turtles inhabiting the Pacific and Atlantic ocean basins reinforce these ideas.
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Pacific loggerheads usually nest in Japan. In studies done at Yakushima Island (2), females differed significantly in size and, as expected, smaller females (16 % of the nesting population) deposit fewer eggs in fewer nests/season than did larger females. Their remigration intervals were also longer (~ 4 years) than those of the larger females (~ 2 years). Isotope analyses revealed that both female groups showed strong fidelity to specific foraging areas.
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Figure 4. Ratios of nitrogen to carbon found in tissue samples taken from
loggerhead females\r\n nesting at Yakushima Island, Japan.
Those ratios are lower at the less productive oceanic sites\r\n where the smaller females
forage (open circles)and higher at the more productive coastal sites\r\n where
the larger females forage (closed circles; modified from [2]).
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Smaller turtles fed on planktonic prey found in less productive oceanic sites whereas larger turtles fed on bottom-dwelling, nutritionally richer prey found in shallow coastal waters (Figure 4). However, and unlike the Keewaydin turtles, a similar proportion of the eggs placed in the nests of both groups developed into hatchlings that left the nest. There were also no differences between those hatchlings in either their growth rates or vigor, nor was there any evidence that the two groups of females differed genetically; they differed only in size and in choice of foraging location that, once made, didn’t change (3).
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Isotope analyses revealed that females nesting at the Refuge on Florida’s East Coast foraged at one of 4 locations: sites to the north of Cape Hatteras, in the Bahamas, in the Florida Keys, and in the shallows of the southeastern Gulf of Mexico (4). The most productive sites were northern and, as expected, the largest females nesting at the Refuge fed there. But contrary to expectations, those females produced clutches similar in size to the females feeding in the Bahamas and Florida Keys. The smallest clutches were produced by females foraging in the SE Gulf. That outcome may have resulted from the interaction costs associated with food availability and migration distance. Females feeding at northern sites and in the SE Gulf experienced high migratory costs as they swam longer distances than others to reach the refuge. But those costs for the northern females were probably tempered by their access to a rich food supply. The Gulf of Mexico females, however, fed where food quality was low and so experienced a combined negative migratory as well as foraging cost. And so while larger adult females have the potential to express greater r.s., whether that happens depends not only upon where she feeds, but also upon where she nests! (4)
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Conclusions and Speculations
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Collectively, these studies reveal that female marine turtles vary from one another in r.s. and that this variation is strongly associated with how large they grow. Growth rates in all animals are determined by both genetics and environment. We raise loggerheads in our lab and commonly observe that hatchlings, even siblings from the same nest reared under identical conditions, grow at different rates. Those differences are manifestations of genetics. But the correlation between female size and her food supply is a consequence of the environment where she feeds. Thus, both genetics and environment shape how females grow.
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Unfortunately, we don’t know what processes are involved in the selection of foraging sites. Based upon presently available information, it appears that chance plays a major role. For example, juvenile loggerheads shift between foraging sites both seasonally, and as they grow. Those sites vary in productivity, every bit as much as those selected by adult turtles that do not shift foraging location over time. The obvious conclusion is that in a highly migratory species like a marine turtle, environmental factors that eventually determine a female’s r.s. are highly variable. How they might affect the development of any individual turtle can’t be predicted in advance of sexual maturity. At the same time, that uncertainty may explain why differences among females in r.s. persist. Natural selection can’t impose penalties on less productive females if the hatchlings they produce are, like those at Yakushima Island, as likely as those of more productive females to produce offspring with an equal potential for growth. (Thanks to Dave Addison and Samantha Trail for comments that improved the quality of this essay.)
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Further Reading and References
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(1) K. R. Phillips et al. 2021. Postnesting migration routes and fidelity to forging sites among loggerhead turtles in the western North Atlantic. Bulletin of Marine Science https://doi.org/ 10.5343/ bms.2019.0099.
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(2) H. Hatase et al. 2013. A mechanism that maintains alternative life histories in a loggerhead sea turtle population. Ecology 94: 2583-2594
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(3) H. Hatase et al. 2018. Effect of maternal foraging habitat on offspring quality in the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). Ecology and Evolution 8:3543–3555. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3938
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(4) S. A. Ceriani et al. 2015. Carry-over effects and foraging ground dynamics of a major loggerhead breeding aggregation. Marine Biology 162(10):1955–1968. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00227-015-2721-x
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(5) S. Hoover et al. 2019. Establishing baselines to identify the correlates of declining emergence success of loggerhead nests at Keewaydin Island, Florida, U.S.A. Poster presentation, International Conference on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. 4
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Navigating Conservation Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic\r\n
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Rebecca Mott, Inwater Research Group, Inc.
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With COVID taking full effect during the spring semester of 2020, Inwater Research Group’s (IRG) programs came to a halt almost immediately. Without the hands-on components to our award-winning trunk program, we feared the semester would leave students without access to marine conservation tools. As some of you know, our traveling trunk programs are wheeled trunks that house 4 weeks’ worth of hands-on learning materials for teachers and students. Teachers may borrow these trunks for free and provide lessons that are built to put students into first-hand roles of real marine biologists.
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Traveling Turtles, our flagship trunk program, is an excellent introduction to the sea turtles of Florida. Students learn about what makes a sea turtle a sea turtle as well as nesting habits, how to sample a population like real scientists, and how to collect data from their very own sea turtle model. Darker Skies, Darker Beaches, our second trunk program, teaches students about the impacts coastal lighting can have on sea turtle nesting. Students learn all about sea turtle biology, forms of energy, what makes a circuit, and how to create sea turtle-friendly lighting. Activities include: Hands-on stations, an interactive Power Point presentation with games, creating a circuit and testing conductors/insulators, using the Engineering Design Process to develop and implement a turtle-friendly light fixture, and assessing their schools’ lighting.
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With such hands-on trunk programs, we had to get creative and develop ways to convert our lessons to those that followed CDC guidelines. All lessons were digitized and the entire curriculum became adaptable for both social distance and virtual learning. This aided teachers who struggled to find teaching tools they could use with their students in the classrooms as well as those tuning in from home.
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In addition to our local trunk programs, IRG operates a statewide initiative (Traveling Trunks of Florida) that allows partners such as zoos, school districts, and nature centers to purchase our trunk programs and run them as their own. While the number of students reached was lower due to the pandemic, the initiative still provided a valuable resource to schools across the state of Florida. In fact, even during the pandemic, we were still receiving orders for more trunks. As of now, our trunks are in (or have orders in to be made) 21 school districts, with 20 partner organizations, totaling 54 trunks in the state of Florida. Organizations such as NOAA, The Nature Conservancy, The Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County, and various school districts are just a few of our partners.
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With so many students, parents, and teachers at a loss for resources during the pandemic, IRG saw an opportunity to become a hub of online resources that would be housed on our website. We reached out to national and international organizations to participate and share their virtual/digital programs on our platform. All resources must be free to be eligible. Our website now hosts over 40 partner organization resources with links to content, so teachers and parents have a place to go to access science/conservation-based materials.
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In addition to converting our trunks and creating a hub of resources online, IRG also joined the FlipGrid team to provide a digital tool for students to interact with real scientists from our organization. FlipGrid is an app that connects young learners with both educators and other students all over the world! We created a platform with videos of scientists discussing popular sea turtle topics that also align with statewide curriculum. Students can access the platform at home or in school and join the dialogue, sharing videos of them answering questions and conversing on the topic. While the pandemic has been a trying time for all of us, it has also given us the opportunity to flex creativity and find new outlets and avenues to reach students. We are hopeful the 2021-22 school year will bring normalcy back to our programming but if not…we are ready to adapt and do what it takes to continue to build the next generation of responsible environmental stewards.
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With the world beginning to open up once again, we’re gearing up for a very busy year! Combining forces with our research team, we’ll be hosting professional development (PD) experiences for teachers across the State. These PD days include a classroom workshop where teachers learn to use our trunk programs so they can share them with their students. Coupled with a day out in the field working with our researchers to catch and “work up” turtles in their own local waterways (see photo facing page), these PDs are sure to be a hit!
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In addition to all the trunks being created for partners across the State, our model turtles utilized in the trunks are getting a major makeover. For years, the only models available were anatomically incorrect and unrealistic. However, we have made big strides in updating our programs to remedy this. Working with stateside manufacturers, we are fabricating our own model turtles that are based on one of IRG’s research turtles caught back in 2020. This juvenile green turtle will now be a part of education programs across the State, making for the most authentic experience we can offer.
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In the field of sea turtle conservation, it can be hard to share data with the public. Many of us are biologists who don’t know much about speaking to groups of various ages, backgrounds, and/or learning levels. We apply for permits, work with turtles, collect data, and write reports, but then what? How do we, as scientists, find ways to share our conservation message with others outside of our industry?
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IRG is working on a publication that will focus on how scientists perceive education, what they consider effective modes of education, and what they, themselves, are doing to foster education. This publication will be pave the way for scientists and educators to collaborate on projects that combine both science and education. It will empower researchers in our field to take on the role of educator to better promote their work as well as conservation as a whole. IRG greatly appreciates the strong support of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation to make these programs possible!
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Sargassum Now World’s Largest Harmful Algal Bloom Due to Nitrogen\r\n\r\n
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Gisele Galoustian
\r\n Florida Atlantic University
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For centuries, pelagic Sargassum, floating brown seaweed, have grown in low nutrient waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, supported by natural nutrient sources like excretions from fishes and invertebrates, upwelling, and nitrogen fixation. Using a unique historical baseline from the 1980s and comparing it to samples collected since 2010, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and collaborators have discovered dramatic changes in the chemistry and composition of Sargassum, transforming this vibrant living organism into a toxic “dead zone.”
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A photo taken this month shows Sargassum piled up on a beach in Palm Beach County, Florida. (Photo credit: Brian Lapointe, Ph.D.)
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Their findings, published in Nature Communications, suggest that increased nitrogen availability from natural and anthropogenic sources, including sewage, is supporting blooms of Sargassum and turning a critical nursery habitat into harmful algal blooms with catastrophic impacts on coastal ecosystems, economies, and human health. Globally, harmful algal blooms are related to increased nutrient pollution. The study, led by FAU Harbor Branch, in collaboration with the University of South Florida, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Florida State University, was designed to better understand the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus supply on Sargassum. Researchers used a baseline tissue data set of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and molar C:N:P ratios from the 1980s and compared them with more recent samples collected since 2010.\r\n
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Results show that the percentage of tissue N increased significantly (35 percent) concurrent with a decrease in the percentage of phosphorus (42 percent) in Sargassum tissue from the 1980s to the 2010s. Elemental composition varied significantly over the long-term study, as did the C:N:P ratios. Notably, the biggest change was the nitrogen:phosphorus ratio (N:P), which increased significantly (111 percent). Carbon:phosphorus ratios (C:P) also increased similarly (78 percent). “Data from our study supports not only a primary role for phosphorus limitation of productivity, but also suggests that the role of phosphorus as a limiting nutrient is being strengthened by the relatively large increases in environmental nitrogen supply from terrestrial runoff, atmospheric inputs, and possibly other natural sources such as nitrogen fixation,” said Brian Lapointe, Ph.D., senior author, a leading expert on Sargassum and a research professor at FAU Harbor Branch.
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A total of 488 tissue samples of Sargassum were collected during various research projects and cruises in the North Atlantic basin between 1983-1989 and more recently between 2010-2019, and included seasonal sampling offshore Looe Key reef in the lower Florida Keys (1983 and 1984) and a broader geographic sampling (1986 and 1987) offshore the Florida Keys, Gulf Stream (Miami, Charleston and Cape Fear), and Belize, Central America. Oceanic stations included the northern, central and southern Sargasso Sea. The highest percentage of tissue N occurred in coastal waters influenced by nitrogen-rich terrestrial runoff, while lower C:N and C:P ratios occurred in winter and spring during peak river discharges. The overall range for N:P ratios was 4.7 to 99.2 with the highest mean value in western Florida Bay (89.4) followed by locations in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. The lowest N:P ratios were observed in the eastern Caribbean at St. Thomas (20.9) and Barbados (13.0).
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Because of anthropogenic emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), the NOx deposition rate is about five-fold greater than that of pre-industrial times largely due to energy production and biomass burning. Production of synthetic fertilizer nitrogen has increased nine-fold, while that of phosphate has increased three-fold since the 1980s contributing to a global increase in N:P ratios. Notably, 85 percent of all synthetic nitrogen fertilizers have been created since 1985, which was shortly after the baseline Sargassum sampling began at Looe Key in 1983. “Over its broad distribution, the newly-formed Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt can be supported by nitrogen and phosphorus inputs from a variety of sources including discharges from the Congo, Amazon and Mississippi rivers, upwelling off the coast of Africa, vertical mixing, equatorial upwelling, atmospheric deposition from Saharan dust, and biomass burning of vegetation in central and South Africa,” said Lapointe.\r\n
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Long-term satellite data, numerical particle-tracking models, and field measurements indicate that the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has recurred annually since 2011 and extended up to 8,850 kilometers from the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, peaking in July 2018. “Considering the negative effects that the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is having on the coastal communities of Africa, the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and South Florida, more research is urgently needed to better inform societal decision-making regarding mitigation and adaptation of the various terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric drivers of the Sargassum blooms,” said Lapointe.
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Sargassum removal from Texas beaches during earlier, less severe inundations was estimated at $2.9 million per year and Florida’s Miami-Dade County alone estimated recent removal expenses of $45 million per year. The Caribbean-wide clean-up in 2018 cost $120 million, which does not include decreased revenues from lost tourism. Sargassum strandings also impact marine life and cause respiratory issues from the decaying process and other human health concerns, such as increased fecal bacteria. “Human activities have greatly altered global carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles, and nitrogen inputs are considered now ‘high risk’ and above a safe planetary boundary,” said Lapointe. “Based on scientific research, population growth and land-use changes have increased nitrogen pollution and degradation of estuaries and coastal waters since at least the 1950s. Despite decreases in nitrogen loading in some coastal watersheds, N:P ratios remain elevated in many rivers compared to historic values. The trend toward higher N:P ratios in the major rivers in the Atlantic basin parallel the increased N:P ratios we now see in Sargasum.”
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Study co-authors are Rachel Brewton, a research coordinator, and Laura Herren, a research biologist, both at FAU Harbor Branch; Chuanmin Hu, Ph.D., a professor of optical oceanography, University of South Florida; Mengqui Wang, Ph.D., a post-doctoral researcher in the College of Marine Science, University of South Florida; Dennis McGillicuddy, Jr., Ph.D., senior scientist and department chair of applied ocean physics and engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Scott Lindell, a research specialist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Frank J. Hernandez, Ph.D., an assistant professor, Division of Coastal Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi; and Peter Morton, Ph.D., Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University.
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This research was funded by the U.S. NASA Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program (NNX14AL98G, NNX16AR74G) and Ecological Forecast Program (NNX17AE57G), NOAA RESTORE Science Program (NA17NOS4510099), National Science Foundation (NSF-OCE 85–701 15492 and OCE 88–12055) and a Red Wright Fellowship from the Bermuda Biological Station.
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St. Croix Turtle Project
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2021 PROJECT SUMMARY
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\r\n \r\n B Y K E L L Y S T E W A R T , P R O J E C T D I R E C T O R\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Although green and hawksbill sea turtles nest all year round at Sandy Point, our\r\n intensive research starts in March, with the arrival of the leatherbacks. These 900 lb\r\n mommas have traveled long distances to return home for nesting. This year we encountered\r\n 27 individual nesters, with the oldest one being Rosie, who was first tagged back in\r\n 1999! She still carried the flipper tag she was given - PPQ244. She has nested over 50\r\n times at Sandy Point! She was adopted by Nancy Byrnes.\r\n
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LEATHERBACK
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98
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GREEN
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1,075
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HAWKSBILL
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230
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\r\n We saw many familiar turtle faces, including many of the turtles that our supporters\r\n have adopted. We also tagged 52 green turtles, and 9 hawksbills this year. The oldest\r\n green turtle was Happy (adopted by Sally Hewitt), first tagged in 2003 and the oldest\r\n hawksbill was Yesca from 2010 (adopted by the Grahams). In October and November, it's\r\n all about the hatchlings as our green and hawksbill nests are hatching!\r\n
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\r\n A popular addition to the refuge entrance was our sea turtle nest count sign. We updated\r\n it daily all year for our three sea turtle species!\r\n
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OUTREACH & EDUCATION
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\r\n \r\n B Y H A L E Y J A C K S O N , O U T R E A C H C O O R D I N A T O R\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Supporting the staff at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, we hosted a variety of\r\n outreach events and educational opportunities for the community of St. Croix. A focus on\r\n youth and children is a priority!\r\n
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\r\n We ran two beach cleanups during the summer, participating in the International Coastal\r\n Cleanup (Coastweeks). These events brought our volunteers and community members together\r\n to clean nearly 70 lbs of trash from St. Croix beaches! In 2022 please look out for more\r\n of these cleanup events at beaches around the island and at Sandy Point.\r\n
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\r\n Participants in the Sandy Point Sea Turtle Education Program received these fantastic\r\n educational worksheets. They were made by Haley Jackson (as her Duke University\r\n Master's thesis) to be specific to St. Croix. They are available free of charge to St.\r\n Croix schools and teachers courtesy of Sandy Point! To request copies for your\r\n classrooms, please email us! sandypoint.turtlewatch@gmail.com\r\n
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TRACKING LEATHERBACKS
\r\n \r\n A M A Z I N G T R A V E L S A R O U N D T H E C A R I B B E A N\r\n \r\n \r\n\r\n
\r\n In 2020, we began to satellite track leatherbacks, in collaboration with the New England\r\n Aquarium and Amigos de las Tortugas Marinas (ATMAR) in Maunabo, Puerto Rico. Our goal is to\r\n understand more about leatherback nesting site choices, as populations in the Caribbean have\r\n been declining. This work complements our genetics research looking at family relationships\r\n (moms and daughters) and survival and recruitment of the hatchlings. We can also figure out\r\n the dads from the genetic profiles and build extensive family trees for our leatherbacks!\r\n
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\r\n We have now tracked 11 leatherbacks on their journeys around the Caribbean and north to\r\n their foraging areas!\r\n
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\r\n One of the amazing tracks from 2021 was Spot. She nested three times in St. Croix, before\r\n heading off to Antigua, where she nested twice more. After that, she traveled to the Gulf of\r\n Mexico (off New Orleans), where she remained all summer into fall. Most of our leatherbacks\r\n head to Canadian waters, but not Spot! She's the first to venture to the Gulf!\r\n
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\r\n Three Sandy Point leatherbacks are still going.. Carol, Mona & Sunshine!\r\n
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\r\n You can see all the tracks of our satellite tagged leatherbacks online at STXTurtles.com,\r\n then go to Tracking. Maps are published live daily and are free to access. Sponsorships are\r\n welcome of course!\r\n
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VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT
\r\n Two of our amazing volunteers are Donna Boles (left) and Dante Trivett (right). They\r\n help with absolutely everything at Sandy Point! Experts at keeping an eye on the\r\n hawksbill population, they carefully record every crawl they come across.\r\n
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\r\n Donna's artistic contributions to the Frederiksted community and Dante's willingness to\r\n learn every aspect of resource management, make them incredibly valuable team members at\r\n the refuge!\r\n
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OUR MIGHTY VOLUNTEERS!
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\r\n Volunteers are an integral part of the sea turtle conservation work at Sandy Point! They\r\n spend many hours walking beaches identifying sea turtle crawls, assisting with\r\n educational programs, helping with maintenance projects around the refuge, and lending a\r\n hand whenever needed. In all, during 2021, volunteers spent over 1,500 hours patrolling\r\n Sandy Point and other St.\r\n
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Croix\r\n beaches, recording over 7,000 sea turtle activities! The work we do at Sandy Point would\r\n not be possible without their support.If you'd like to sign up to be notified of any\r\n volunteer opportunities that come up from time to time, please visit STXTurtles.com and\r\n click on the volunteer link!\r\n
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\r\n Thanks to our volunteers for their hard work and dedication!\r\n
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HATCHLINGS BY THE NUMBERS!
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\r\n Sandy Point is an incredible incubator! A whopping 152,105 sea turtle eggs were\r\n deposited this year. Total hatchlings: 108,471. By species below...\r\n
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LEATHERBACK 4,665
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HAWKSBILL 22,138
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Ph.D. student’s research will help protect sea turtles, marine communities\r\n
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Written by Contributing Writer
\r\n December 21, 2021
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It takes a lot of seagrass to support a healthy sea turtle population.
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What a healthy sea turtle population looks like, how many seagrasses they need to stay healthy, where are they eating and how much they eat are key questions FIU researchers are trying to answer as they look for insights into whether sea turtle conservation efforts are working.
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Boyd records data on juvenile green sea turtles.
Photo courtesy Liberty Boyd.
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Boyd holds a juvenile green sea turtle.
Photo courtesy Liberty Boyd.
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Boyd records data.
Photo courtesy Liberty Boyd.
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Liberty Boyd, a Ph.D. student in the FIU Institute of Environment's Heithaus Lab is looking for answers at the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas. Boyd is mapping the seagrass beds and measuring how quickly they regrow using drone footage and in-water surveys. She is also tagging sea turtles as part of a long-term mark and recapture project to understand how their populations have changed over time. Aerial drone surveys will tell her where sea turtles live and how many there are.
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The mostly juvenile green sea turtles at Cape Eleuthera eat seagrasses and grow significantly as they reach sexual maturity. Similar to cattle, sea turtles trim back seagrass growth, which helps more seagrasses grow back in place of what was eaten.
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Boyd's research, made possible by support from the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation, will provide the clearest evidence yet of what’s happening beneath the waves. The foundation’s support is also helping FIU create a hub for sea turtle research.
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“Studying the ecological impacts sea turtles have on marine habitats is what makes my work so interesting because with this knowledge we can better understand how to protect sea turtles and our marine communities,” Boyd said.
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In part because of the research conducted by the Institute of Environment, FIU was ranked the No. 3 public university in the U.S. and No. 11 in the world for SDG 14, Life Below Water, which measures universities’ research on life below water and their education on and support for aquatic ecosystems.
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How an undergraduate scholarship helped a marine biology alum start her research\r\n
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Written by Catherine Guinovart
\r\n December 16, 2021
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Undergraduate research fellowships at FIU are helping researchers uncover more information about the Sargassum that frequently fouls our beaches.
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Marine biology alumna Samantha Olszack, credits the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation for making her research — delayed by COVID-19 — possible.
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Olszack collects samples near the shore. Photo courtesy Samantha Olszack
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Olszack collects samples on the shore. Photo courtesy Samantha Olszack
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A view of the Sargassum landing at Dania Beach. Photo courtesy Samantha Olszack
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Olszak, who graduated from FIU in Fall 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in marine biology, finished her research on the floating macroalgae that washes ashore on Florida beaches in 2021 as a volunteer intern at FIU while simultaneously beginning graduate school at Nova Southeastern University.
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“I’m so grateful to the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation for their support of this project. I strongly felt this work needed to be followed through despite the challenges faced with COVID-19 and even after graduation,” Olszack said. “This project deals with real-world issues affecting the environment, wildlife, and sea turtles specifically.”
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Floating macroalgae serve as a refuge sheltering juvenile sea turtles and hatchlings from predators as they start their lives in the open ocean. On shore, Sargassum can pile up as much as 6 feet high, creating a barrier for female sea turtles searching for suitable nesting areas and hatchlings exiting their nests between May and October.
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Healthy sea turtle populations are critical to the protection of the world’s oceans. Turtles maintain seagrass and coral reef ecosystems, provide habitat for marine life, balance marine food webs and help cycle nutrients from water to land.
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Olszack’s undergraduate research focused on another important threat posed by Sargassum: when it decomposes, Sargassum may leach toxic chemicals such as arsenic into the sand. This poses a threat to not only human health but to sea turtle eggs and hatchlings, too.
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Sargassum accumulations had a big impact in 2011 because of an extreme anomaly of the North Atlantic Oscillation in 2010 that created the perfect conditions for Sargassum to grow in an area called “The Great Belt” between South America and Africa. Sargassum that is dislodged from this area usually washes ashore in the Caribbean and in South Florida.
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Samantha Olszack presents her research
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\r\n Photo courtesy Samantha Olszack
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“This is the largest bloom of macroalgae in the world and it’s here to stay,” said FIU Biological Sciences Department Associate Chair Ligia Collado-Vides, who was Olszak’s adviser. “Samantha’s work is critical because one of the big questions is ‘Can we use Sargassum as compost?’ But, we still have a lot to learn about its decomposition.”
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The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation has also funded other FIU research projects related to sea turtle conservation. In the last year, they have also funded student internships.
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Olszack collects samples near the shore with
\r\n her advisor, Ligia Collado Vides.
Photo courtesy:\r\n Samantha Olszack
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“FIU students are truly making a difference in the field of sea turtle research and conservation,” said National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation Research Coordinator Larry Wood. “We are excited to support them so that they can gain lifelong experience by using their knowledge and skills to study these gentle creatures.”
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Students and faculty at the Coastlines and Oceans Division of FIU’s Institute of Environment are leading efforts to better understand the role sea turtles play in ocean ecosystems.
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In part because of the research conducted by the Institute of Environment, FIU was ranked the No. 3 public university in the U.S. and No. 11 in the world for SDG 14, Life Below Water, which measures universities’ research on life below water and their education on and support for aquatic ecosystems. Freshwater, coastal and ocean initiatives are led by the FIU Institute of Environment.
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Can long-lasting Styrofoam boxes incubate sea turtle eggs?\r\n
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Written by Contributing Writer
\r\n September 28, 2021
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Two undergraduate students are helping conduct research to determine whether Styrofoam containers — long hated for their difficulty in recycling — can actually help incubate sea turtle eggs.
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The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation scholars at FIU, political science and biology major Jose Bisbe-Ochoa and marine biology major Maria Clara Figueredo, spent the summer in Sayulita, Mexico working with The Science Exchange to find out.
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Bisbe-Ochoa records data on sea turtle eggs. Photo courtesy Figueredo and Bisbe-Ochoa
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Figueredo and Bisbe-Ochoa observe eggs in Styrofoam boxes. Photo courtesy Figuerdo and Bisbe-Ochoa
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Bisbe-Ochoa and Figueredo’s research compares hatchling success between sea turtle eggs incubated in Styrofoam containers and those incubated in nests in the sand. Their research helps identify the potential long-term impacts of incubating eggs with this artificial incubation method on local sea turtle populations
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What the study discovers could have major implications for the future of sea turtles, which are critical to the protection of the world’s oceans. Sea turtles maintain seagrass and coral reef ecosystems, provide habitat for marine life, balance marine food webs and help cycle nutrients from land to sea.
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“While our research is very important and will serve to guide conservation efforts, our part is the easy part,” Bisbe Ochoa said. “We are here for a few months and then we are gone. The people in Sayulita giving their time and energy to try to save sea turtles and protect them from poachers and other threats. They deserve the real credit.”
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Today, only 1 in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings reach adulthood. Soaring temperatures contribute to the population decline because they have changed the ratio between male and female sea turtles. By using incubators to help regulate temperatures, researchers hope to in some way restore the balance so that more sea turtle eggs are produced.
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In Mexico, Bisbe-Ochoa and Figueredo patrolled the beaches for nesting sea turtles. They collected eggs and transfer them to a hatchery where the eggs were either placed in Styrofoam containers or under shade in the sand.
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They measured parameters including the moisture of the sediment, the temperature of the nests and hatchling fitness. Hatchling fitness was determined through a series of motor tests. After measuring the hatchlings’ size and weight, Figueredo and Bisbe-Ochoa waited to see if the turtles could flip themselves over. They also tested the turtles’ ability to scurry toward a light.
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Olive ridley sea turtle hatchlings begin their trek to the shore. Photo courtesy Figueredo and Bisbe-Ochoa
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Bisbe Ochoa measures an olive ridley sea turtle. Photo courtesy Figueredo and Bisbe-Ochoa
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Figueredo, Bisbe Ochoa and Katherine Comer Santos,
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“Maria Clara and Jose's work has the potential to improve nesting beach conservation efforts at sites around the globe,” said Elizabeth Whitman, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, who is Bisbe-Ochoa and Figueredo's advisor.
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Part of the solution also includes educating and inspiring children to help.
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“When we did a hatchling release, we invite children in the community to come to be a part of it,” Figueredo said. “We give them a talk about the importance of taking care of the species. We tell them that the reality of the threats they face. Sharing the numbers - the survival rates of hatchlings - truly makes something in their minds click.”
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This research was funded by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation as part of a joint-scholarship Bisbe-Ochoa and Figueredo earned in 2019. In addition to this scholarship, the students also received funding from Zoo Miami to support their research.
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In part because of the research conducted by the Institute of Environment, FIU was ranked the No. 3 public university in the U.S. and No. 11 in the world for SDG 14, Life Below Water, which measures universities' research on life below water and their education on and support for aquatic ecosystems. Freshwater, coastal and ocean initiatives are led by the FIU Institute of Environment.
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Broward County Reports Strong Nesting Season\r\n
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Dr. Derek Burkholder, Nova Southeastern University
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Summertime in South Florida means several things: sun, sand, and sea turtles. Each year, tens of thousands of sea turtle nests are laid on Florida beaches. In Broward County, NSU’s Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program (BCSTCP) is ready to do our part to mark, monitor, and protect these nests throughout their incubation periods. Patrolling 24 miles of Broward County, Florida beaches every morning from March 1st through October 31st, the BCSTCP identifies upwards of 3,000 or more nests each season. In fact, for three out of the past five years, Broward County has set new personal nesting records! Many of these years saw records for each of the three species that nest here. In 2016, we had an all-time high of 3,400 loggerhead nests. In 2017, we set the record of 665 green turtle nests, which was smashed just two short years later with 787 green nests in ’19! Also in 2019, our small local contingency of leatherbacks set their own record, laying 43 nests locally. Each of these seasons, we climbed to new heights in total nest counts, with over 3,500 nests in the 2016, ’17, and ’19 seasons, and an all-time record of 3,647 nests in 2019! This season was not to be forgotten, though. The leatherbacks of Broward County nearly doubled their previous record, laying 86 nests on our beaches in 2021. Overall, with the addition of 2,548 loggerhead and 463 green turtle nests, we had a total of 3,099 nests this year.
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The 2021 sea turtle nesting season also saw the return of outreach for the BCSTCP. Scientifically informed public outreach and education that instructs and promotes environmentally positive behavioral changes is a core mission for the BCSTCP. While we had to take an extended hiatus from in-person conservational outreach for over a year to ensure the safety of our staff and the public, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were finally able to return to spreading the good word of sea turtle conservation in mid-July. Since then, we’ve participated in 63 educational/outreach events, connecting with over 5,100 individuals.
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This season also marked the end of a dynasty, as Curtis Slagle, our dearly beloved permit holder and program manager of 8 years moved on to pursue other opportunities. Under Curtis’ guidance, the program grew in many ways, changing us from a band of sea turtle marauders into a well-oiled conservation machine, carrying us forward all the while with humor and humble leadership. His goofy presence on the sands of Broward County will be sorely missed! Fortunately, he set the stage wonderfully for a new grand leader to take the lead. In 2021, Abby Nease earned the coveted role as permit holder and program
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manager for the BCSTCP. Part of the program since 2014, Abby has held nearly every position we have available, including acting as data manager for two years. She continued the legacy of greatness and ingenuity we’ve come to expect from program managers, guiding the program through the ever-changing challenges of operating during a pandemic with grace and assurance. We are truly lucky to have found another great manager and look forward to seeing the program continue to succeed with her at the helm!
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This season, the BCSTCP was pleased to continue to collaborate with our local sea turtle partner organizations who work tirelessly throughout hatchling season, making a tremendous impact towards sea turtle conservation. Sea turtle hatchlings typically emerge from their nests at night and use light as one of their cues to navigate towards the ocean. In areas where unshielded and short wavelength artificial lighting spills onto the beach, hatchlings may crawl away from the ocean and towards streets, pools, and storm drains. Though local lighting ordinances have led to improvements, Broward County continues to experience relatively high levels of hatchling disorientation due to coastal light pollution, as compared to naturally dark beaches. Sea Turtle Oversight Protection (STOP), South Florida Audubon Society (SFAS), and Sea Turtle Awareness Rescue and Stranding (STARS) are all volunteer based programs that redirect thousands of hatchlings annually that become disoriented due to artificial lighting. Their work is imperative for the overall success of nests deposited in Broward County and we consider ourselves fortunate to have them as allies in pursuit of sea turtle conservation!
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Proceeds from The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s Adopt-A-Nest Program directly support the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program. Adopt a nest today!
www.savetheseaturtle.org\r\n
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Florida Hawksbill Project 2021\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D., NSTSTF Research Coordinator
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Now in its 18th year, the Florida Hawksbill Project remains the only research and conservation program in Florida that is focused on this Critically Endangered species. Known best for their beautiful shells (the original source of ‘tortoiseshell’ products), hawksbills are among the least adventuresome of the sea turtles, preferring to remain near tropical coral reefs for pretty much their whole lives.
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Florida’s hawksbills were a bit of a mystery for quite a while because even though we find them foraging on nearby coral reefs, none were coming ashore to nest. It was soon revealed by our team that local hawksbill populations consisted mostly of young individuals that had not yet fully grown to maturity. Sea turtles take a while to reach adulthood (15+ years), so juveniles and sub-adults are tasked with finding suitable habitat to nourish themselves and find protection from predators for well over a decade. Florida’s SE coast is lined from Palm Beach County all the way to Key West by a barrier reef known as the SE Florida Continental Reef Tract. It’s a little unusual for a coral reef to thrive in a sub-tropical climate, but the warm water of the Gulf Stream flows in from the Caribbean, providing the right conditions for a highly diverse reef ecosystem, which is exactly what young hawksbills are looking for.
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Barnacles of the genus Chelonibia are commonly found associated with sea turtles. This species, C. caretta, has become specialized to nearly exclusively attach to hawksbill shells.
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The research team with a small
hawksbill\r\n turtle in the beautiful
Florida Keys. *The\r\n Florida Hawksbill
Project is authorized by\r\n State and
Federal agencies to handle\r\n hawksbill
turtles for research purposes.
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Further studies have revealed that Florida’s reefs offer temporary refuge for hawksbills that were hatched all around the Caribbean, some from as far east as the leeward islands. Most, however, are part of a large group of hawksbills that prefer to nest on the beaches of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, which geographically speaking, isn’t all that far away. Once they’ve reached maturity, most of the individuals we’ve hosted in Florida will head back that way to begin their new lives as reproductive adults, likely never to return.
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The Florida Hawksbill Project’s primary goal is to fill in some important gaps in our growing undertanding of this species’ life cycle, particularly in the Caribbean. Due to a combination of behavioral peculiarities on their part and logistical hurdles to overcome on our part, comparatively little is known about the biology of this species as a whole. So far, the Florida population has provided some valuable insights concerning movements, growth, abundance, and distribution in this part of their range. Plus, we’ve discovered alot about their territoriality, feeding strategies, and preferred habitat types.
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Although the 2021 field season was delayed until mid-year by covid, our team was able to conduct well over a dozen turtle surveys ranging from Jupiter to Key West. We added 10 turtles to the grand total, which is now 273 individual hawksbills we’ve tagged and sampled for our research. We also came across several we’ve seen before, which helps us assess survivorship and movement patterns.
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A newly-emerged hatchling hawksbill
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One small hawksbill we captured near Key West this year was first encountered as a stranded post-hatchling on the beaches of Texas, near Galveston in 2018. It was lucky enough to reside at the NOAA Fisheries Lab in Galveston for a while, then was released in partnership with our team near Key West in 2019. Sure enough, this one adapted well to the natural reef system after captivity; it appeared to be in excellent health and had grown at an impressive rate.
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The data we collect in the field eventually culminates in peer-reviewed publications, sometimes even unintentionally. A recent example resulted from a partnership with Ms. Liberty Boyd, a student who became interested in identifying and describing the recruitment patterns that barnacles employ to colonize hawksbill turtle shells. Upon closer inspection, our team discovered that although they all live together, two similar barnacle species prefer different shells to grow on, and manage to segregate themselves between green and hawksbill turtles. Specialized symbioses like these provide otherwise-hidden clues to evolutionary processes, and provide students with invaluable experience in conducting detailed research projects in marine ecology. In partnership with my colleagues at Florida International University and the Citadel, our paper entitled “Evidence for Host Selectivity and Specialization by Epizoic Chelonibia Barnacles Between Hawksbill and Green Sea Turtles” is soon to be published in a special issue of Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, and will be Ms. Boyd’s first peer-reviewed publication as the first author.
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As I mentioned before, Florida provides many great opportunities to conduct hawksbill turtle research, but also limits us to those individuals that haven’t yet reached maturity, e.g. juveniles and sub-adults. To complement our work in Florida, we have partnered with the University of the Virgin Islands and the Ocean Foundation to create a Hawksbill Conservation Action Plan (HCAP) tailored specifically to the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are host to significant numbers of nesting females. We are compiling historical and current data concerning the abundance and distribution of hawksbills in the USVI, and will provide an outline for scientists and conservationists to help guide future efforts to stabilize and enhance the Islands’ hawksbill populations.
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Meanwhile, our Florida team will continue to seek hawksbills throughout State waters, and hopefully discover some additional aggregations we haven’t encountered before. Our two-pronged approach includes consistent, long-term surveys in focused areas (Key West and Palm Beach), along with exploratory surveys in areas with appropriate hawksbill habitat. Many thanks to the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation for supporting the Florida Hawksbill Project!
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Inside a Turtle Nest: Embryos Communicate About When to Hatch and When to Emerge\r\n
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Mike Salmon, Research Professor
\r\n Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University
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We mammals are a peculiar and highly specialized bunch when it comes to nurturing offspring. We provide for just a few eggs, sequestered inside our bodies, and nourished for extended periods in a uterus. After birth we follow up by providing offspring with nutrition, protection, and a prolonged period of socialization before they become independent. Only one other vertebrate group - the birds - matches that kind of parental devotion by protecting and incubating clutches of eggs and, after they hatch, feeding and defending the chicks.
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While lavished parental care does occur sporadically in other vertebrate groups, it is the exception among the fishes, amphibians and reptiles except for a few amphibians, snakes and some crocodilians. Typically, and instead, these creatures produce large numbers of eggs placed together in nests whose location is generally hidden, and then abandoned by the parent. Thus, the costs associated with parental care at each breeding are minimized. However, because many nests are discovered and destroyed by predators, attacked by micro-organisms, or fail because of adverse environmental changes (in temperature or rainfall), species that abandon nests incur additional costs as well.
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Figure 1. Freshwater turtles (left) are relatively small and typically dig shallow nests that contain no more than 20 eggs. Eggs at the top of those nests are often heated by the sun and are warmer than those at the bottom. Marine turtles (right) are much larger and their nests that are too deep to be much affected by the sun. They also have much larger clutches - over 100 eggs in loggerhead nests. Eggs in the center aren’t able to dissipate metabolic heat during growth as well as those eggs at the periphery, and so are typically warmer. The expected outcome in all turtle nests is that the warmer eggs will develop faster than the cooler eggs and hatch first, but experiments show that doesn’t always happen. See the text for details. (Credit: Angela Field, with permission)
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They have to compensate for those losses by producing more clutches of eggs, usually during the same breeding season.
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Turtles are a good example of species showing this kind of orphaned nesting pattern. They also have served as excellent subjects for studying how and why embryos within the nest coordinate their development during incubation. It turns out that these processes involve communication between the embryos to synchronize hatching, and coordination between hatchlings to select a time to leave the nest. These rather unexpected findings make for fascinating stories that are the subject of this essay.
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The turtle nest and embryonic development
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The initial interest in what happens inside a turtle nest arose from a simple observation. All species of turtles nest in much the same way; they use their hind feet (or flippers, if a sea turtle) to dig a hole in the substrate. That’s followed by filling the hole with a clutch of eggs and finally, covering the eggs to hide the nest location. In most freshwater turtles, the nest usually contains less than 20 eggs but in marine turtles, it can contain up to 200 (depending upon the species; Figure 1). The nest is then abandoned and the eggs are left to incubate on their own. How fast that happens depends on temperature. Measurements confirm that in all turtle nests, some eggs are warmer than others (Figure 1) and therefore should incubate faster and hatch sooner than the cooler eggs. Yet, in the vast majority of turtle nests, that doesn’t happen. Instead, hatching (defined as breaking out of the egg) is often synchronous, that is, the entire clutch completes the process within a few hours.
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For synchronous hatching to happen, either the eggs exposed to warmer temperatures have to delay hatching until their cooler siblings complete development (the “waiting” hypothesis), or the cooler, slower developing eggs must “catch-up” to their warmer, and developmentally more advanced, siblings. An Australian biologist (R.-J. Spencer) and his colleagues designed an experiment to distinguish between these alternatives, using Murray River turtles (Figure 2). That was done by incubating a sample of the eggs from a single nest at two different temperatures (25°C or 30°C) so that one (warmer) group developed faster than the other (cooler) group ([1]; Figure 3).
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Figure 2. Turtles used for experimental studies of hatchling communication. A - C are freshwater turtles. A, Murray River turtle (Emydura macquerii); B, Painted turtle (Chrysemys picta); C, pig-nosed turtle (Carettochelys insculpta); D, loggerhead (Caretta caretta).
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The two groups were then combined and incubated at either the warmer or cooler temperature until hatching occurred. The scientists knew how long incubation should take at each of those temperatures so they could tell if the warmer eggs hatched later than expected (favoring the “waiting” hypothesis) or if the cooler eggs hatched sooner than expected (favoring the “catch-up” hypothesis). The results indicated that the cooler eggs hatched sooner, sometimes by as much as 4 or 5 days, favoring the catch-up hypothesis. Somehow, those embryos must have sensed that their warmer siblings were ahead in development and took action to compensate.
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Presently, what remains unknown is how the embryos make those assessments. One possibility is that they can actually sense the metabolic rates of their neighbors! That might happen by detecting the mechanical changes associated with a faster heartbeat in an adjacent embryo, or even its rate of oxygen consumption. That could happen because the eggs are in contact and their shells are thin, flexible and permeable to permit gas exchange. A faster heartbeat or an increase in CO2 (like being in a crowded, stuffy, warm room!) are both associated with a higher metabolic rate that in turn, could serve as a proxy signal for faster and more advanced development.
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Regardless of how assessments are made, it’s already clear that the mechanisms underlying coordinated hatching are diverse. In Murray River turtles, embryos that were behind in development “catch up” by secreting hormones that increase their metabolic rate, even without any change in embryonic temperature. Another species, the Painted turtle (Figure 2), is native to temperate areas of North America. They nest in the summer, leaving the eggs to develop in the waning days of the season or during the following Spring. Hatching is synchronous but occurs even though the embryos vary somewhat in their stage of development. The hatchlings remain in the nest until their biological clock tells them that it’s warmer and the time has come to emerge from the nest. During that waiting period, the hatchlings behind in development, not the embryos, “catch up”! In the pig nose turtles (Figure 2), found in tropical Australia, the eggs complete development during the dry season but as long as the eggs stay dry the embryos, even when fully developed, remain quiescent inside their eggs. When the wet season and its rains come, the nest is flooded and the eggs no longer can “breathe”. Within minutes, that lack of oxygen stimulates all the embryos to hatch.
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Do hatching marine turtles communicate?
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Strangely enough, until recently no experiments had been done to determine if hatching synchrony occurs in marine turtles. Focus, instead, was on synchronous emergence from the nest which is well documented in marine turtles (Figure 4). But hatchling emergence occurs days after hatching because newly hatched turtles must dig their way out of the much deeper nests, then wait until surface sands cool (usually at night) before they risk a scamper to the sea. Synchronous emergence is therefore not closely paired in time with hatching so the two processes might well occur on different temporal schedules.
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Masters student Angela Field did an experiment to find out whether loggerhead embryos “paid attention” to the stage of development of their neighbors and, if so, whether that resulted in a faster rate of development and a shorter incubation time. To find out, she once again established artificial nests that contained eggs at different stages of development. To begin, she took 12 eggs from a nest deposited the night before, and divided them equally into two nest boxes (the A1 and A2 eggs; Figure 4). Each box was placed in an incubator at a steady 31▫ C for 2 weeks. She than added 6 eggs from another nest, deposited two weeks earlier (the B eggs) to the A1 nest box, and 6 eggs from a third nest, deposited the night before (the C eggs), to the other (A2) nest box. Both nest boxes were then returned to the incubator until all of the eggs hatched. Thus, one nest box (the experimental; Figure 4) contained eggs from two nests that were at the same stage of development; those embryos would hatch at about the same time and so could potentially stimulate one another to develop faster and hatch earlier.
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Figure 3. (left) An experiment to determine how synchronous hatching is achieved in the Murray River turtle. A dozen eggs from one nest are divided into two groups of 6 eggs each, then incubated in containers at two different temperatures (25▫ or 30▫ C) for one week. The warmer eggs develop faster, setting up differences between the eggs both in development and in when hatching should occur. After one week, the eggs are combined; then, all are incubated at either 25▫ or 30▫ C until they hatch. If at 30▫ C the initially warmer eggs delay and synchronize hatching with the cooler eggs, the results support the “wait” hypothesis. Alternatively, if at 25▫ C the initially cooler eggs hatch sooner than expected and in synchrony with the initially warmer eggs, the results support the “catch-up” hypothesis - which is what happened (Modified from [1])
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The other (control) nest box contained eggs from two nests that differed by 2 weeks in development. In that nest, the A2 embryos would hatch first without stimulation but could in that process stimulate the C embryos. The outcome was as predicted: all three of the eggs stimulated by embryos from other nests (the A1, B, and C eggs) hatched almost a full day before the A2 eggs, that were deprived of stimulation. Communication must have occurred!
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Until experiments like these were carried out, biologists were unaware that late-stage embryos were capable of monitoring the development of their siblings or coordinating their behavior through communication channels that are yet to be fully explored. We now know that these kinds of interactions occur not only among turtle embryos, but also in other species - frogs and fishes, for example - and that they have evolved through natural selection because they convey survival advantages. In some examples, late stage embryos, especially when the nest is threatened by predators or parasites, hatch early to escape those threats. In other cases, they delay hatching when conditions deteriorate until environmental conditions improve. In retrospect, it seems perfectly plausible that especially when nests are abandoned, these kinds of adaptations would soon become almost ubiquitous.
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(1) Spencer, R.-J., Thompson, M.B. & Banks, P.B. 2001. Hatch or wait? A dilemma in reptilian incubation. Oikos 93:401–406.
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(2) Field, A., McGlashan, J. K. & Salmon, M. 2021. Evidence for synchronous hatching in marine turtle (Caretta caretta) embryos and its influence on the timing of nest emergence. Chelonian Conservation and Biology, Vol. 20:(2) doi:10.2744/CCB-1489.1
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(3) Warkentin, K.M. 2011. Environmentally cued hatching across taxa: embryos respond to risk and opportunity. Integrative and Comparative Biology 51:14–25.\r\n Doody, J.S. 2011. Environmentally cued hatching in reptiles. Integrative and Comparative Biology 49:49-61.
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(Thanks to Jeanette Wyneken for edits that improved manuscript organization and clarity.)
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Figure 4. Above, loggerhead hatchlings emerging from the nest (J. Wyneken photo). Below, an experiment to determine if loggerhead embryos communicate with their siblings and in the process, stimulate one another to complete development faster. Twelve eggs from one nest are divided into two groups (A1, A2), placed in separate nest boxes and incubated at a constant temperature (31▫ C) for 2 weeks. The A1 nest is then paired either with eggs from another nest deposited two weeks previously (the B eggs) while the other (A2) nest is paired with eggs from a nest deposited the previous evening (the C eggs). Incubation continues until all the eggs hatch. In this experiment, the A1, B and C eggs are stimulated by the hatching activity of the additional nest embryos. As a result, they incubate for a shorter time than the A2 eggs, not stimulated by the C eggs that are less developed. The A2 eggs take significantly longer to develop (2).
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For those interested in learning more, the two references in (3) summarize the most important studies.
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\r\n Inwater Research Group Teaches the Teachers in Pasco County, Florida\r\n
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Rebecca Mott, IRG Education Coordinator
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\r\n This past summer our education partners, Inwater Research Group (IRG), brought an\r\n immersive conservation experience to teachers in Pasco County, FL. Pasco County School\r\n District, a recent partner of ours and IRG’s Traveling Trunk program purchased twelve\r\n trunks to use in their classrooms. These trunks allow students to get a hands-on glimpse\r\n into the life of marine biologists and into the world of sea turtle conservation while\r\n learning school curriculum. This means every student in Pasco County Schools will now have\r\n a chance to experience these award-winning programs.\r\n
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\r\n In addition to this, Pasco County found grant funding to host a professional development\r\n day with their teachers. This would mean a trip over to the west coast, a research recon\r\n mission, and a field day with local educators for our IRG partners. With picture perfect\r\n weather, local hotspots of turtle activity, and a boat full of excited teachers, the day\r\n was looking promising. Within no time, IRG’s research crew had already located several\r\n turtles to bring aboard our boat for work up. Teachers were able to see first-hand how\r\n they collect turtles, amass valuable data from each individual, and what that means\r\n overall for the protection of these animals. They also learned how they can participate in\r\n sea turtle conservation themselves and how to encourage their students to do so as well.\r\n
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\r\n From here teachers joined the crew in the classroom of the Energy and Marine Center, a\r\n local gem that educates thousands of students a year on STEM initiatives. Teachers would\r\n now have a chance to see how the trunk programs reflect actual sea turtle research. Our\r\n programs utilize the same tools and techniques we use in the field, so teachers were able\r\n to step into the role of biologist and practice (on turtle models) what they had just seen\r\n on the water.\r\n
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\r\n Programs such as these are so important to the conservation community as well as to\r\n research and education sectors. Bringing together scientists with teachers allows us to\r\n remove many barriers that currently exist between those practicing science and those\r\n teaching it. From here, Pasco County teachers are now fully equipped and motivated to\r\n present our programs to the entire school district. This means thousands of students, who\r\n have sea turtles in their own “backyard” will learn about their reptilian neighbors and\r\n how to be good ambassadors for their recovery and longevity.\r\n
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MORAES Manages Sea Turtle Nesting on Miami's Virginia Key
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By: Analisa Duran, Nest Survey Coordinator
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During the 2021 sea turtle nesting season, the Marine Order for Research and Action through Environmental Stewardship (MORAES) ran a volunteer-led sea turtle conservation program throughout Virginia Key Beach (VKB), Florida. The program, supported by the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, trained 20 volunteers, with varying backgrounds and interests, to look for and identify nesting sea turtle activity on the 2.5 mile stretch of beach which is located in Miami-Dade County and managed by the City of Miami. MORAES took on the permit and developed the volunteer program for the first time this past nesting season and the group believes it was a huge success.
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The survey area for VKB extends from Norris Cut (northern tip of VKB) through Historic Virginia Key Beach Park to the northern side of Bear Cut Bridge. Historically, this area sees an average of 50-70 nests per season. This year, the MORAES team were able to complete a successful nesting season with a total of 70 nests and 83 false crawls, resulting in approximately 3,979 loggerhead turtle hatchlings making it into the ocean.
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Volunteers from many walks of life dedicated their time and effort to the conservation of loggerhead turtles this year. From university students to health care workers, the sea turtle survey volunteers, trained and supervised by permit holder Analisa Duran and MORAES co-founder, Shannon Jones, were an integral part of the success of this season. Since environmental stewardship is a core pillar within the MORAES’ mission, the ability to engage the citizen scientists in hands-on research, marine conservation, and data collection was paramount, giving the volunteers an opportunity to witness a unique natural phenomena they would not normally get to experience.
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Volunteer Michelle Martinez-Bonilla, who is a student at Florida International University studying English, said she decided to volunteer with MORAES because she was looking for ways to learn more about marine science. “Volunteering allowed me to be a part of something important while also giving me the opportunity to interact with marine life,” said Martinez-Bonilla.
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Another volunteer, Eric Eimstad, who is a retiree with a strong background in business management and marine science said, “The survey experience increased my awareness of the challenges that the (sea turtle) nests face due to predators, humans and the environment.”
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MORAES is a 501(c)(3) operating in the state of Florida, committed to the understanding, viability, and protection of our local marine environment through conservation, research, and environmental stewardship.
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All activities are conducted under FWC permitting MTP-21-153.
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Inwater Research Group Teaches the Teachers in Pasco County, Florida\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D., NSTSTF Research Coordinator
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Technically known as fibropapillomatosis, FP is a herpesvirus-associated disease in sea turtles that causes often-debilitating tumors to grow to sometimes extreme proportions. The disease was first documented in the early 1900s, but was exceedingly rare. Then, beginning in the 1990s, the prevalence of tumor-covered turtles began to rise, and the disease became particularly noticeable in both Florida and Hawaii as it over-proportionately afflicted young green turtles that lived in or near highly urbanized bays and estuaries. Early research into the disease revealed the tumors themselves were clearly overloaded with a particular kind of virus, named ChHV5, but it was impossible to tell which came first; was the virus actually causing the tumors, or was it just taking advantage of another metabolic circumstance that was already underway? Meanwhile, sea turtle rehabilitation experts were faced with a whole new challenge as extremely sick turtles were presenting with often shocking loads of cauliflower-like growths growing from various soft tissues around the body, including the eyes.
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Fast-forward about 30 years, and the disease has managed to spread all around the globe. Similarities still exist; it still primarily affects juvenile green turtles, it still disproportionately affects turtles living in close proximity to human activity, and unfortunately we still haven’t identified the 100% definitive ‘cause’ of the disease. But we’ve learned a heck of a lot over the years, and together with our colleagues at UF’s Whitney Lab we thought it was time to bring experts together again to review their findings and update each other on all the exciting research and clinical advances that have been underway to combat this frustrating ailment.
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Photo Credit: David Duffy/UF
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Held both in-person and virtually at the Whitney Lab near St. Augustine Florida, the two-day FP summit in October was attended by over 130 experts from all around the world. The talks were grouped into general categories that included molecular/cellular research, cancer immunology, environmental FP research, veterinary/pathology research, and virology. Diseases like FP are extremely complicated, and require multi-disciplinary approaches to understanding the cascade of events that must occur both internally and externally for it to eventually result in a clinically ill animal. Then, once manifested, the challenges of humanely treating these animals to reverse the disease’s course present themselves, and must be addressed with a completely different skill set. This meeting was the first in quite a while to bring all the perspectives together in one place, and feedback from the meeting confirmed how much new information was exchanged among experts working in disparate fields and locations. It was also encouraging to see the interest among graduate students in studying the disease, and well-deserving presenters were recognized with student paper awards.
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What did we learn, you may ask? As usual, the typical response is we’ve got more new questions than new answers, which certainly is true, but major headway has been made. Today’s miraculous tools for studying genomes have identified the mechanisms that the virus uses to infect cells, potentially leading to treatments that block the infection at its starting point. And, a whole new suite of tools and treatments have been developed by veterinarians and clinical scientists that give hope to even the most severely afflicted individuals. Lastly, big steps have been taken to explore which environmental factors may trigger immunosuppression in the turtles, allowing an otherwise harmless pathogen to cause such enormous cellular damage. Though FP is, and will remain, a major concern for sea turtle biologists and conservationists around the world, it is generally accepted that sea turtle populations, as a whole, are not threatened with extinction by this disease alone. It is only one of many challenges sea turtles face, and the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation is committed to addressing this and other important issues affecting these animals.
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\r\n Differences in visual perception are correlated with variation in sea-finding\r\n behaviour between hatchling leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea, and loggerhead, Caretta\r\n caretta, marine turtles\r\n
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\r\n Samantha E. Trail Samantha E. Trail, Michael Salmon Samantha E. Trail
\r\n Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, U.S.A\r\n
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\r\n ARTICLE INFO\r\n
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\r\n Article history:
\r\n Received 22 September 2021
\r\n Initial acceptance 25 October 2021
\r\n Final acceptance 8 December 2021
\r\n MS. number: A21-00555R\r\n
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\r\n Keywords:
\r\n Dermochelys
\r\n evolution
\r\n leatherback
\r\n light intensity discrimination
\r\n orientation
\r\n perception
\r\n sea finding
\r\n vision
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\r\n After completing embryonic development, marine turtle hatchlings emerge from their\r\n subsurface nest, generally at night, and crawl to the ocean (‘sea finding’). That\r\n response depends upon the ability of the turtles to discriminate between the brighter\r\n seaward versus a dimmer landward horizon, followed by a positive phototaxis. While the\r\n crawls of most marine turtle hatchlings are well oriented and straight, those of\r\n leatherback hatchlings are sometimes interrupted by bouts of circling. We conducted\r\n experiments comparing the orientation and crawling behaviour of leatherbacks to those of\r\n loggerhead hatchlings to determine why those differences occur. The two species did not\r\n differ in the light spectra attracting the hatchlings, but leatherback thresholds for\r\n detection and for intensity discrimination were significantly higher than those of\r\n loggerheads. At the nesting beach, loggerheads under full (bright) or new (darker) moon\r\n conditions crawled straight to the ocean; circling rarely occurred. Leatherback crawls\r\n under a full moon were indistinguishable from those of loggerheads, but during new moon\r\n trials, when horizon brightness differences approached leatherback intensity\r\n discrimination thresholds, circling increased significantly. We conclude that circling\r\n is probably used by leatherbacks to reinforce orientation decisions when horizon cues\r\n become more difficult to discern. Circling could be costly as it lengthens the crawl and\r\n increases exposure to terrestrial predators. We hypothesize that those costs persist\r\n because other visual adaptations affecting sensitivity enhance the ability of\r\n leatherbacks to detect prey, mates or favourable habitats in an open ocean environment.\r\n
© 2022 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier\r\n Ltd. All rights reserved.\r\n
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\r\n Marine turtles are large, long-lived reptiles characterized by high fecundity, high\r\n juvenile mortality and low adult mortality, with life histories dominated by extensive\r\n migrations between habitats most favourable for survival during different phases of\r\n their ontogeny (Hendrickson, 1980). As such, they have been attractive subjects for\r\n studies to determine how they complete impressive feats of orientation and navigation\r\n over long distances in what to humans is a featureless ocean (Lohmann & Lohmann, 2019).\r\n That migratory lifestyle is initiated when a clutch of precocial hatchlings emerges from\r\n a subsurface nest, generally at night on an oceanic beach, and then performs an oriented\r\n crawl from the nest to the ocean − an innate behaviour known as ‘sea finding’ (Mrosovsky\r\n & Kingsmill, 1985). Sea-finding orientation is based upon visual cues detected through a\r\n perceptual filter to sequentially scan a horizontally wide\r\n
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\r\n ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: salmonmichael07@gmail.com (M. Salmon).\r\n
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\r\n (180°) by vertically narrow (30°) view of the horizon (Lohmann et al., 1997). The\r\n hatchlings then crawl toward the centre of the horizon that reflects the most radiance −\r\n light from a single direction. That light is provided by celestial sources (stars and\r\n the moon) and in most instances it is the seaward view, as the dune and its vegetation\r\n in a landward direction absorb light while light is reflected from the water surface in\r\n the seaward direction (Lohmann et al., 1997). That difference in radiance between\r\n opposing horizons enables hatchlings to locate the ocean even when the uneven surface of\r\n the beach precludes a direct view of the sea, at least for a small hatchling (Limpus,\r\n 1971; Mrosovsky & Shettleworth, 1968; Salmon et al., 1992). While the cues used by\r\n marine turtle hatchlings to locate the sea from the nest have been intensively studied\r\n and known for years, differences in performance between species are also well documented\r\n but have been largely ignored even though they might provide useful information for\r\n understanding both the proximate and ultimate factors shaping the phototaxis response.\r\n Leatherback hatchlings, Dermochelys coriacea, for example, often interrupt their\r\n
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\r\n S. E. Trail, M. Salmon / Animal Behaviour 187 (2022) 47e54\r\n
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\r\n crawls by making small, quickly executed circles (Carr & Ogren, 1959) whereas the crawls\r\n of other species (loggerheads, Caretta caretta, and green turtles, Chelonia mydas, have\r\n been extensively studied) are characteristically straight, leading directly to the ocean\r\n (Fig. 1). Those differences persist even though the same underlying mechanism (a\r\n phototropotaxis) is believed to be used by all species to determine direction (Mrosovsky\r\n & Kingsmill, 1985). Leatherback hatchling crawling speeds on land are slower than those\r\n of loggerheads and green turtles (Wyneken, 1997); circling should not occur as it\r\n further lengthens the time hatchlings require to reach the sea, increasing the duration\r\n of their exposure to terrestrial predators (Erb & Wyneken, 2019). Why, then, is circling\r\n observed, and why most commonly only in leatherbacks? A single attempt to answer these\r\n questions (Mrosovsky & Shettleworth, 1975) concluded that circling in leatherbacks plays\r\n no role in determining direction and that ‘quantitative differences’ (none clearly\r\n specified) are likely responsible for eliciting circling behaviour. In this study, we\r\n present evidence that leatherback hatchlings differ from loggerhead and green turtle\r\n hatchlings in perceptual sensitivity to the visual cues used in sea finding. We also\r\n document that under field conditions, a behavioural correlation exists: leatherback\r\n circling increases on the darkest evenings when radiance values and differences are\r\n lowest, suggesting sensitivity differences can affect performance. To reach these\r\n conclusions, we posed the following three questions. (1) Are leatherback hatchlings\r\n attracted to the same light wavelengths, and with the same sensitivity, as loggerhead\r\n hatchlings? (2) Is the ability of leatherbacks to discriminate between differences in\r\n radiance (such as those required to distinguish between landward and seaward horizons)\r\n comparable to that ability in loggerheads? Finally, (3) if differences occur, can they\r\n be related to other adaptations shaping how leatherbacks versus loggerheads use vision\r\n to meet their ecological needs?\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 1. Tracks in the sand made by crawling loggerhead hatchlings that emerged from\r\n
a nest (located within the dashed circle) at Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A.
\r\n the previous evening. Photo: Kirsten Jones\r\n \r\n
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Study Sites and Hatchling Acquisition
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\r\n We obtained leatherback and loggerhead hatchings from nests monitored between May and\r\n September 2020 and 2021, at two nesting beaches in southeastern Florida, U.S.A.: Juno\r\n Beach (26° 52ʹ48ʹʹN, 80° 3ʹ0ʹʹW) and Boca Raton (26° 21ʹ44ʹʹN, 80° 4ʹ8ʹʹW). Hatchlings\r\n were collected from the nest in the late afternoon of the evening that they would\r\n naturally emerge. They were then held in a light-tight (but not air-tight) Styrofoam\r\n container with a shallow layer of damp beach sand. They were either (1) transported by\r\n car from the beach to a windowless laboratory on the campus of Florida Atlantic\r\n University, where they were used for experiments, or (2) released at the nesting beach a\r\n few hours later (after the onset of darkness) to study their behaviour while crawling to\r\n the sea. Each hatchling was used in either one laboratory or one field trial, then\r\n released at the beach to begin its offshore migration.\r\n
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Wavelength Perceptual Thresholds
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\r\n Perceptual thresholds were obtained by presenting each hatchling with a\r\n near-monochromatic light wavelength, projected as a circular target 6 cm in diameter at\r\n the end of one arm of a black Plexiglas Y-maze (Fig. 2). The other arm of the Y-maze was\r\n kept dark. If that stimulus was detected, it elicited a positive phototaxis favouring\r\n entry into the illuminated arm whereas if the stimulus was below threshold, hatchlings\r\n were equally likely to crawl into either arm. That difference in distribution was used\r\n to determine the turtles' perceptual threshold at each wavelength. A detailed\r\n description of those methods, including controls, is presented in Celano et al. (2018)\r\n for loggerhead and green turtle hatchlings. Here, we provide an abbreviated summary of\r\n those same methodologies used in this study to determine thresholds from leatherback\r\n hatchlings.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 2.The Plexiglas Y-maze used in this study. A projector (P) presented a light\r\n stimulus at the end of one Y-maze arm; the other arm remained dark. That light was\r\n then filtered by interference and neutral density filters housed in the light tunnel\r\n (LT). A clear barrier (CB) confined the hatchling to a start area until the stimulus\r\n was presented. Once the barrier was raised, the hatchling could initiate a crawl and\r\n choose to enter one of the two arms (modified from Celano et al., 2018)\r\n \r\n
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\r\n S. E. Trail, M. Salmon / Animal Behaviour 187 (2022) 47-54\r\n
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\r\n We determined hatchling thresholds by presenting light stimuli between 340 and 600 nm at\r\n 20 nm increments, beginning with a stimulus bright enough to attract most (if not all)\r\n of the turtles into the illuminated arm. Subsequent trials with the same wavelength were\r\n repeated with additional groups of naïve hatchlings after reducing the stimulus radiance\r\n in 0.3−0.5 log steps with the use of neutral density filters. Once the hatchlings no\r\n longer showed a preference for the illuminated arm, trials were repeated with new\r\n subjects after increasing the stimulus radiance in 0.3 log unit steps until the\r\n preference for the illuminated arm was re-established (the ‘up−down staircase method’ of\r\n Dixon & Mood, 1948; see also Cornsweet, 1962). No hatchlings were used for more than one\r\n stimulus presentation. We defined the threshold at each wavelength as the lowest\r\n radiance (in photons per cm² /s) that evoked a statistically significant preference for\r\n the illuminated arm (as determined by a one-tailed binomial test at P ⋜ 0.05; Zar,\r\n 1999).\r\n
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\r\n We used Kodak slide projectors (Model 440) with 300 W tungsten halogen lamps to present\r\n stimuli between 400 and 600 nm. Near-UV light wavelengths at 340, 360 and 380 nm were\r\n presented using a Great Value 14 W incandescent ‘blacklight’ bulb (Model EDXO-14),\r\n placed inside a foil-lined, 20-litre Styrofoam box containing a 6 cm diameter circular\r\n hole in one wall that was placed against the end of the Y-maze arm.\r\n
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\r\n Interference filters (Edmund Scientific Optics, Blackwood, NJ, U.S.A.; 5 nm half\r\n bandwidth, 25 mm diameter) were used to modify all the light sources so that the desired\r\n wavelength was produced. We used a hand-held spectrometer (SRI 2000, Allied Scientific\r\n Pro, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada) to confirm that each stimulus was within ± 3 nm of its\r\n designated wavelength.\r\n
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\r\n The intensity of each presented wavelength was measured in watts using a UDT S471\r\n Optometer (San Diego, CA, U.S.A.), calibrated for use with a UDT 247 sensor for nearly\r\n equivalent sensitivity to wavelengths between 340 and 600 nm. Values were then converted\r\n into photons per cm² /s using the formula:\r\n\r\n
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\r\n where 1 W = 1 J/s; h = Plank's constant (6.626 × 10-34 J/s); c = speed of light\r\n (2.998×108\r\n m/s) and λ = wavelength (in nm) (Celano et al., 2018).\r\n
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Paired Radiance Thresholds
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\r\n Sea-finding orientation is based upon the ability of hatchlings to discriminate between\r\n radiance differences (the dimmer landward versus the brighter seaward horizon; Lohmann\r\n et al., 1997). We simulated those conditions by presenting leatherback and loggerhead\r\n hatchlings, tested in the Y-maze, with paired and contrasting light intensity cues.\r\n Testing was done using two wavelengths detected with elevated sensitivity by both\r\n species: 400 and 500 nm (see below). Thresholds were defined as the smallest difference\r\n in intensity that elicited a statistically significant preference for the more brightly\r\n illuminated arm. Experiments began by exposing hatchlings to the same light wavelength\r\n simultaneously projected from both arms at double the intensity of its previously\r\n determined perceptual threshold. That outcome was a distribution of arm entries that was\r\n statistically indistinguishable from 50:50. Subsequent groups of turtles were then\r\n tested after the intensity of the stimulus projected from one arm, randomly selected,\r\n was increased in small (0.3 log) unit steps until a significant preference for that\r\n stimulus was established (as determined by a one-tailed binomial test).\r\n
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\r\n\r\n The intensity of the brighter stimulus was then reduced in 0.15 log unit steps until\r\n that preference was extinguished, at which point it was once again increased to\r\n re-establish and confirm the preference (the ‘upedown staircase’ method; see above). Up\r\n to 18 hatchlings were tested at each intensity pairing to obtain a statistically\r\n informative distribution of arm entries\r\n
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Crawling Paths, Circling and Orientation Accuracy
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\r\n These observations were made at the Juno Beach site to compare differences in crawling\r\n performance between the species under two conditions of nocturnal illumination: new or\r\n full moon. The procedures used were as follows. Up to 10 hatchlings were removed from\r\n the nest of each species, either in the late afternoon or at dusk, and then briefly\r\n stored in a covered Styrofoam cooler containing moist beach sand until the onset of\r\n darkness. Turtles of both species were then released, one hatchling at a time, at the\r\n location of a single leatherback nest site so that differences between species in their\r\n crawling behaviour could not be attributed to differences in the distance or direction\r\n of that nest relative to the surf zone. Release evenings were dictated by the\r\n availability of emerging hatchlings. Testing was confined to full moon evenings ± 2 days\r\n and to new moon evenings or those after dark, before moonrise. Full moon trials were\r\n done under clear skies or widely scattered cloud cover. The moon was always visible at\r\n an azimuth equal to or exceeding 30 above the horizon.\r\n
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\r\n Each hatchling's crawling behaviour was observed for up 20 min, or until it reached the\r\n high tide line (whichever came first). As each hatchling crawled, the distance it moved\r\n was marked along the track at 1 min intervals, as was its frequency of circling. An\r\n orientation angle for each crawl was calculated by determining the vector between the\r\n nest site and the location where the hatchling reached the high tide line.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Vectors for all of the hatchlings released under each phase of lunar illumination were\r\n analysed using Rayleigh tests (Zar, 1999) to determine a group (second-order) mean\r\n angle, an r vector (measure of scatter) and a probability that the distribution\r\n represented a nonrandom (statistically significant) pattern of orientation.\r\n WatsoneWilliams tests (Zar, 1999) were used to determine whether orientation performance\r\n differed between the conspecific groups tested under new or full moon conditions, and\r\n between species. Fisher's exact tests (Siegel & Castellan, 1988) were used to compare\r\n frequencies of circling under new moon and full moon conditions within and between\r\n species. One-tailed ManneWhitney U tests (Siegel & Castellan, 1988) were used to compare\r\n crawl duration between species under new moon and full moon conditions.\r\n
\r\n
RESULTS
\r\n
Wavelength Thresholds
\r\n
\r\n Leatherback hatchling thresholds (in photons per cm2 /s) varied between 6.31 × 107 at\r\n 380 nm and 9.67 × 108\r\n at 560 nm (Table 1). Turtles were most sensitive to the near-ultraviolet (UV)\r\n wavelengths at 360 and 380 nm, and to the visible wavelengths between 480 and 500 nm\r\n (Fig. 3, Table 1). Leatherbacks were consistently less sensitive by as much as 2 log\r\n units to all wavelengths than either green turtle or loggerhead hatchlings. However,\r\n leatherback thresholds to all wavelengths ⋜ 580 nm remained below background light\r\n levels at Juno Beach, even under the dimmest (new moon) conditions (Fig. 3).\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n S. E. Trail, M. Salmon / Animal Behaviour 187 (2022) 47-54\r\n
\r\n\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Table 1
\r\n Perceptual thresholds of leatherback hatchlings to near-monochromatic light wavelengths\r\n between 340 and 580 nm\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Wavelength (nm)\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Threshold (photons per cm² /s)\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Distribution (+/−)\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Total no. of nests\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\n No. of hatchlings tested\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
340
\r\n
\r\n 2.36 × 108\r\n
\r\n
7/1
\r\n
3
\r\n
54
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
360
\r\n
\r\n 1.25 × 108\r\n
\r\n
7/1
\r\n
2
\r\n
47
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
380
\r\n
\r\n 6.31 × 108\r\n
\r\n
6/0
\r\n
2
\r\n
71
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
400
\r\n
\r\n 1.41 × 108\r\n
\r\n
9/2
\r\n
2
\r\n
30
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
420
\r\n
\r\n 6.39 × 108\r\n
\r\n
6/0
\r\n
7
\r\n
104
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
440
\r\n
\r\n 3.79 × 108\r\n
\r\n
7/1
\r\n
2
\r\n
45
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
460
\r\n
\r\n 7.60 × 108\r\n
\r\n
6/0
\r\n
5
\r\n
99
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
480
\r\n
\r\n 1.67 × 108\r\n
\r\n
10/3
\r\n
3
\r\n
44
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
500
\r\n
\r\n 1.11 × 108\r\n
\r\n
9/2
\r\n
2
\r\n
61
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
520
\r\n
\r\n 4.66 × 108\r\n
\r\n
10/3
\r\n
3
\r\n
59
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
540
\r\n
\r\n 6.42 × 108\r\n
\r\n
6/0
\r\n
2
\r\n
36
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
560
\r\n
\r\n 9.67 × 108\r\n
\r\n
7/1
\r\n
6
\r\n
113
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
580
\r\n
\r\n 6.86 × 108\r\n
\r\n
10/3
\r\n
3
\r\n
49
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Each threshold was the lowest intensity of that wavelength that attracted a statistically\r\n significant number of hatchlings into the illuminated arm (as determined by a onetailed\r\n binomial test). The outcome of each threshold determination is shown by the distribution\r\n of arm entries (þ for the illuminated arm, for the dark arm). Data were obtained from 812\r\n turtles found in a total of 42 nests.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
![\"\"]({WaveL} "\\"\\"")
\r\n
\r\n \r\n Wavelength (nm)
\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n Figure 3. Log radiance available for hatchling sea finding at night, paired with the\r\n perceptual thresholds determined for leatherback hatchlings (black diamonds, this\r\n study). Thresholds for green turtle (green filled circles) and loggerhead (purple\r\n filled circles) hatchlings were previously determined by Celano et al. (2018).\r\n Thresholds indicate the lowest radiance that attracted a statistically significant\r\n proportion of the hatchlings into the illuminated Y-maze arm. Data points lower in the\r\n graph represent greater (enhanced) sensitivity. The paired lines at the top of the\r\n graph show the background light spectra measured at Juno Beach, Florida, U.S.A., under\r\n full moon (dark blue), quarter moon (blue) and new moon (light blue) conditions. The\r\n top line of each pair corresponds to the brighter seaward horizon while the bottom\r\n line corresponds to the dimmer landward horizon.\r\n \r\n
\r\n
Paired Radiance Thresholds
\r\n
\r\n Loggerhead discrimination thresholds at 400 and 500 nm were well below the radiance\r\n differences between the landward and seaward horizon, regardless of lunar phase (Table\r\n 2). The same was true for leatherback discrimination thresholds under full moon\r\n illumination and at 500 nm under new moon illumination (Table 2). However, at 400 nm\r\n under light levels during a new moon, leatherback discrimination thresholds exceeded\r\n those horizon radiance differences (Table 2).\r\n
\r\n
Crawling Paths, Circling and Orientation Accuracy
\r\n
\r\n Hatchling releases were conducted adjacent to seven different leatherback nests at Juno\r\n Beach. A total of 33 leatherback hatchlings from eight nests and 24 loggerhead\r\n hatchlings from five nests served as subjects for these observations.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Under a full moon, both leatherback and loggerhead hatchlings showed statistically\r\n significant (Rayleigh tests: P 0.05) and statistically identical (U2 = 0.064, P <\r\n 0.50) orientation in a seaward direction (Fig. 4). Under new moon conditions, loggerhead\r\n orientation accuracy was statistically identical to its performance under a full moon\r\n (U2 = 0.041, P < 0.50). That was also the case with leatherbacks although the vectors\r\n for individual turtles were more variable than those shown under a full moon. However,\r\n performance did not differ statistically from observations made under full moon\r\n illumination (U2 = 0.13, P < 0.20; Fig. 4). In loggerheads, differences in lunar\r\n phase had no statistical effect on the distribution of crawl durations or the frequency\r\n of circling (Fig. 4, Table 3). However, in leatherbacks, under new moon conditions,\r\n crawling durations (ManneWhitney U test: U = 46.0, P < 0.001) and circling (Fisher's\r\n exact test: P = 0.02) increased significantly compared to their frequencies under full\r\n moon illumination.\r\n
\r\n
DISCUSSION
\r\n
\r\n Perceptual Sensitivity Convergence among Species during Sea Finding\r\n
\r\n
\r\n In this study we obtained phototaxis thresholds for leatherback hatchlings using the\r\n same techniques employed previously to determine those perceptual thresholds for\r\n loggerhead and green turtle hatchlings. All three species demonstrated an enhanced\r\n sensitivity to shorter light wavelengths during sea finding (360−500 nm; Fig. 3). Why\r\n this enhanced sensitivity persists during sea finding is not obvious especially since\r\n physiologically, all three species can detect much longer wavelengths (Crognale et al.,\r\n 2008; Granda & O'Shea, 1972; Horch et al., 2008) and light at those longer frequencies\r\n is more abundantly available at night (Cronin et al., 2014).\r\n
\r\n
\r\n One possibility is that ‘dark noise’, associated with the longer wavelengths, could make\r\n discriminating between horizon brightness differences more difficult. Dark noise is\r\n defined as the activation of biochemical pathways responsible for receptor response by\r\n means other than those produced by photons (Aho et al., 1988; Warrant, 1999). Its\r\n interference increases as a function of longer wavelengths and elevated body\r\n temperatures (Cronin et al., 2014). Under most circumstances, dark noise effects do not\r\n occur in reptiles as their body temperature, especially at night, is generally cool, but\r\n the digging activity of dozens of hatchlings associated with emergence from the nest can\r\n elevate their body temperatures to values between 25° and 28° C (Mrosovsky, 1968). Under\r\n those conditions, being most sensitive to the shorter light wavelengths may provide\r\n advantages.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n S. E. Trail, M. Salmon / Animal Behaviour 187 (2022) 47-54\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Table 2
\r\n Dune and seaward radiance differences and intensity discrimination thresholds of\r\n leatherback and loggerhead hatchlings at two (400 and 500 nm) wavelengths\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Wavelength (nm)\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \r\n Radiance difference
(photons per cm2 /s)a\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n \r\n Intensity discriminationb\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Full Moon
\r\n
New Moon
\r\n
Species
\r\n
\r\n\r\n Threshold
(photons per cm2 /s)\r\n
\r\n
Distribution (+/−)
\r\n
No. of hatchlings tested
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
400
\r\n
\r\n 8.40 × 109\r\n
\r\n
\r\n 5.80 × 108\r\n
\r\n
Leatherback
\r\n
\r\n 9.26 × 108\r\n
\r\n
7/1
\r\n
55
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
500
\r\n
\r\n 9.30 × 109\r\n
\r\n
\r\n 6.20 × 108\r\n
\r\n
Loggerhead
\r\n
\r\n 2.42 × 108\r\n
\r\n
7/1
\r\n
36
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Leatherback
\r\n
\r\n 5.11 × 108\r\n
\r\n
12/4
\r\n
60
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Loggerhead
\r\n
\r\n 2.87 × 108\r\n
\r\n
7/1
\r\n
74
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n a Radiance differences between the dune and seaward view, based upon light\r\n levels measured at a nesting site (Juno Beach) in Florida. Values are based upon\r\n measurements presented in Celano et al. (2018).\r\n
\r\n
\r\n b Thresholds measured in the laboratory based upon a value twice the radiance\r\n of the threshold at that wavelength (see Table 1). Each intensity discrimination threshold\r\n was the smallest difference at that wavelength that attracted a statistically significant\r\n number of hatchlings into the more brightly illuminated arm (as determined by a onetailed\r\n binomial test). The outcome for each threshold is shown by the distribution of arm entries\r\n (+ for the brighter illuminated arm, − for the dimmer illuminated arm).\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
![\"\"]({Paths} "\\"\\"")
\r\n
\r\n \r\n Figure 4. Crawling paths for hatchlings released at Juno Beach, Florida, U.S.A. under full\r\n (left circles) and new moon (right circles) illumination. Top row, leatherback hatchlings;\r\n bottom row, loggerhead hatchlings. a = group mean orientation angle; r = r vector, a\r\n measure of the angular variation within each distribution; N = the number of subjects.\r\n Note that some hatchlings show straight paths while others show occasional circles, and\r\n that leatherback circling increases under new moon conditions (see Table 3). Blue arrow\r\n indicates the most direct path to the sea. In all experiments, the hatchlings were\r\n significantly oriented (Rayleigh test: P ⋜ 0.05). See the text and Table 3 for additional\r\n details.\r\n \r\n
\r\n\r\n
\r\n
\r\n S. E. Trail, M. Salmon / Animal Behaviour 187 (2022) 47-54\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Table 3
\r\n Comparisons between the performance of leatherback and loggerhead hatchlings during their\r\n crawls to the ocean from the nest site under full and new moon illumination\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \r\n Species a,\r\n b\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n Lunar phase\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Sample size\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Circle crawls\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Straight crawls\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Median duration (min)\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Within species comparisons\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Leatherbacks
\r\n
Full
\r\n
18
\r\n
2
\r\n
16
\r\n
3.65
\r\n
U = 46
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
New
\r\n
15
\r\n
8
\r\n
7
\r\n
7.75
\r\n
P < 0.001
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Loggerheads
\r\n
Full
\r\n
12
\r\n
4
\r\n
8
\r\n
4.00
\r\n
U = 49
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
New
\r\n
11
\r\n
1
\r\n
11
\r\n
3.06
\r\n
P = 0.10
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \r\n Data include the sample size (number of hatchlings tested), the number of those turtles\r\n that crawled on straight versus circular paths and the median crawl duration of each\r\n species. Statistical comparisons are made using a 2 × 2 Fisher's exact test for straight\r\n versus circular paths and a Manne−Whitney U test (one-tailed) to compare crawl durations\r\n within and between the species. See the text for additional information.\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n \r\n a Under full moon illumination, there were no statistical differences between\r\n the species in the proportion of circling versus straight crawls. Under new moon\r\n illumination, leatherback circling increased significantly (Fisher's exact test: P =\r\n 0.02).\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n \r\n\r\n b Under full moon illumination, there were no statistical differences between\r\n the species in crawl duration. Under new moon illumination, leatherback crawls were\r\n significantly longer than those of loggerheads (Manne−Whitney U test: U = 22.5, P <\r\n 0.01)\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Light Perception, Background Illumination and Circling Behaviour We found that\r\n leatherback hatchlings were 10−100 times less sensitive than loggerhead or green turtle\r\n hatchlings to those shorter wavelengths (Fig. 3). That result came as a surprise as\r\n leatherbacks, both as juveniles (Wyneken & Salmon, 1992) and as adults (Hays et al.,\r\n 2004), forage during the day and at night whereas green turtles (Ogden et al., 1983) and\r\n loggerheads (Iverson et al., 2019) are primarily day-active foragers. However,\r\n leatherback eyes also fail to show any obvious structural adaptations that might promote\r\n improved visual function under dim lighting conditions, such as a proportionally larger\r\n cornea or lens to increase lightgathering potential, an increase in the ratio of rods to\r\n cones, or a tapetum to enhance photon detection (Fritsches & Warrant, 2013).\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Given our perceptual threshold results, it seemed plausible to speculate that the more\r\n frequent circling behaviour by leatherback hatchlings might be related to differences in\r\n perceptual sensitivity. That hypothesis prompted us to pair our laboratory studies on\r\n perceptual sensitivity and intensity discrimination thresholds with a field study at the\r\n nesting beach comparing the crawling paths of both species under different conditions of\r\n background (lunar cycle) illumination.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n On the basis of our results (Fig. 4, Table 3), we came to the following conclusions.\r\n First, circling was not exclusively performed by leatherbacks; it occurred in both\r\n species, although far less often in loggerheads. Second, circling was performed by some,\r\n but not by all, leatherback hatchlings as was also observed by Mrosovsky and\r\n Shettleworth (1975). Third, the frequency of circling was positively associated with low\r\n levels of background illumination, but only in leatherbacks. In loggerheads, circling\r\n frequencies remained low regardless of lunar phase (Fig. 4, Table 3). We hypothesized\r\n that (1) the ability of leatherbacks to discern the cues used in orientation is somehow\r\n compromised when background levels of illumination decline, (2) the frequency of\r\n circling is related to this effect and (3) the relative insensitivity of leatherbacks to\r\n light cues used in seafinding orientation is consistent with, and might account for,\r\n both phenomena (Fig. 3).\r\n
\r\n
\r\n The differences between the species in their ability to discriminate between paired\r\n radiance cues provide further support for this hypothesis. Our data show that loggerhead\r\n thresholds were low enough to enable those hatchlings to detect the radiance extremes\r\n between landward versus seaward radiance horizons, regardless of the differences in\r\n background illumination associated with the lunar cycle (Table 2). So, also, were\r\n leatherback thresholds under a full moon. But during a new moon, those thresholds in\r\n leatherbacks permitted sea finding at 500 nm but not at 400 nm (Table 2). Thus, the\r\n ability of a leatherback hatchling to determine a seaward crawl direction could be\r\n accomplished under relatively high levels of lunar illumination using the full\r\n complement of light wavelengths at their disposal. However, when background levels were\r\n low, those cues became limited to a subset of the wavelengths that induce a sea-finding\r\n response.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n That may be why their orientation vectors under new moon illumination were more\r\n scattered (Fig. 4, top right), why they were associated with a significant increase in\r\n circling behaviour (Table 3) and why circling was limited to some (but not all) of the\r\n hatchlings (probably attributable to differences among siblings in spectral\r\n sensitivity). This approach and its conclusions about circling differ from those of\r\n Mrosovsky and Shettleworth (1975). They sought to determine why circling occurred by\r\n observing how often it occurred when hatchlings were unilateral blindfolded, during\r\n different phases of the day−night cycle, and as a function of changes in illumination\r\n associated with weather conditions. At that time, no information on spectral sensitivity\r\n for this species was known. They rejected the conclusion we propose here, because the\r\n behaviour shown by the turtles after blindfolding suggested that cue sampling was\r\n synchronous rather than successive and that it consisted of a bilaterally symmetrical\r\n (phototropotaxis) process.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n There are two reasons why those results might not have been representative of how sea\r\n finding is accomplished by leatherbacks. First, much of their data were derived from\r\n crawls observed in the morning or afternoon. But, leatherback hatchlings most often\r\n emerge from their nests in the early evening (1800−2100 hours, Eckert & Eckert, 1985;\r\n 1700−1900 hours, Gonzales & Stewart, 2019) and so it would have been preferable to limit\r\n trials and observations to that time period. Second, the hatchlings they used were\r\n sometimes those that had recently emerged and would have crawled to the sea that\r\n evening, but in other observations, they were subjects that had been kept captive for as\r\n long as 3 days. While they noticed no obvious effect of delayed testing, they made no\r\n attempt to quantitatively compare the behaviour of the turtles tested at different times\r\n postemergence to verify that the data were comparable.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n It was nevertheless interesting that circling during the day increased under overcast\r\n and/or rainy conditions. Marine turtle visual acuity in air is poor (Bartol & Musick,\r\n 2002), and for that reason, hatchlings determine a seaward orientation based upon cues\r\n present over large (180° wide) horizontal areas (Fritsches & Warrant, 2013; Lohmann et\r\n al., 1997). Rain and overcast skies may have reduced levels of background illumination\r\n to the point where the turtles’ ability to detect brightness differences, even over\r\n large spatial areas, was impaired.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Why Are Leatherbacks Less Sensitive to Radiance Cues Than Loggerheads?\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Finally, there remains the issue of why leatherback hatchlings are less sensitive to the\r\n radiance cues used in sea finding than their hard-shelled cheloniid (loggerhead and\r\n green turtle) relatives (Fig. 3). Given that the normal completion of a crawl from the\r\n nest to the sea is essential for establishing a new generation of marine turtles, we\r\n anticipated that selection should lead to functional convergence in sensitivity as well,\r\n especially since a similar array of light frequencies (this study) and physiological\r\n mechanisms (Mrosovsky & Kingsmill, 1985) apparently underpin how those cues are\r\n processed.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n S. E. Trail, M. Salmon / Animal Behaviour 187 (2022) 47-54\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n But, leatherbacks differ profoundly from other marine turtle species in the physical\r\n features of the habitat they exploit, in their feeding specializations and in their\r\n foraging strategies. These features are well established as variables shaping the\r\n evolution of the many and varied visual adaptations displayed by other animals (Warrant\r\n & Johnsen, 2013). Below, we present evidence that those factors also apply to the\r\n evolved differences between the visual systems of leatherbacks and loggerheads and that\r\n differences in perceptual sensitivity represent the outcome of distinctly unique\r\n species-specific trade-offs between optical resolution and sensitivity (Cronin et al.,\r\n 2014). The result serves to enhance visual function in each species, given its visual\r\n ecology.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n After entering the sea, leatherback and loggerhead hatchlings swim offshore towards deep\r\n water, but their ultimate destinations differ. For leatherbacks, it is open water, where\r\n large, slow-moving jellyfish, salps and other ‘gelatinous zooplankton’ differing in\r\n shape and colour are plentiful, and upon which they specialize as predators (Bjorndal,\r\n 1997; Jones & Seminoff, 2013). Because the gelatinous prey of leatherbacks is\r\n nutritionally poor, leatherbacks at all stages of development must forage both during\r\n the day and at night; adults have been estimated to consume 20e30% of their body mass in\r\n prey each day, just to meet their daily energy requirements (Jones & Seminoff, 2013).\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Leatherbacks are also deep divers that pursue jellyfish prey at depths where downwelling\r\n light wavelengths are restricted to those that penetrate best in seawater (450e500 nm).\r\n Like many other deep-sea organisms (crustaceans, fishes, marine mammals), leatherbacks\r\n are especially sensitive to those wavelengths, even as hatchlings (Fig. 3). At foraging\r\n depths below 1000 m where no downwelling light penetrates (Eckert & Eckert, 1989),\r\n leatherbacks may orient towards the bioluminescent flashes of individual prey items\r\n (Davenport, 1988; Haddock & Case, 1999; Widder, 2010). Adult leatherbacks will also\r\n forage in shallow coastal waters to take advantage of episodic jellyfish blooms, but for\r\n the most part, feeding is concentrated at deep-water locations where productivity is\r\n enhanced by nutrient upwelling (Saba, 2013). The leatherback habitat is best defined by\r\n the occupancy of open oceanic waters, by searches for prey that are slow moving, often\r\n large and varying in shape and colour, distributed over a broad range of depths and\r\n conditions of illumination that include the deep sea where downwelling light is absent.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Loggerhead hatchlings, in contrast, migrate offshore to oceanic nursery areas where they\r\n take shelter and find food in surfacefloating patches of flotsam. In the North Atlantic,\r\n those patches consist primarily of algae of the genus Sargassum (Bolten, 2003). In those\r\n brightly illuminated habitats, the turtles find both cover and food consisting of a wide\r\n assemblage of small organisms such as sessile epiphytes (hydrozoans, barnacles,\r\n bryozoans), as well as jellyfishes, pelagic snails, fish eggs and drift carrion such as\r\n insects that accumulate nearby (Witherington, 2002; Witherington et al., 2012). All of\r\n these items are small, and some are often camouflaged or transparent, so they require\r\n sufficient visual acuity to be distinguished from an algal or underwater background. As\r\n older juveniles and adults, they usually abandon oceanic habitats (Bolten, 2003) and\r\n forage primarily during the day on a generally richer and more diverse supply of food\r\n available in coastal waters. Prey consist of planktonic organisms (jellyfish,\r\n ctenophores) located in the water column, and more commonly, benthic invertebrates such\r\n as bivalves, crabs, anemones, mantid and peneid shrimp, hard corals and gastropods,\r\n whose capture requires that their location can be distinguished from background\r\n (Bjorndal 1997; Jones & Seminoff, 2013).\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Foraging depths are relatively shallow, usually ranging between 9 and 22 m (Lutcavage &\r\n Lutz, 1997). How, given these conditions, should visual function be optimized for each\r\n species? There are a variety of ways, described most recently in a thorough review by\r\n Cronin et al. (2014), but for these two marine turtle species, available lighting\r\n appears to be the dominant element. Leatherbacks, as feeding specialists, face strong\r\n selection pressures to successfully forage throughout the water column, including\r\n locations where visible lighting is dim or absent. Under dim lighting conditions, the\r\n answer is by delaying the speed with which larger groups of photoreceptors can be\r\n stimulated by a scarce concentration of photons (Cronin et al., 2014; Fritsches &\r\n Warrant, 2013). The result is a ‘slow eye’, as measured physiologically by its limited\r\n ability to respond to rapidly repeated (‘flickering’) light. Perceptually, slow eyes\r\n result in a brighter, but by necessity coarser, image through temporal summation and\r\n increased photon catch; both are achieved at a cost of lower sensitivity at the receptor\r\n level (Warrant & Johnsen, 2013). Leatherback and loggerhead eyes are slow (Crognale et\r\n al., 2008), but leatherback eyes (flicker threshold ~10 Hz) are about 33% slower than\r\n loggerhead eyes (flicker threshold ~15 Hz; Horch & Salmon, 2009). Those results are\r\n correlated with the differences in sensitivity we report here, and suggest that\r\n leatherbacks, unlike loggerheads, are better adapted to foraging at deeper, and\r\n therefore darker, depths (Eckert et al., 2012; Fritsches & Warrant, 2013). Conversely,\r\n loggerhead eyes are more sensitive and faster than those of leatherbacks, and should be\r\n superior in resolving power and therefore capable of providing more detailed information\r\n useful for detecting variation in prey size, colour, shape or movement. Those features\r\n should be especially useful when the predator is a generalist.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Conclusions: the Evolution of Hatchling Visual Perception\r\n
\r\n
\r\n To summarize, leatherback and loggerhead hatchlings, when they emerge from their nest\r\n and crawl to the sea, are both most sensitive to the shorter wavelengths present under\r\n the conditions of dim lighting at night. That special sensitivity differs remarkably\r\n from the sensitivity profiles obtained from an array of light wavelengths measured\r\n physiologically as neural responses in the retina. Those observations serve as evidence\r\n that stimulus filtering may play a role in sea finding for both species.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n But combined with these similarities between the two species are other characteristics\r\n that distinguish the phototaxis thresholds obtained from leatherbacks from those\r\n obtained from loggerheads. These include differences in overall sensitivity as well as\r\n differences in response to specific clusters of wavelengths, such as those shown by\r\n leatherbacks to wavelengths between 480 and 500 nm (Fig. 3). Those wavelengths are\r\n specifically beneficial later in development when the turtles become capable of deep\r\n diving to forage at depths where light is wavelength-restricted. Thus, a comparative\r\n study of visual perception between these species reveals not only the ways that\r\n perception paves the way for immediate survival, but also the ways that the challenges\r\n awaiting these animals as they grow to maturity are also programmed and anticipated\r\n during ontogenetic development.\r\n
\r\n
Author Contributions
\r\n
\r\n This study served as a Master's thesis for Ms. Samantha E. Trail. The project subject\r\n was suggested by her advisor (Michael Salmon). The observations, measurements and data\r\n analyses were done by Ms. Trail. The manuscript was written by Ms. Trail and edited by\r\n Michael Salmon, with assistance from the student's thesis committee (Drs Stephen Kajiura\r\n and Jeanette Wyneken).\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n S. E. Trail, M. Salmon / Animal Behaviour 187 (2022) 47-54\r\n
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\r\n
\r\n
Acknowledgments
\r\n
\r\n This study was completed by S. E. Trail in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a\r\n Master of Science degree in the Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic\r\n University (FAU). Ms. Trail thanks her committee members, Drs J. Wyneken and S. Kajiura\r\n for their invaluable feedback and guidance from the development of this project to its\r\n completion. We thank the research staff at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center of Boca Raton and\r\n Loggerhead Marinelife Center of Juno Beach, Florida, U.S.A., for their collaboration and\r\n support locating sea turtle nest sites. M. Royer, N. Tempel and C. Jasper fabricated and\r\n maintained various pieces of essential equipment used in this project. We thank D. Booth\r\n and an anonymous referee for comments that improved manuscript organization and clarity.\r\n Lastly, Ms. Trail thanks her lab mates, friends and family for their continued support\r\n and enthusiasm for this work. This project was supported by the Department of Biological\r\n Sciences at FAU and by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation of Fort Lauderdale,\r\n Florida, U.S.A. The research design was peer-reviewed and authorized by the State of\r\n Florida (FWC Permit no. MTP-19- 173A) and was approved by the FAU Institutional Animal\r\n Care Committee (Protocol no. A20-13).\r\n
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References
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\r\n Wyneken, J., & Salmon, M. (1992). Frenzy and postfrenzy swimming activity in loggerhead,\r\n leatherback, and green sea turtles. Copeia, 1992(2), 478−484. Zar, J. H. (1999).\r\n Biostatistical analysis (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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\r\n The UCF Marine Turtle Research Group – A Whole-Life Approach to Understanding Sea Turtle Biology and Informing Conservation\r\n
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\r\n Kate Mansfield, PhD, Associate Professor
\r\n Director, Marine Turtle Research Group
\r\n Department of Biology, University of Central Florida
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\r\n In 2013, I won the job lottery. At the time, I’d been working for both Florida\r\n International University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s\r\n (NOAA) Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Miami, Florida. I’d been writing grant\r\n after grant to support myself while working on exciting new satellite tracking\r\n techniques to finally track what was known as the ‘sea turtle lost years’—the early few\r\n years of a sea turtle’s life that is spent in the open ocean. It was about two to three\r\n years after the 2010 Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and I’d received\r\n funding to head offshore in the northern and eastern Gulf of Mexico to catch baby sea\r\n turtles, put small, solar-powered satellite tags on them using a combination of manicure\r\n acrylic, old wetsuit material, and aquarium silicone, and release them with\r\n oceanographic drifters (a fancy term for old PVC buckets with satellite tags and floats\r\n strapped to them). The data we received from these turtles, and others we’d tracked in\r\n the Atlantic was exciting—we were starting to better understand what baby turtles did\r\n during their first few years at sea, and we were turning old assumptions about these sea\r\n turtle “lost years” upside down with our new observations.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n I’ve worked with sea turtles since 1994; by 2012-2013 I’d certainly heard of the UCF\r\n Marine Turtle Research Group and its founder, Doc Ehrhart. I’d taken Florida’s required\r\n Index Nesting Beach Survey trainings including one up near the Archie Carr National\r\n Wildlife Refuge, one of the UCF MTRG’s study sites back in the late 1990s. I remember\r\n heading out to the beach early in the morning to see examples of sea turtle crawls and\r\n learn the difference between what a nest looks like on the beach and a “false crawl” or\r\n non-nesting emergences. The beach was covered in fresh crawls—all highlighted in shadowy\r\n relief with the early morning sun. I’d not seen anything quite like it. At that time,\r\n I’d worked on beaches where six crawls in a night was considered a huge (and hectic)\r\n night—not 100s!\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Fast-forward to 2013—I’d just been hired to take over the UCF MTRG; I’d “won” what I now\r\n consider the job lottery. The program was founded in the late 1970s by “Doc” Ehrhart.\r\n He’d originally trained as a small mammal biologist. But when he was a young professor\r\n at UCF conducting some of the environmental assessments for the new launch sites at\r\n Kennedy Space Center, he was asked by University of Florida’s Dr. Archie Carr, the\r\n preeminent sea turtle researcher at the time and now considered the grandfather of sea\r\n turtle research, to check out the beaches south of the Space Center for sea turtle\r\n nesting activity.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n After founding the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group in the late 70s and early 80’s, Doc\r\n devoted decades to monitoring central and south Brevard County’s beaches from Patrick\r\n Air Force Base south to Sebastian Inlet State Park. These beaches, especially in the\r\n southern portion of the county, support some of the most active sea turtle nesting sites\r\n in the Western Hemisphere. Data from the UCF MTRG were used to help establish the Archie\r\n Carr National Wildlife Refuge (ACNWR) in southern Brevard County in 1991. This 20 km\r\n (~13 mile) stretch of beach now hosts 15-20% of all loggerhead, and about 33% of all\r\n green sea turtle nesting in the state of Florida, along with 20-50 leatherback nests\r\n each year. Twenty kilometers of beach—let that sink in. Yet these numbers weren’t always\r\n the case. Back in the 1980s, Doc and his crew were lucky to observe 40-50 green turtle\r\n nests along these beaches. But with the establishment of the ACNWR, the implementation\r\n of the Endangered Species Act and fisheries bycatch reduction policies, and local\r\n beachfront lighting ordinances, one turtle generation later, the lab and program I\r\n inherited is starting to see the conservation successes for which Doc’s and others’\r\n early work laid the foundation.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n In 2013, the lab was experiencing a record green turtle nesting year. I’d accepted the\r\n job as the new director of the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group and was to start that\r\n August. I made several trips up that spring and summer to get a feel for the program and\r\n its field sites. But I’d never experienced a nesting season quite like the one in 2013\r\n (nor had my new lab). Green turtle nesting had exploded and the lab counted 11,000 green\r\n turtle nests that summer—a record. The first night I spent on the beach with what was to\r\n become my new crew, was incredible. I was visiting with a close friend and mentor from\r\n Brazil, Neca Marcovaldi. She is one of the founders of Brazil’s TAMAR—another long-term\r\n sea turtle research and conservation program. We walked out on the beach and turtles\r\n were emerging everywhere. We were trapped—when female turtles first emerge from the\r\n water to nest, they are easily spooked. We could barely walk 100 m without having to\r\n wait quietly, low on the beach while turtles emerged and crawled up the beach before we\r\n could continue on. After about an hour, we started to giggle and couldn’t stop. Neither\r\n of us had experienced anything quite like this beach and its turtles. What I later\r\n learned was that during the peak of nesting, the ACNWR beaches may have more turtles\r\n nesting in one night than most Florida nesting beaches see in an entire season.\r\n Conceptually, I’d known that it was a high density nesting beach, but until I’d spent a\r\n night, and now several summers, on the beach, “high density” was just a concept, not an\r\n experience.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Sea turtle research is “slow science”. Some species of sea turtle take upwards of 25-35\r\n years to reach maturity. That’s 2-3 decades before they can reproduce and contribute to\r\n the growth of their population. After their first years in the open ocean as part of the\r\n sea turtle “lost years”, larger juvenile turtles recruit back to coastal waters where\r\n they may remain until maturity. These coastal waters include places like the Indian\r\n River Lagoon in Florida where Doc also started long-term in-water monitoring program.\r\n Twice a month, year-round, a crew of students, staff, and faculty take three boats and\r\n set a half-kilometer long tangle net just south of the Sebastian Inlet. The net soaks\r\n for 3 hours, and all turtles snagged in the net are immediately removed to a “work-up”\r\n boat where they are measured, weighed, and their health and diet are assessed through\r\n blood draws and tissue samples. About half of the juvenile green turtles caught in the\r\n IRL have a disease called fibropapillomatosis (FP). This disease results in large tumors\r\n found on the soft tissue of sea turtles infected with a virus thought to be associated\r\n with the disease.\r\n
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![\"\"]({JuvenileT} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n A juvenile loggerhead turtle carries a specialized transmitter to reveal its movements\r\n in the open ocean. Activity authorized under NMFS Permit #19508. Photo: K. Mansfield.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Gustavo’s work will help us understand whether these numbers reflect broad genetic\r\n diversity or whether the thousands of turtles now found in our study areas are part of a\r\n genetically fragile group with little diversity stemming from those few but persistent\r\n turtles in the 1980s.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n We continue to push the boundaries of our offshore “lost years” work. We have active\r\n research programs to tag and track baby turtles in the North and South Atlantic, and\r\n collaborations elsewhere in the world. We will also be testing newly developed, smaller\r\n solar GPS tags with more sensors that will allow us to better understand the behavior\r\n and movements of baby turtles during their first years at sea. In collaboration with the\r\n ICARUS Iniative, PhD student Katrina Phillips is determining the likely stock and\r\n rookery of origin among the wild-caught turtles we’ve satellite tagged in the Gulf of\r\n Mexico. She is using oceanographic models to determine how they arrived at their capture\r\n locations from their source rookeries. Alex Sacco, another PhD student will build on\r\n Katrina’s work using remotely sensed habitat data to better predict when baby sea\r\n turtles are found in Sargassum, a transient, floating brown algae that provides a warm,\r\n protected, and food-filled habitat for young ocean-going turtles.\r\n
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\r\n That request changed the trajectory of Doc’s career (though there are hints of Doc’s\r\n past research training in the lab including old mouse bone preps and hints from old sea\r\n turtle datasheets.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \r\n UCF Marine Turtle Research Group’s founder, Lew “Doc” Ehrhart with a juvenile green\r\n turtle. Activity authorized under FWC MTP-231 and NMFS 19508. Photo: K. Mansfield\r\n \r\n
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![\"\"]({Greennest} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n A green sea turtle nests in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. Florida’s\r\n Brevard County is one of the busiest sea turtle nesting beaches in the world. Activity\r\n authorized under FWC MTP-186. Photo: G. Stahelin\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n When I joined the UCF MTRG, I brought with me my research on the oceanic stage turtles.\r\n Combining this work with the long-term nesting beach and in-water programs established\r\n by Doc, the UCF MTRG is now able to tackle key conservation questions across the entire\r\n life cycle of sea turtles. With close to 40 years of research data from important\r\n nesting and coastal foraging habitats, including decades-worth of blood and tissue\r\n samples collected, we can start to answer questions about sea turtle health, population\r\n changes, and diet changes over time, as well as examine responses in all of these\r\n factors with changes in the environment. One of my PhD students, Chris Long, is studying\r\n the effects of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in the IRL on green sea turtle catch rates\r\n and diet—green turtles are plant-eaters as adults, changing from a broad to specialized\r\n plant-based diet as juveniles in coastal habitats. Chris is documenting changes in green\r\n turtle diet before and after large-scale algal bloom events. Another PhD student,\r\n Gustavo Stahelin, is re-examining population genetics using new techniques to search for\r\n any changes in genetic make-up of adults and juvenile green turtles found at our study\r\n sites over the last couple of decades. Back in the 80s, there were only a handful of\r\n green turtles nesting in what is now the ACNWR. Every other season since 2013, we have\r\n had successive record-breaking green turtle nesting years with nest numbers that now\r\n exceed that of the loggerheads.\r\n
\r\n
\r\n Sea turtle research is, by necessity, “collaborative science” given the time scales\r\n associated with these animals’ long lives as well as the geographic scale across which\r\n an individual may be found during its life. Doc Ehrhart’s work has allowed me to build\r\n on the decades of data he collected, and to think about sea turtle research in new,\r\n creative ways, across all stages of a sea turtle’s life. We have exciting new\r\n collaborations with disease experts including Dr. Anna Savage, another junior faculty\r\n member in the UCF Biology Department who specializes in disease ecology. We are jointly\r\n working with or advising students who are working on the FP problem, blood health\r\n parameters across all life stages, as well as a PhD student, Katie Martin, who will be\r\n looking at gene expression and developmental immune questions across all life stages,\r\n from eggs to adults. Finally, with the addition of sea turtle diet expert Dr. Erin Seney\r\n to the lab in 2014 as an Assistant Research Scientist and faculty, we have active diet\r\n and novel microbiome projects resulting in award-winning research by undergraduate\r\n students working with Dr. Seney.\r\n
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\r\n A sea turtle generation roughly equals the span of one scientific career. This is why it\r\n is incredibly important to maintain and support long-term collection of data for sea\r\n turtles and other long-lived, late maturing species. Sea turtles are incredibly lucky\r\n that UCF had the foresight to continue Doc’s legacy and hire a successor to take the UCF\r\n MTRG into the next 30+ years and provide continuity to the research program started all\r\n those decades ago. I am incredibly lucky to have been hired as that successor. It is\r\n gratifying to know that data from this project helps to directly inform management\r\n agencies who in turn create policy to manage imperiled sea turtle species. More\r\n importantly, this lab has a strong legacy of providing hands-on research experience to\r\n early career scientists, including undergraduates and graduate students. Many of the\r\n alumni from this lab are now among the top sea turtle researchers or managers in this\r\n field. It is easy to understand how students are hooked by sea turtles. One of my\r\n favorite things is to observe our new undergraduate summer interns each May as they\r\n encounter and get data from their first nesting turtles on the ACNWR. And later as they\r\n see their first hatchlings. By the end of the summer, these interns are like a NASCAR\r\n pit crew, jumping in to take measurements, biopsies, and tag nesting females before\r\n moving on to the next turtle, and the next, and the next... The confidence they get from\r\n the program, as well as the experience of the ACNWR nesting beach and the joy of working\r\n with such ancient and interesting creatures is lasting and a pretty phenomenal legacy to\r\n instill.\r\n
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The Florida Hawksbill Project: 2020 and Beyond
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\r\n Larry Wood, Ph.D., Founder and Director,
\r\n Florida Hawksbill Project\r\n
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\r\n The Florida Hawksbill Project finished out the decade with another successful year! Now\r\n
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\r\n Many thanks to the generous volunteers who donate their time to\r\n help search for hawksbill turtles! All activities authorized under State and Federal Permits.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n\r\n moving into its 16th year, the Project continues to gather vital information concerning\r\n the abundance and distribution of this highly endangered species in Florida waters.\r\n Since hawksbills don’t nest in Florida, it is the extensive coral reefs that line the\r\n coast from the Keys to Palm Beach County that attract them to our waters. While here,\r\n these young individuals are going through one of the most vulnerable stages of their\r\n lives, and the Project remains focused on bringing good science and public awareness to\r\n help them along their way.\r\n
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\r\n One of the most important things we’d like to know is how many hawksbills might inhabit\r\n Florida’s waters, so we make an effort to spread the search effort to as many locations\r\n along the reef tract as possible. In 2019, we visited some new areas that included the\r\n Dry Tortugas, North Miami, and the upper Florida Keys near Key Largo and Islamorada.\r\n These surveys help us understand how the seascape and other local environmental factors\r\n may influence their distribution during the time they are visiting Florida.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Hawksbill turtles primarily inhabit Florida’s waters as juveniles, and are\r\n expected to depart for their places of origin throughout the Caribbean once\r\n they reach maturity. They are dependent upon healthy coral reefs to survive.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n In 2019, myself and/or the team jumped in the water 107 times for a grand total of 4,120\r\n minutes (68.7 hours) of seeking turtles (not adjusted for number of surveyors; if so,\r\n that number would grow substantially). We captured a total of 18 turtles, which was\r\n comprised of 14 new ones and 4 ‘recaptures’, which are ones that we had previously\r\n marked with identification tags. All four were found in their original capture\r\n locations, reinforcing our understanding of their tendency to stay in certain locations\r\n for extended periods of time. Our smallest of the year, now fondly known as ‘Baby\r\n Spice’, was 26.2 cm (shell length), and the biggest was a hefty 79.2 cm. Overall, the\r\n average size of the turtles we captured was 48.3 cm, exactly what one would expect from\r\n an aggregation of young hawksbills hanging out in their developmental habitat. These\r\n captures bring the grand total to 245 individuals we’ve been able to collect data from,\r\n which is by far the largest dataset for this species in this part of their range.\r\n
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\r\n 2020 is going to be an exciting year for the Project. We expect to achieve the sample\r\n sizes required to complete some of our ongoing studies concerning this population’s\r\n physiological health, movements, and behavior. We are looking forward to presenting some\r\n results of our barnacle studies at the upcoming International Sea Turtle Symposium to be\r\n held in Cartagena, Colombia, and creating new partnerships to expand our impact beyond\r\n Florida.\r\n
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\r\n I would like to thank the strong support of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation\r\n to allow this long-term project to become even longer-term. Research conducted in the\r\n water with sea turtles is logistically challenging, very costly, and often progresses at\r\n a slow pace, but the Foundation has been able to accomodate our unusual needs patiently\r\n and enthusiastically. I’d also like to thank all the wonderful volunteers who have\r\n joined us on our survey trips, they truly make the project possible, and the Captains\r\n and Crews of all the dive boats who are so kind to welcome us aboard!\r\n
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\r\n The Pluses and Minuses of Using AMDRO© to Protect Marine Turtle Nests from Fire Ants\r\n
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\r\n Heather Smith
\r\n Biological Sciences
\r\n Florida Atlantic University
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\r\n When most people think of sea turtle predators, fire ants are probably not the first\r\n creature that comes to mind. Aside from being an unwelcome addition to backyard fauna,\r\n fire ants can wreak havoc on sea turtle nests and hatchlings. They can prey on unhatched\r\n eggs, and they’ve even been known to excavate tunnels used to monitor nests for the\r\n emergence of hatchlings. Even worse, a single ant sting suffered while escaping from the\r\n nest can kill a hatchling sea turtle, even after it successfully crawls to the ocean.\r\n
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\r\n Currently, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which administers\r\n permits to both monitor and study marine turtles in our state, recommends removing fire\r\n ant mounds located near sea turtle nests by using a shovel and bucket, or by pouring\r\n boiling water onto the mounds. While these methods can work in some cases, they’re\r\n impractical at many nesting beaches. A more efficient method for removing the threat\r\n posed by fire ants would probably be welcomed by nesting beach managers and personnel -\r\n a method that is both physically easier and more practical on remote nesting beaches.\r\n
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\r\n Such an alternative at nesting beaches might be the use of the granular bait pesticide\r\n known as Amdro©, which is widely used for the control of fire ants on residential lawns.\r\n This pesticide is generally considered to be both effective and relatively harmless to\r\n the environment. It is not very water soluble, so it is unlikely to dissolve in\r\n rainwater and contaminate the area.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 1. Left, loggerhead hatchlings emerge from their nest. Right, tracks left on the\r\n beach the morning after an emergence show that after leaving the nest (located\r\n underneath the white circle), the hatchlings crawl directly to the surf zone.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 2. The author is shown here sprinkling Amdro© granules on top of a loggerhead\r\n nest.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n We had multiple sets of control nests exposed to harmless corn grit granules or no\r\n treatment at all, and multiple sets of experimental nests that were exposed to Amdro©.\r\n After the hatchlings had left those nests, we excavated them and compared the emergence\r\n success shown by the two nest categories (Figure 3). This is a physically demanding and\r\n sometimes smelly, but relatively straightforward, task. To summarize, I found that\r\n emergence success was uniformly high and equal between the two nest categories. So,\r\n Amdro had no apparent effect on turtle embryonic development or hatchling vigor, as\r\n measured by the turtles’ ability to complete development and leave the nest.\r\n
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\r\n But how do you determine if a hatchling sea turtle is visually impaired? Fortunately, I\r\n was able to take advantage of the instinctive behavior of hatchling sea turtles. I\r\n captured them immediately after they emerged from their nest and briefly interned them\r\n inside small, sand-filled coolers while they were taken a short distance down the beach\r\n to another location. At that site, we drew a big circle in the sand, used a broom to\r\n sweep the sand smooth, and created a shallow depression in the center of the circle\r\n (called an “arena”). Then I placed the turtles in small groups in the center of the\r\n depression and let them crawl out, mimicking a second “emergence”. We used their flipper\r\n tracks, left on the smoothed sand surface, to determine their crawl direction (Figure\r\n 4). At Juno Beach, this angle should be east (~ 90◦), the direction that takes the\r\n turtles most directly from their nest to the water.\r\n
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\r\n Managing a protected species requires a constant cost-benefit analysis with regard to\r\n the best methods for recovery, and with every action there is often a cascade of\r\n unforeseen effects. We are lucky to have a wide array of tools available to us to aid in\r\n our conservation efforts, but it is important to continually verify that the tools we\r\n are using are having their intended effects. This is the crossroads where research and\r\n conservation must meet, so that wildlife managers can make more informed decisions with\r\n regard to their management practices. This research was partially funded by The National\r\n Save The Sea Turtle Foundation.\r\n
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\r\n It also degrades quickly in sunlight and is therefore unlikely to persist long\r\n enough to be a long-term problem for wildlife. All of this being said, it is still a\r\n pesticide that is known to cause reproductive problems, dermal abrasions, and visual\r\n impairment in other vertebrate species. For these reasons, I collaborated with\r\n researchers from the Loggerhead Marinelife Center and Florida Atlantic University to\r\n carry out a series of experiments designed to determine if this pesticide, when used\r\n to protect sea turtle nests, was causing any harm to the hatchlings it was intended\r\n to protect.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Photo: S. Porter, USDA.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n My study had two primary goals. First, I wanted to know if Amdro© had a negative effect\r\n on embryonic development, as measured by the proportion of the eggs that resulted in\r\n hatchlings that exited the nest and presumably crawled to the sea. This observation is\r\n known as the nest’s “emergence success” (Figure 1, left). Second, I wanted to know if\r\n contact with this pesticide could result in hatchling visual impairment. Hatchlings\r\n depend upon eyesight to determine at night (when they typically emerge) which direction\r\n will lead them from the nest to the sea, a behavioral process known as “seafinding”\r\n (Figure 1, right). To answer these questions, I applied a small quantity of the\r\n pesticide to the sand directly on top of loggerhead sea turtle nests up to 10 days in\r\n advance of an anticipated emergence (Figure 2). The Amdro© granules are bright yellow\r\n and attracted some attention from beachgoers! Many asked, “Is that food for the\r\n turtles?!”\r\n
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\r\n It is hard to explain why you would want to purposely place a pesticide on a nesting\r\n beach. In this case, the benefits could outweigh the costs if, by doing so, nests are\r\n protected from the ants. But what are the costs? Luckily, emergence success is a\r\n relatively easy thing to determine.\r\n
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\r\n Once again, we compared the performance of hatchlings from control and Amdro©-treated\r\n nests, and once again there were no differences. The turtles from both groups crawled to\r\n the east. This told me that Amdro had no apparent effect on the ability of the turtles\r\n to visually locate the sea.\r\n
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\r\n Generally speaking, if you peruse marine turtle toxicology papers, you will rarely find\r\n good news. The effect of other pesticides on sea turtles is almost always negative,\r\n leading to reductions in fertility, tumors, and drastic impacts on body condition.\r\n Fortunately, this study produced different results. I did not see evidence for an effect\r\n of Amdro. However, I did notice something potentially concerning. As we were monitoring\r\n nests for the emergence of hatchlings, we noticed that nests exposed to Amdro© tended to\r\n attract the interest of more predators than control nests.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 3. Excavating a sea turtle nest to determine emergence success. It’s a smelly\r\n job
but one that’s required to determine how many turtles left the nest.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The most common predator was the Atlantic ghost crab which can prey on sea turtle eggs\r\n and hatchlings. The smell of the cornmeal and soybean oil carrier in Amdro© could be a\r\n ghost crab attractant, potentially drawing predators to the nest site. In my study, the\r\n added predators did not translate into a noticeable reduction in nest productivity, but\r\n at the same time, that effect could prove to be damaging at other nesting beaches.\r\n Amdro© exerts it influence on fire ants by attracting the ants, inducing them to take\r\n the insecticide back to the nest, and by poisoning and eventually killing the ant queen.\r\n Attracting other predators to nest sites that are otherwise difficult to locate might be\r\n a cost that has to be considered before using this pesticide at other nesting beaches.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 4. This photo shows the tracks of several
hatchlings that crawled from\r\n a depression in
the center of the arena (white circle) toward
the\r\n arena boundary. Note that all of the
tracks are oriented in about the same\r\n (seaward) direction.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n A New Approach to Identifying Sex in Hatchling Turtles, and a Potential Game-Changer for Assessing Marine Turtle Hatchling Sex Ratios\r\n
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\r\n Boris Tezak, Doctoral Candidate
\r\n Biological Sciences
\r\n Florida Atlantic University
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\r\n One of the most fascinating features of sea turtle biology is that these animals do not\r\n have sex chromosomes, nor do they produce an almost identical ratio of boys to girls (as\r\n do we and many other animals); instead, they display a mechanism known as temperature\r\n dependent sex determination (or TSD) and an unbalanced sex ratio that normally favors\r\n females. TSD means that the temperature of the sand surrounding the eggs during\r\n incubation determines whether the embryos will develop into a male or female (Figure 1).\r\n Although how this works is still unresolved, we know that warm temperatures produce\r\n females and cool temperatures produce males (think hot chicks and cool dudes!).\r\n
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\r\n Lab experiments over the past two decades show that under constant incubation\r\n conditions, temperatures below 27° C (80.6° F) produce all-male hatchlings, temperatures\r\n above 31° C (87.8° F) produce all female hatchlings,\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 2. Laboratory based sex ratio-temperature response curve for loggerhead\r\n turtles. The graph shows the relationship between temperature and the resulting sex\r\n ratios they produce in sea turtle nests. At low temperatures, all of the hatchlings\r\n are male; at high temperatures, all are female. At intermediate temperatures, the\r\n ratio of males to females varies and is 50:50 at 29° Centigrade, the “pivotal”\r\n temperature (PT).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 1. Temperature dependent sex determination (TSD) in sea turtles. Cool\r\n temperature promote the development of males; warm temperatures promote the\r\n development of females.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n and tmperatures in between produce a mixture of male and female hatchlings from that\r\n nest (Figure 2). This means that one of the most important aspects of sea turtle biology\r\n (their sex!) is dangerously vulnerable to changes in climate. Recent studies have\r\n highlighted that with increasing temperature, the sex ratios of sea turtle populations\r\n could gradually become even more, and dangerously, biased towards females. However,\r\n determining whether this prospect will happen is difficult to assess for two reasons.\r\n First, it takes marine turtles ~ 25 years (a bit sooner in some species; a bit later in\r\n others) to reach sexual maturity, so estimating sex ratio shifts in the population can’t\r\n be done immediately. A second problem is that there is no convenient way to estimate how\r\n many male and female turtles are being produced at the major nesting beaches across the\r\n globe because neither the hatchlings nor the juveniles differ in appearance until they\r\n reach sexual maturity.\r\n
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\r\n Currently, there are only two techniques that can be used to identify the sex of young\r\n turtles. One technique requires microscopic examination of their gonads (reproductive\r\n organs). This technique is very reliable but it has huge drawback; the turtle must be\r\n sacrificed which is the last thing we want to do when trying to protect an endangered\r\n species. The second technique requires “looking inside” with a small camera (or\r\n laparoscope) to see the immature testes and ovaries (Figure 3). This is a\r\n labor-intensive technique that allows for reliable identification of juvenile turtles\r\n without sacrificing the animal. However, it too has some important shortcomings.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 3. Laparoscopic procedure to identify sex. (a) Dr. Jeanette Wyneken from FAU\r\n “peeks” inside at the reproductive organs of a ~four month old loggerhead turtle.
\r\n (b) Camera view of the gonad from a young loggerhead turtle.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Hatchlings are too small for laparoscopic surgery so the turtles must be raised in\r\n captivity for at least three months, making the entire procedure a very expensive and\r\n labor-intensive method for determining sex and estimating nest sex ratios. Additionally,\r\n an expert must perform the surgery and make the identification. Those requirements make\r\n it impractical to obtain data on a large scale, for example, to determine how many males\r\n and females are being produced from the thousands of nests deposited each year on\r\n Florida’s beaches. What is needed, instead, is a simple and relatively inexpensive\r\n procedure for estimating nest sex ratios from hatchlings, without harming the turtles.\r\n
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div\r\n This requirement motivated me and my collaborator, Dr .Itzel Sifuentes-Romero, to\r\n develop a new sex-identifying technique that could be used on hatchlings. The idea was\r\n simple: find a sex specific molecule that could be analyzed from a tiny drop of\r\n hatchling blood, so small that the turtle could immediately be released in the ocean,\r\n unharmed. The tricky part was knowing what molecule would fulfill that requirement. To\r\n find out, we had to search through past publications describing what little was known\r\n about the biochemical correlates of sex determination. As mentioned earlier, sea turtles\r\n don’t have sex chromosomes, meaning that males and females have the same set of genes\r\n (or instructions). So, the sex of the individual turtles is determined by which pages of\r\n the instruction manual are read, that is, which proteins are called into action.\r\n Fortunately, previous studies had revealed a number of potential protein candidates; our\r\n next task was to determine which of these could be detected in the blood, and which\r\n reliably indicated whether a male or female turtle was going to develop some 25 years\r\n later!\r\n
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\r\n To make sure that we would have samples of both sexes, we incubated loggerhead sea\r\n turtle eggs at both male and female promoting temperatures. Immediately after the eggs\r\n hatched, we collected blood for analysis, then raised each turtle in the lab to later\r\n verify its sex via laparoscopy.\r\n
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\r\n Blood samples were analyzed using an immunoassay technique (Figure 4) that measures the\r\n presence of a molecule of interest. In this case, it was one associated with a\r\n developing male or female, but not both. We searched for a number of the candidate sex\r\n specific proteins until finally hitting the “jackpot”: a protein only present in the\r\n blood samples taken from hatchlings that weeks later could be identified with 100%\r\n accuracy by laparoscopic exam as males; it was absent from female blood samples.\r\n
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\r\n Our technique fulfills the major requirements for quickly, and inexpensively (~ $25 per\r\n hatchling vs. $300 to rear the turtle for laparoscopy), identifying the sex of the\r\n hatchlings. It is minimally invasive for the turtles, quick (analysis takes 2 days from\r\n start to finish), and perhaps most importantly it makes it very easy to distinguish\r\n males from females. In short, this technique provides an alternative to raising\r\n relatively few turtles in captivity; instead, large numbers of hatchlings from nests\r\n placed on many beaches can be quickly sampled on an annual basis. That information will\r\n enable managers to more precisely monitor changes in sex ratios that might arise from\r\n changes in climate over the years, and thus predict how those changes will affect future\r\n generations of the turtles. Armed with that information, managers can devise strategies\r\n to deal with the consequences now, before they become serious factors that threaten the\r\n recovery of marine turtle populations. This research was partially funded by The\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation.\r\n
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\r\n\r\n \r\n Figure 4. Graphical representation of an Immonoassay. (a) Different shapes represent\r\n different proteins found in a blood sample. (b, c) After identifying a protein of\r\n interest (green cylinder), the sample can be treated with an antibody especially\r\n designed to attach to that protein. (d) If the protein is present in the sample, the\r\n antibody will bind to it. (e) The antibody-protein complex can then be stained and\r\n easily visualized from a blood sample. In this study, that complex was found only in\r\n blood samples taken from turtles that became males.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n A Brief Exposure to Magnetic Distortions During Embryonic Development
May\r\n Compromise the Migration of Loggerhead Hatchlings\r\n
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MICHAEL SALMON
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\r\n Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University,
\r\n Boca Raton, Florida, 33431, USA [salmon@fau.edu].
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\r\n ABSTRACT. – In a previous study it was shown that loggerhead eggs exposed during embryonic\r\n development to a distorted magnetic field produced hatchlings incapable of using magnetic\r\n information for orientation or navigation. My study was done to determine if hatchlings\r\n could recover from those effects when magnetic distortions were confined to shorter time\r\n periods (the first, second or last third of embryonic development). Under those conditions\r\n I found that orientation still failed and conclude that even a relatively short exposure\r\n to field distortions might potentially incapacitate hatchlings that use magnetic cues\r\n during offshore migration.\r\n
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\r\n Loggerhead hatchlings (Caretta caretta) typically emerge from their nests on western North\r\n Atlantic oceanic beaches at night, and then crawl to the surf zone and swim offshore. They\r\n then migrate to nursery areas often located hundreds of kilometers distant from the nest\r\n site. Observations done over several years have confirmed that many turtles find those\r\n areas even though juveniles at this stage in their development are both small and weak\r\n swimmers. They succeed by swimming into, then utilizing, oceanic surface currents (gyres)\r\n that help transport them to distant nursery areas (Lohmann and Lohmann 2003). They also\r\n detect the inclination angle and intensity of the earth’s magnetic field, magnetic\r\n attributes that vary spatially and provide unique paired values across the migratory\r\n routes and habitats frequented by the turtles during their early ontogeny. That\r\n sensitivity makes possible a bi-coordinate navigation system used to determine position\r\n within the North Atlantic Gyre (Lohmann and Lohmann 2003; Putman et al. 2011), as well as\r\n progress toward nursery sites adjacent to the Azores, Canary and Madeira Islands.\r\n
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\r\n This study was inspired by an experiment done by Fuxjager et al. (2014) designed to\r\n determine how loggerhead hatchlings develop the ability to use magnetic information. They\r\n placed magnets in close proximity to the eggs so that the embryos developed in a distorted\r\n magnetic field. They then determined how hatchlings that emerged from those nests\r\n responded to magnetic and other orientation cues required for successful migration. They\r\n found that hatchlings were able to orient from the nest to the surf zone (using visual\r\n cues) and from the surf zone to deeper water (using the orbital motion contained in\r\n oceanic surface waves) but were unable to orient when presented with magnetic cues. Thus,\r\n a hatchling’s ability to respond appropriately to magnetic cues required that embryonic\r\n development was completed in a natural magnetic environment.\r\n
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\r\n A number of studies, however, have shown that many vertebrate species can develop normally\r\n even when exposed to deficient environments through developmental homeostasis (Alcock\r\n 2009), a process that acts as a buffer by partially or completely suppressing non-adaptive\r\n phenotypes. My study was done to determine if turtle embryos exposed to magnets for\r\n shorter and/or different periods during embryonic development might emerge from nests\r\n still capable of using magnetic cues for orientation.\r\n
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\r\n Methods. —To test this idea, I designed experiments in which two bar magnets, identical in\r\n size, shape and strength to those used by Fuxjager and associates (10-cm long x 1.4-cm\r\n wide), were placed on opposite sides of loggerhead nests during the first third (days\r\n 1–16; “early magnet”), second third (days 17–32; “middle magnet”) or last third (day 33\r\n until emergence; “late magnet”) of the typical summer incubation period (47–50 days,\r\n depending upon temperature). A fourth group consisted of nests exposed to magnets for the\r\n entire incubation period (“total magnet” group) while a fifth group consisted of control\r\n nests exposed to a pair of (non-magnetic) aluminum bars (Fig. 1). A sixth (natural\r\n control) group consisted of undisturbed nests.\r\n
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\r\n My study was carried out at Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A.(26.22°N, 80.07°W) over three\r\n summers (July–Sept, 2016–2018). That lengthy time period was a consequence of two\r\n successively hot and dry seasons that reduced hatchling survival and compromised their\r\n vigor, especially for turtles that emerged from nests during the mid- to late summer. For\r\n all but the natural control nests, I constructed pairs of “J-shaped” PVC tubes (23-cm long\r\n x 5-cm outside diameter) and buried them ~30 cm to the east and west of the egg chamber,\r\n at a depth of ~ 1.0 m to the bottom (horizontal portion) of the tube (Fig. 1). Tubes were\r\n left in place from the morning after egg deposition until the end of incubation. I lowered\r\n bar magnets or aluminum bars into each tube by a string until they were positioned\r\n horizontally in a N-S direction at the bottom of the tube; the string was again used to\r\n retrieve the bars at an appropriate time. Otherwise, each tube was sealed with a cap (Fig.\r\n 1). Three nests were assigned to each of the 6 groups. They were established at the beach\r\n in a rotating sequence at intervals of 1–4 days. In the afternoon before an anticipated\r\n emergence, I removed a sample of hatchlings from each nest and placed them on a shallow\r\n layer of damp sand inside a small styrofoam™ cooler. The cooler was stored in a dark\r\n non-air conditioned laboratory until the evening when the responses of 10 hatchlings from\r\n each nest were recorded. All of the turtles were then released.\r\n
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\r\n I determined the ability of each turtle to orient when only magnetic cues were available\r\n in an outdoor water-filled, circular polyethylene pool, 1.45 m in diameter x 53 cm tall,\r\n filled to a depth of 40 cm with fresh water. The pool was elevated on concrete blocks at a\r\n location where the horizontal and vertical magnetic components at the beach were closely\r\n approximated. The pool was covered during testing to eliminate stray lighting.\r\n
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\r\n This system is pictured elsewhere (Merrill and Salmon 2011) and will only briefly be\r\n described here. Each turtle was placed in a cloth harness (Fig. 2) attached by a\r\n monofilament line to a lever arm. The arm rotated horizontally just above the water\r\n surface to track the turtle’s directional swimming movements. A digital encoder linked to\r\n the lever arm was used to record the turtle’s orientation and send that information to a\r\n computer. A dim light, located on one side of the tank, attracted the turtle so that it\r\n swam east during a 10 min “pretest” period. That response is used to activate the turtle’s\r\n magnetic orientation system. The light was then extinguished so that the turtle swam in\r\n total darkness during a 3-min “acclimation” period. The acclimation period was followed by\r\n a “test” period when the turtle’s heading was recorded every 10 sec for 5 min. Those 30\r\n headings stored on computer were averaged to yield a mean heading for that subject.\r\n
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\r\n Loggerhead hatchlings exposed to this testing regime (developed by Lohmann and Lohmann\r\n 2004) will orient in directions appropriate to the magnetic information they detect during\r\n the test period. In this experiment, that information was the inclination angle and\r\n intensity of the magnetic field at Boca Raton, Florida. The predicted response was an\r\n eastward heading, provided that the turtles had developed the capacity to respond to\r\n magnetic cues. To find out if they had, I compared the number of mean headings that were\r\n generally eastward (between 0° and 179°) to the number that were generally westward (180°\r\n through 359°) for the turtles under each treatment condition. A binomial test was used to\r\n determine if those headings were distributed randomly or if the turtles exhibited an\r\n eastward bias.\r\n
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\r\n Results and Discussion. — While the turtles in the two control groups showed a significant\r\n eastward preference, all of the turtles exposed during development to a magnetically\r\n distorted field, regardless of when or for how long during incubation that exposure\r\n occurred, showed a distribution of mean headings that was indistinguishable from random\r\n (Table 1; Fig. 1). It appears that even a short exposure during embryogenesis (relative to\r\n the entirety of the incubation period) can affect the ability of hatchlings to utilize\r\n magnetic information. Whether that deficiency compromises the function of the magnetic\r\n compass, the ability to discern spatial position, or both capabilities is unknown\r\n (Fuxjager et al. 2014). It also remains to be determined whether turtles can eventually\r\n recover from these effects, and if so whether that recovery occurs more rapidly when the\r\n exposure period is shortened.\r\n
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\r\n My results also suggest that nests placed near to structures containing magnetic materials\r\n (e.g., steel reinforced concrete groins or steel-containing seawalls) or nests exposed for\r\n shorter time periods to galvanized metal screens and/or cages, might produce hatchlings\r\n that appear normal as they can locate the sea from the nest and initially swim offshore,\r\n but in reality are incapacitated because they are unable to use magnetic maps to\r\n determining their present oceanic location or to orient toward distant nursery areas.\r\n Irwin et al. (2004) presented similar warnings.\r\n
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\r\n Finally, there is little understanding of what developmental processes are affected.\r\n Rearing juvenile steelhead trout in a distorted magnetic field disrupts their ability to\r\n use magnetic maps (Putman et al. 2014). Exposure to magnetic disturbances even earlier in\r\n development affects the orientation of the embryo’s body inside the egg. This response,\r\n which indicates that embryos can detect and respond to the field, has been shown in fish\r\n (Formici and Winniki 1998) and in loggerhead embryos (Carthy et al. 2018). But how such a\r\n change in embryonic body orientation is related to the ability of juvenile fishes or\r\n turtles to use magnetic information remains an interesting, but currently unexplored,\r\n question. Hopefully, at some future date, additional experiments will provide an answer.\r\n
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\r\n Acknowledgements. — This study was supported by personal funds and contributions from the\r\n National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation. Thanks to Kirt Rusenko and David Anderson of the\r\n Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex for providing access to the nests on Boca Raton beach,\r\n and for allowing me to collect a sample of hatchlings from those nests. Gillian Davis\r\n provided inside space for a laboratory and a magnetically uniform outside patio for the\r\n test tank. Critical reading by Mary Jane Saunders, Jeanette Wyneken and Nathan Putman\r\n improved manuscript clarity and organization. The study design was peer-reviewed and\r\n subsequently permitted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (Turtle\r\n Permit-173).\r\n
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LITERATURE CITED
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\r\n ALCOCK, J.A. 2009. Animal Behavior, an Evolutionary Approach. Ninth Edition. Sunderland,\r\n MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc, 606 pp.
\r\n CARTHY, R.R., BROTHERS, J.R., BÉZY, V., LOHMANN, K.J., AND LAMONT, M.M. 2018. Ontogeny of\r\n orientation responses in developing sea turtle embryos. Paper presented at the\r\n International Sea Turtle Symposium, Kobe, Japan.
\r\n FORMIKI, K. AND WINNICKI, A. 1998. Reactions of fish embryos and larvae to constant\r\n magnetic fields. Italian Journal of Zoology 65:479–482.
\r\n FUXJAGER, M.J., DAVIDORF, K.R., MANGIAMELE, L.A., AND LOHMANN, K.J. 2014. The geomagnetic\r\n environment in which sea turtle eggs incubate affects subsequent magnetic navigation\r\n behaviour of hatchlings. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281:1–8.
\r\n IRWIN, W.P., HORNER, A.J., AND LOHMANN, K.J. 2004. Magnetic field distortions produced by\r\n protective cages around sea turtle nests: Unintended consequences for orientation and\r\n navigation? Biology of Conservation 118:117–120.
\r\n LOHMANN, K.J. AND LOHMANN, C.M.F. 2003. Orientation mechanisms of hatchling loggerheads.\r\n In: Bolten, A.B. and Witherington, B.E. (Eds.) The Loggerhead Sea Turtle. Smithsonian\r\n Books, Washington, D.C. pp. 44–62.
\r\n LOHMANN, K.J. AND LOHMANN, C.M.F. 1994. Detection of magnetic inclination angle by sea\r\n turtles: a possible mechanism for determining latitude. Journal of Experimental Biology\r\n 194:23–32.
\r\n MERRILL, M.M. AND SALMON, M. 2010. Magnetic orientation by hatchling loggerhead sea\r\n turtles (Caretta caretta) from the Gulf of Mexico. Marine Biology 158:101–112.
\r\n PUTMAN, N.F., ENDRES, C.S., LOHMANN, C.M.F., AND LOHMANN, K.J. 2011. Longitude perception\r\n and bicoordinate magnetic maps in sea turtles. Current Biology 21:463–466.
\r\n PUTMAN, N.F., MEINKE, A.M., AND NOAKES, D.L. 2014. Rearing in a distorted magnetic field\r\n disrupts the \"map sense\" of juvenile steelhead trout. Biology Letters 10(6): 20140169.\r\n
\r\n http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/6/20140169.short.
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\r\n Submitted: 29 November 2018
\r\n Revised and Accepted: 20 February 2019
\r\n Handling Editor: Jeffrey A. Seminoff
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Figure Legends
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\r\n Figure 1. Above, left: a PVC tube is used to secure either a bar magnet (M) or a (control)\r\n aluminum bar (A) on each side of a sea turtle nest (above, right) placed on the beach at\r\n Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A. Tubes are buried ~ 1 m below the sand surface and ~ 30 cm from\r\n the egg chamber. They remain in place throughout incubation. Bars are lowered into (and\r\n recovered from) the tube using a string. See the text for a description of the temporal\r\n schedule of bar placement. The tube is otherwise sealed with a cap (C). Circle diagrams\r\n (below) show the distribution of mean angles eastward vs. westward for the 30 hatchlings\r\n from three natural (undisturbed) and three aluminum control nests. In both groups most of\r\n the turtles swim toward the eastern half of the tank. See Table 1 for details and\r\n statistics.\r\n
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\r\n Figure 2. A loggerhead hatchling, attached by a cloth harness to a lever arm, swims in a\r\n circular pool where its orientation abilities are measured. (M. Salmon photo)\r\n
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\r\n Table 1. Distribution of mean orientation angles shown by loggerhead hatchlings swimming\r\n in complete darkness after orienting toward an east light for 10 minutes. Data are based\r\n upon the responses of 30 turtles (n = 10 turtles/nest from 3 different nests) that hatched\r\n from eggs exposed to one of the six treatments. Vectors chosen by each turtle are grouped\r\n by whether they fell within the eastern (0° - 179°) or the western (180° - 359°) half of\r\n the pool (See Figure 1). A binomial test (1 tailed) is used to determine if the\r\n distributions differ from random (at p < 0.05).\r\n
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Treatments
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Number of turtles swimming:
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Binomial Probability
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(3 nests in each)
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Eastward
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Westward
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(1 tailed)
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Natural Control
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23
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7
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0.003
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Aluminum Control
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21
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9
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0.02
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Total Magnet
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17
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13
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n.s.
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Early Magnet
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14
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16
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n.s.
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Middle Magnet
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14
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1
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n.s.
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Late Magnet
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17
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13
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n.s.
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\r\n Animal Behavior and Visual Perception:
\r\n How Does Sea Turtle Vision Differ from Ours?\r\n
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\r\n Mike Salmon, Ph.D.
\r\n Research Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
\r\n Florida Atlantic University
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![\"\"]({FAUbehav} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n I entered graduate school in zoology without really knowing what area in that enormous\r\n field was of greatest interest. I did know that spending time around marine habitats,\r\n head on view of a juvenile green turtle be they marshes,\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 1. A head-on view of a juvenile
green turtle, showing its large eyes.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n bays or the open ocean, was where I was happiest, especially when observing the amazing\r\n activities of their inhabitants. All that uncertainty disappeared two weeks after I\r\n enrolled in an Animal Behavior class taught by the professor who ultimately guided my\r\n studies toward an advanced degree. His class was an introduction to the entire field and\r\n covered a wide range of topics in two general areas: (i) what we knew (at the time)\r\n about what animals did and why they did it, and (ii) how to design proper experiments to\r\n find out more. I was soon totally “hooked”!\r\n
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\r\n I was particularly interested in studies showing that animals differed in how they\r\n perceived their world. Those differences were caused by the unique properties of their\r\n sense organs (eyes, ears, touch, smell, etc.) used to inform them about their\r\n environment. Those aspects sometimes included information that we can’t detect, such as\r\n the earth’s magnetic field or high-frequency “ultrasound”. Collectively, those\r\n discoveries led to the realization that how we view the world is unique to us, but not a\r\n “better” version than one possessed by another species. The common denominator is that\r\n each complement of sense organs provides a perceptual “window” into the external world.\r\n That window is modified through evolution to detect what each species needs to know. A\r\n proper understanding of that perceptual world requires knowing not only where each\r\n species lives (on land or under water), but also what it needs to know to survive in a\r\n hostile world.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 3. The transmission of light wavelengths through clear seawater varies with\r\n br depth. Near the surface , most of the light wavelengths present in air are also\r\n found under water. But, with an increase in depth, wavelengths shorter or longer\r\n than 475 nm rapidly disappear.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Sensitivity measurements (1) have confirmed these relationships (Figure 4). All species\r\n of marine turtles are sensitive to most of the light present near the ocean surface.\r\n
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![\"\"]({Sensivtive} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n \r\n Figure 4. Sensitivity to the spectrum of light wavelengths varies among species of\r\n marine turtles and is correlated to the depth where they spend the most time. Green\r\n turtles that feed in shallow water are most uniformly sensitive to the wavelengths\r\n present there. Leatherbacks feed in deep water and are most sensitive to bluish\r\n light near 475 nm that penetrates deepest. Such “tuned” sensitivity helps them see\r\n objects at those locations. Loggerheads show light sensitivities roughly\r\n intermediate between those two patterns\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 6. Retinal anatomy of hatchling loggerhead (left),\r\n
leatherback (middle) and green turtle (right). Yellow, red
and black\r\n regions show low, medium, and high
concentrations of visual analyzers,\r\n respectively, at those locations.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n On the other hand, there is a relatively simple and easily understood relationship\r\n between the concentration of these analyzers on the retinal surface and the visual\r\n ecology of animals living in different places. Animals found in open areas with a clear\r\n view of the horizon are most interested in visual events that take place on that horizon\r\n (for example, the approach of a predator). For that reason, they concentrate their\r\n retinal analyzers in a narrow, horizontal “visual streak” that parallels that location\r\n (Figure 5). Visual streaks are less prominent among animals that must maneuver through\r\n or around obstacles, such as trees in a forest or reefs under water. On the other hand,\r\n predators that detect discrete targets often concentrate their retinal analyzers in\r\n circular spots called “areas”. These areas are appropriately placed in the retina to\r\n register the location of those targets in space.\r\n
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\r\n One of our students (2) took on the very laborious task of identifying the concentration\r\n of those retinal analyzers in hatchling green turtles, loggerheads and leatherbacks.\r\n (These were all turtles that had recently died inside the nest so none were sacrificed.)\r\n The results were quite interesting! Green turtles and loggerheads had visual streaks but\r\n those streaks were especially narrow in green turtles (Figure 6) that feed in open\r\n seagrass meadows (Figure 5). The retinas of leatherback hatchlings contained both a\r\n visual streak and an area, with the latter located in the upper half of the retina\r\n toward the rear of its concavity. That area would focus on targets located in the\r\n opposite direction, that is, ahead and below the turtle. Leatherbacks sometimes hunt for\r\n jellyfish while swimming near the surface. When they see one beneath and ahead of them,\r\n they dive down to consume it (Figure 7). That’s why our student called the leatherback\r\n area a “jellyfish detector”.\r\n
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Do Sea Turtles have Color Vision?
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\r\n Color vision is characteristic of many, but not all, day-active animals. It plays an\r\n important role in recognizing mates, in finding suitable food, and in detecting enemies.\r\n Because color vision requires a lot of additional neural machinery, it doesn’t always\r\n evolve because there is another, simpler alternative.\r\n
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\r\n Objects can also be distinguished on the basis of the intensity of light reflected from\r\n their surface; objects then appear white, black, or show different shades of grey\r\n between those extremes (think black & white movies!). Thus, to demonstrate color vision\r\n requires experiments that eliminate the possibility that objects might be distinguished\r\n on the basis of light intensity cues. If that’s done and the objects are still\r\n distinguished, then the only alternative is that color vision is used.\r\n
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\r\n With these generalizations in mind, let’s explore how sea turtles use one sense organ,\r\n their eyes (Figures 1 and 2), to better understand why their visual world differs from\r\n ours. I’m proud to say that much of this information has been recently provided by\r\n biology graduate students at Florida Atlantic University. Their names and thesis titles\r\n are cited at the end of this article.\r\n
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Oceanic Light Transmission and Spectral Sensitivity
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\r\n Light consists of a range of wavelengths transmitted from the sun to the earth’s\r\n atmosphere that penetrate the sea as downwelling energies. The eyes of oceanic animals\r\n like marine turtles function in an environment where the available light not only\r\n fluctuates between night and day, but also with depth (Figure 3). Blue light at ~ 475 nm\r\n (nanometers, or 10-9 m) is transmitted best through clear seawater while with depth,\r\n light wavelengths shorter or longer gradually disappear. Sea turtles usually search for\r\n food visually during the daylight hours, but different species most commonly feed at\r\n different depths. Green turtles, for example, are herbivores that feed on algae and\r\n seagrasses.\r\n
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\r\n Those plants must live in shallow water where they are exposed to adequate levels of\r\n sunlight. Loggerheads, in contrast, hunt along the bottom for their hard- shelled prey\r\n (bivalves, crabs, conches) in coastal waters at depths that average 30 m while\r\n leatherbacks feed on jellyfishes and other “gelatinous” creatures in open water,\r\n sometimes near the surface but often at depths that can exceed hundreds of meters. Since\r\n all marine turtles must spend some time near the surface (to breathe), one might expect\r\n that they should detect much of the broad spectrum of light wavelengths present there.\r\n But to the extent that they spend even more time in deeper water they need to be\r\n especially sensitive to the light wavelengths present there since those best reveal the\r\n location of food, shelter, mates, and sources of danger such as predators. Is that what\r\n they do?\r\n
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![\"\"]({EyeLens} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n \r\n Figure 2. A sea turtle eye showing its lens which focuses the image on the retina\r\n (rear half of the eye surface, delineated by the dotted white lines). Notice that the\r\n image of the outside world (arrow) is inverted on the retina. That situation is\r\n corrected by the brain.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n However, green turtles which spend the most time at shallow depths are the most\r\n uniformly sensitive to this entire spectrum. Loggerheads (feeding at intermediate\r\n depths) and leatherbacks (feeding at deeper depths) have eyes that are “tuned”, or\r\n especially sensitive, to a range of wavelengths centered around the light energies\r\n transmitted best to the depths where they live. That tuning, as one would predict, is\r\n most strongly expressed in the deepest diving species – the leatherback. Note, also,\r\n that all sea turtles are sensitive to light wavelengths than we can’t see, specifically\r\n UV light. We still do not understand how they use that capacity to their advantage.\r\n
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Retinal Specialization: Visual “Streaks” and “Areas”
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\r\n The vertebrate eye is sometimes called a “camera eye” since it possesses several similar\r\n components, specifically an iris opening (like an f-stop) that adjusts to different\r\n light levels, a lens that focuses the image, and a retina that (like a photosensitive\r\n screen) receives the image (Figure 2). But that’s where the similarities end! Notice\r\n that the image cast on the retina is upside down;\r\n
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![\"\"]({FeedOpen} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n \r\n Figure 5. Animals that feed in open, unobstructed areas (top) have retinas with\r\n horizontal “streaks”. The green turtle, swimming in the seagrass meadow below, is an\r\n example.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n the brain comes to the rescue by making our visual world right-side up. Another\r\n important difference between eyes and cameras is in how the image is analyzed. The\r\n retina, unlike a photosensitive screen, does not preserve the image as a point by point\r\n representation; rather, it consists of millions of cells organized in clusters (let’s\r\n call them “analyzers”) with specialized functions. Some analyzers respond to shapes or\r\n edges, some to colors and movement, still others to movement speed or movement\r\n direction, while others to a sudden decrease in light intensity (as might occur if a\r\n large predator, casting a shadow, approached from overhead). These analyzers, then,\r\n reflect biologically significant visual events and, at the same time, provide the brain\r\n with version of the outside world that is far more abstract than a picture.\r\n
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\r\n One of our students took on the task of testing juvenile loggerheads to see if they had\r\n color vision (3). That task involved training the turtles to distinguish between three\r\n colored targets (blue, green and yellow) using a seawater-filled Y maze (Figure 8). The\r\n turtles had to swim toward a colored target at the end of an arm. A piece of shrimp was\r\n their reward for doing so but even though turtles love shrimp, learning that task took\r\n weeks. Several turtles never learned and flunked this class but six “high achiever”\r\n turtles graduated to the next level. Each of these turtles then had to learn to swim\r\n toward one target when simultaneously presented with a pair of colored targets, one of\r\n which had been previously rewarded. That took only a few days. Finally, and in the\r\n crucial test, each turtle had to choose the correct target from a pair when each\r\n target’s brightness varied from one trial to the next. All the turtles passed that test\r\n almost immediately, showing conclusively that targets were distinguished by their color.\r\n Bravo! Sea turtles have color vision!\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 7. A juvenile leatherback photographed as it dives down to attack a jellyfish\r\n located below and ahead in the water column.\r\n \r\n
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![\"\"]({Juvenile} "\\"\\"")
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![\"\"]({WaterFilled} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n \r\n Figure 8. The water-filled Y-maze used to train loggerheads to swim toward colored targets\r\n (in this instance, one yellow and another blue) projected at the end of each arm. This\r\n turtle has learned to ignore the yellow target and approach the blue target. A well\r\n trained turtle, like this one, even points toward the blue target while confined to the\r\n maze start area.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Theses:\r\n Theses:\r\n
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\r\n Judith Gocke (2011) Visual spectral sensitivity of loggerhead and leatherback hatchlings:\r\n a comparative study.\r\n
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\r\n Lisa Oliver (2010) Retinal anatomy of hatchling sea turtles: anatomical specializations\r\n and behavioral correlates.\r\n
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\r\n Morgan Young (2011) Visual wavelength discrimination by the loggerhead sea turtle.\r\n
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Epibionts of Hawksbill Sea Turtles in Southeast Florida
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Liberty Boyd, Contributing Author
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\r\n The Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, located in the heart of the Abacoa community in\r\n Jupiter, Florida, is a growing liberal arts college with rigorous curricula and\r\n bountiful research opportunities for undergraduates. Every student attending this\r\n college is required to complete an honors undergraduate thesis on a topic of their\r\n choosing based on their major in order to graduate. When I began exploring my options\r\n for a thesis subject related to my marine biology major, I sought out a project\r\n involving one of my favorite marine organisms; sea turtles. Most of the sea turtle\r\n research conducted in South Florida involves studying the large population of turtles\r\n that crawl onto our beaches every year to nest, as well as the subsequent emergence of\r\n millions of baby sea turtle hatchlings. While this facet of the sea turtle life cycle is\r\n important to study, I was more interested in studying the typical day to day behaviors\r\n and ecology of sea turtles, which requires in-water research. In order to develop an\r\n in-water based sea turtle project, I partnered with Dr. Larry Wood of the Florida\r\n Hawksbill Project and the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, whose research\r\n focuses on hawksbill sea turtle population assessments and migration off the coast of\r\n Southeast Florida.\r\n
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\r\n Many scientists who conduct in-water sea turtle research ask important questions about\r\n sea turtle behavior, ecology, and habitat use. However, my central question, while\r\n involving sea turtles, focuses rather on a less explored feature of these animals; the\r\n behaviors, ecology, and distribution of the organisms that live on their exterior,\r\n otherwise known as epibionts. The amount and variety of other organisms living on sea\r\n turtles varies based on the turtle species, their size, and location. In particular, the\r\n hawksbill sea turtle is known to host a wide array of epibionts on their exterior,\r\n including over 100 epibiont species from algae, sponges, corals, and crustaceans.\r\n
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\r\n Due to the wide and diverse habitat range of hawksbills, the epibiont communities that\r\n live on their body differ depending on the home range of an individual turtle.\r\n Hawksbills found in the Indian Ocean will have very different epibionts than those found\r\n in the Caribbean or in the Pacific. Epibiont studies for hawksbills have been conducted\r\n in numerous places all over the world, but the epibionts of hawksbills off the Southeast\r\n coast of Florida have never been documented. That is where the work conducted by Dr.\r\n Wood and the Florida Hawksbill Project came into play.\r\n
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\r\n Dr. Wood, who has been collecting data since 2004, allowed me to use his capture data\r\n and photographs to analyze the epibiont communities that were present on the captured\r\n sea turtles. With a sample size of 213 turtles, there were plenty of turtle pictures to\r\n look through and see what types of animals were colonizing. I limited my focus to the\r\n turtle carapace due to limitations from the photos themselves and to standardize the\r\n study. I also used data from the capture data sheets to gain information about the size\r\n of the turtle’s shell, which relates to the relative area that the epibionts could\r\n settle.\r\n
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\r\n After looking at all the pictures, I was excited to find a variety of organisms living\r\n on the hawksbill carapaces including filamentous red and green algae, calcareous red\r\n algae, red sponge, Chelonibia spp. (sea turtle barnacles), and Millepora spp. (fire\r\n coral). I also noticed patterns in the distribution of these organisms on their shells.\r\n The red sponge was most commonly found tucked under the overlaps of the scutes near the\r\n tail end of the carapace. Fire coral, which was found on 20% of the turtles analyzed,\r\n also preferred to grow on the tail end of the shell, specifically on the pygal scutes.\r\n However, the sea turtle barnacles had different preferences and were found to settle\r\n more often near the top or middle of the shell.\r\n
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\r\n The straight carapace length at maximum (SCLmax) was the measurement I used as my\r\n standard for determining turtle size, which can also be used as a proxy for the turtle’s\r\n relative age.\r\n
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\r\n “Epibionts” are organisms that live on the exterior of other organisms. Sea turtles\r\n accumulate various types of epibionts, including barnacles, algae, sponge, and coral. In\r\n most cases, they are harmless and have formed a symbiotic relationship with their hosts.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Along with some barnacles, this hawksbill turtle is hosting a colony of fire coral\r\n Millepora spp. (light area on the shell).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n When comparing the SCLmax to the presence of organisms found on the carapace, I found\r\n that smallest, youngest turtles had little to no epibiont coverage. The first epibionts\r\n to settle were the filamentous red and green algae and the sea turtle barnacles. As the\r\n turtle grows larger and older, encrusting red algae begins to settle, followed by the\r\n fire coral. This suggests that these turtles are not exposed to areas that host these\r\n types of organisms until they move into deeper reef areas as they transition from\r\n juveniles to sub-adults. As the turtles grow, the increasing surface area of the\r\n turtle’s shell may also play a role in epibiont settlement because of the greater\r\n available space for them to land and settle.\r\n
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\r\n One of the most interesting parts of the project was looking at the epibiont growth over\r\n time based off photographs\r\n
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\r\n\r\n from turtles that were re-captured. I took a special interest in comparing the number of\r\n sea turtle barnacles between captures and found that the number of sea turtle barnacles\r\n on hawksbill carapaces increases over time. I also saw that the number of sea turtle\r\n barnacles compared to the size of the carapace tend to plateau as the turtle reaches\r\n maturity. I speculate that this is due to slower growth of the turtle shell, meaning\r\n there is less surface area for the barnacles to settle. I also think that this may be\r\n due to a reached carrying capacity for healthy barnacle coverage on the carapace.\r\n
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\r\n Moving forward, I plan to continue researching this topic by doing more spatial analysis\r\n of epibiont growth on hawksbill carapaces to gain a better understanding of how these\r\n epibionts grow and settle. I hope that this work can be used in the future for sea\r\n turtle health assessments, hawksbill identification, and to further identify and study\r\n hawksbill epibionts in this area.\r\n
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Florida's Living Dinosaurs
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\r\n Leatherback sea turtles are the largest living turtles and unique among sea turtles for\r\n many reasons. Feeding on a diet of jellyfish and other soft-bodied marine animals,\r\n leatherbacks can reach lengths of 2-3 meters and weigh up to 700 kgs. Leatherbacks are\r\n named for their rubbery skin and their carapace is composed of thousands of tiny bone\r\n plates and a thick fat layer. This flexible structure allows their body to expand and\r\n contract with water pressure, enabling them to dive to depths of over 1,000 meters.\r\n Leatherbacks also have unique adaptations that allow them to tolerate much colder water\r\n temperatures than other marine turtle species.\r\n
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\r\n In the Atlantic Ocean, major nesting beaches exist in Gabon, Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana,\r\n and French Guiana. Most of these beaches have seen increases in nest numbers over the\r\n last several decades. In stark contrast, leatherback populations in the Pacific Ocean\r\n have declined by more than 80% in recent years. Major nesting beaches in the Pacific\r\n include Indonesia and Papua in the western Pacific, and Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica\r\n in the eastern Pacific. It is not known what has caused such sharp declines in the\r\n Pacific, though El Nino effects, poaching, and fisheries interactions are thought to be\r\n leading factors.\r\n
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\r\n Florida, despite being one of the densest loggerhead sea turtle nesting beaches in the\r\n World, hosted very little leatherback nesting in the mid-1900s. However, since 1979, the\r\n number of leatherback nests in Florida has been increasing by approximately 10% per\r\n year. Due to the lack of appropriate data regarding leatherback survival rate,\r\n remigration interval, internesting interval, and population size; very little was known\r\n about this new and growing population, including why they had not been previously\r\n documented in large numbers in Florida.\r\n
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\r\n One key way to address these deficiencies is by creating a long-term, mark-recapture\r\n program designed to use tags to identify unique individuals within a population and\r\n monitor their return over the years.\r\n
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\r\n In 2014, biologists with FLI expanded upon their work that began at Palm Beach County by\r\n including the beaches of Martin County, which hosted the highest density of leatherback\r\n nesting in the state.\r\n
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\r\n Surveys of Jupiter Island began in 2014 and expanded to include Hutchinson Island in\r\n 2016, incorporating a total of 32 km of beach. During the leatherback season that spans\r\n from March through June, biologists with FLI survey the beaches in search of nesting\r\n leatherbacks. Each leatherback encountered is first checked for tags. Since tagging has\r\n taken place for over 20 years in Florida, many turtles have tags from previous years.\r\n Tags are checked for integrity and turtles are examined for signs of undocumented\r\n injuries. Untagged turtles receive two metal flipper tags and a PIT tag. They are\r\n measured and a skin biopsy is collected. Each nesting season, 1-3 turtles are also\r\n outfitted with a satellite transmitter to look at movement, dive behavior, and\r\n post-nesting migration.\r\n
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\r\n Between March 2014 and June 2017, FLI biologists encountered leatherbacks a total of 797\r\n times. These encounters were with 341 individual turtles who were observed between one\r\n and ten times each. 151 of these turtles were untagged. The remaining 190 turtles were\r\n tagged prior to 2014 in either Palm Beach or Brevard County. 148 turtles were seen on\r\n only one occasion throughout the four-year period, confirming suspicions that\r\n leatherbacks likely have very low site fidelity. While it is possible that these turtles\r\n were nesting only a single time during the season, there were multiple turtles that were\r\n observed nesting eight to nine times within a single season. Several turtles were\r\n observed nesting in both Palm Beach and Martin Counties throughout the nesting season\r\n and two turtles were observed in Palm Beach, Martin, and Brevard Counties.\r\n
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\r\n Leatherbacks observed during this study have also been observed to have international\r\n ties. One turtle tagged on a Florida beach was caught by the Canadian Sea Turtle Network\r\n in the waters off Nova Scotia as part of their ongoing inwater research. In 2014, a\r\n turtle emerged to nest on Jupiter Island with tags that had been applied while she was\r\n nesting in Costa Rica in 2001.\r\n
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\r\n Leatherback tagging began on some Florida beaches as early as the 1980s. Biologists\r\n currently working for Florida Leatherbacks Inc. (FLI) began tagging leatherbacks on some\r\n of the more densely nested beaches in southern Florida in the early 2000s. In addition\r\n to tagging each individual, a tissue sample was taken for genetic analysis and the\r\n turtle was measured and checked for any injuries. The mark-recapture data from these\r\n studies have been used to define survival rate, remigration interval, population size,\r\n clutch frequency, genetic structure, and many other important biological. Incorporating\r\n the use of satellite transmitters helped define important migratory routes and\r\n post-nesting movements of Atlantic leatherbacks.\r\n
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\r\n Despite many years of successful data collection, researchers noted that some\r\n individuals were observed only once in a nesting season while others laid as many as\r\n eight nests. There were also widely ranging remigration intervals, often as high as ten\r\n years, despite a presumed remigration interval of 2-3 years. One proposed reason was the\r\n low site fidelity of leatherbacks. Researchers suspected that turtles tagged on their\r\n study area were also utilizing beaches throughout the southeast coast. This was\r\n supported by the incidental captures on adjacent nesting beaches during morning nesting\r\n surveys. Low site fidelity makes it difficult to get a true estimate of nesting\r\n parameters by surveying just one small area. Estimated clutch frequency and population\r\n size become skewed because the probability of recapturing them declines as nesting range\r\n increases.\r\n
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\r\n This confirms what genetic analysis has preliminarily shown. Initial results indicate\r\n genetic similarities between turtles that nest in Florida and those that nest in St.\r\n Croix, Trinidad, and Costa Rica. It is very possible that the turtles that colonized\r\n Florida nesting beaches originated in one of these larger nesting grounds.\r\n
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\r\n Satellite data and dive profiles from turtles outfitted with transmitters have provided\r\n valuable information about leatherback behavior during the nesting season as well as\r\n after they leave for the year. Leatherbacks nest every 9-11 days and the majority leave\r\n the beach after a nest and head east to the Florida Current. They quickly move north\r\n utilizing this current system and stop near Cape Canaveral where they turn west, remain\r\n there for 2-3 days, and then slowly move back south to nest again. After their last nest\r\n of the season, they travel north along the eastern US coast and often end up in the\r\n waters off eastern Canada where they feed on large jellyfish aggregations. When Canadian\r\n waters begin to cool in the fall, they will migrate to foraging grounds in the mid or\r\n southern Atlantic and continue this pattern until returning to Florida to nest again.\r\n Leatherbacks are capable of diving more than 1,000 meters but spend a large amount of\r\n time at the surface, typically surfacing to breathe every 5-10 minutes.\r\n
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\r\n Long-term population studies are often the only way to answer many questions about life\r\n history, reproductive biology, and habitat use, particularly for long-lived and\r\n wide-ranging animals. It is important to continue to use individual identification over\r\n a multi-decadal time frame to better understand this population and the potential\r\n impacts of anthropogenic forces on its survival. Data collected from this study are used\r\n by governmental and management agencies to better understand this extremely important\r\n nesting aggregation and create recover strategies best tailored to this population.\r\n
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\r\n This research was partially sponsored by The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation\r\n
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\r\n Satellite Tracking Adult Male Green Turtles at the Archie Carr National Wildlife\r\n Refuge\r\n
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\r\n By Dean Bagley, Research Associate,
\r\n University of Central Florida Marine Turtle Research Group
\r\n and Vice President, Inwater Research Group, Inc.
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\r\n My quest to learn about male turtles began with the late Boyd Lyon. Boyd came to study\r\n at the University of Central Florida in 2006 from NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science\r\n Center in La Jolla, CA, where he worked with some of the best sea turtle scientists\r\n capturing turtles in the Galapagos, western Mexico, and San Diego, CA. He was\r\n experienced in capturing adult male turtles at sea, rodeo style, and planned to capture\r\n and study adult male green turtles off the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge (Archie\r\n Carr NWR). Tragically, he was lost at sea while perfecting his Florida technique, and\r\n for those of us who were left behind, the desire to find a way to honor his memory by\r\n continuing his work burned constantly. And then, one night, I found a male green turtle\r\n upside down in the surf, and two mating green turtle pairs a few kilometers away, and a\r\n new opportunity for studying adult male green turtles was born.\r\n
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\r\n Most of what we know about adult Florida green turtles comes from what we’ve learned\r\n about females on the nesting beach, because they are readily available and easily\r\n approached for study. That leaves an entire segment of the population - the adult males\r\n - unstudied. Males leave the\r\n
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\r\n Ms. Dean Bagley with a satellite-tagged female green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas).\r\n Photo: Jim Stevenson\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Figure 1. Eight of nine males returned to different foraging areas in the Florida\r\n Keys, while one male returned to forage just 43 km south of his deployment location.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Nighttime beach surveys on ATVs are concentrated prior to or at the outset of the green\r\n turtle nesting season to encounter males upside down in the surf or on the beach\r\n (presumably dislodged from females by waves) or when they wash up on the beach as part\r\n of a mating pair. By encountering them at the nesting beach, we eliminate the expense\r\n and challenge of capturing them at sea. We also eliminate the need to conduct\r\n laparoscopy, an internal examination of gonads to determine if they are in breeding\r\n condition and will migrate. By attaching a GPS-enabled satellite transmitter at the\r\n nesting beach, we learn about their behaviors while in breeding mode, and about their\r\n migrations and destinations on the return trip at the end of the breeding season.\r\n
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\r\n The University of Central Florida attachment crew make
sure Frank the green\r\n turtle is safely back at sea.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n nesting beach as hatchlings, never to return to land. Since males are seldom seen, even\r\n the most basic biological information – like size and weight – is limited to those data\r\n obtained from stranded animals and rare inwater captures by researchers during the\r\n nesting season, with one exception. The Inwater Research Group has been capturing adult\r\n green turtles in an area west of the Marquesas since 2004, in what is still the only\r\n known adult green turtle foraging grounds in the continental U.S., slowly adding to the\r\n paucity of information on adult male green turtles. Because weather is hard to predict\r\n and at-sea conditions have to be just right for capture, the number of male green\r\n turtles captured remains low. Both the Inwater Research Group and this project are doing\r\n what we can to increase our knowledge and understanding of male green turtles.\r\n
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\r\n The recovery of the Florida green turtle population ranks up there as one of the\r\n greatest conservation success stories of all time. Florida green turtle nesting in 1984\r\n was at an all-time low with only 32 nests documented by the UCF Marine Turtle Research\r\n Group (UCFMTRG) in what is now the Archie Carr NWR, on the east central Florida coast.\r\n Fortunately, things have changed and green turtle nesting has been on the increase for\r\n years. Green turtles typically nest in a biennial pattern, so that every other year is a\r\n “high” nesting season (with a deviation from that pattern every now and then). In 2013,\r\n nest numbers at the Archie Carr NWR more than doubled from the previous high. In 2015,\r\n nest totals surpassed the 2013 totals, and we are anticipating that green turtle nesting\r\n in 2017 will once again set a new record. We saw mating pairs off the nesting beach\r\n occasionally in the earlier days but since the rapid increase of nest numbers, we are\r\n seeing mating pairs on a regular basis, especially in high nesting seasons.\r\n
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\r\n This study aims to fill some of the data gaps regarding male green turtles. The Archie\r\n Carr NWR is a perfect place to conduct this research because this 21km (13 mile) beach\r\n accounts for about 32% of the green turtle nesting in Florida each year. The large\r\n number of females attracts the males, so that as nest numbers go up so do our\r\n encounters. We tracked two males in 2013, six males in 2015, one in 2016, and have five\r\n transmitters for deployment in 2017.\r\n
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\r\n Encounters were so numerous that we could have tracked many more males if we’d had more\r\n transmitters. Our study provides information on body size, genetics, stable isotope\r\n signatures, when males begin to arrive off the nesting beach, how long they remain and\r\n where they spend their time, migratory pathways, foraging destinations, and home range\r\n once they return to those foraging grounds.\r\n
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\r\n All nine satellite-tracked male green turtles from the Archie Carr NWR have returned to\r\n different foraging locations, and all but one to the Florida Keys between Biscayne Bay\r\n and Rebecca Shoals (Figure 1). One male returned to forage on the nearshore reef system\r\n in Indian River County, just 43 km south of his deployment location (Figure 3).\r\n
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\r\n After three months we decided that this was his foraging area. Stable isotope analysis\r\n confirmed his signature to be very different than the other tracked animals, indicative\r\n that he foraged far removed from the others.\r\n
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\r\n The first tracked turtle of 2017, “Frank”, was named for Frank Wojcik, the Founder and\r\n Director of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation\r\n \r\n
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\r\n While the sample size is still quite small – 9 males to date – these data provide the\r\n first look at what adult male green turtles in Florida are doing during breeding,\r\n migration and post-breeding foraging. They are providing insight on new foraging areas\r\n for adult Florida green turtles. These data were recently considered by Federal agencies\r\n in determining green turtle critical habitat. Using data generated by these transmitter\r\n turtles, we have identified foraging and sleeping areas that will be more closely\r\n examined during a Keys Megatransect. This vessel-based transect was begun in 2017 (but\r\n not completed) and will be conducted along Hawk Channel from Biscayne Bay to Rebecca\r\n Shoals to count adult green turtles and look for areas of high densities. We have five\r\n transmitters to deploy in 2017, which will increase our sample size by more than a\r\n third. Who knows what we might learn this year?\r\n
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\r\n Our first transmitter turtle of 2017, “Frank”, was named for Frank Wojcik, the Founder\r\n and Director of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation and a supporter of our work.\r\n “Frank” was released just after sunrise at the Carr Refuge on the morning of 28 May\r\n 2017. He began moving south on the 29th, and continued that course until he reached\r\n Jupiter, Florida, at which point he moved offshore and began returning north. His\r\n movements are already very different from any of the previously tagged males. You can\r\n follow his movements online at www.seaturtle.org.\r\n
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\r\n Rescued Turtle on the Road to Recovery at Gumbo Limbo\r\n
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\r\n Jake Lasala, Doctoral Candidate
\r\n Department of Biological Sciences
\r\n Florida Atlantic University
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\r\n In a previous issue of “Outreach,” Boris Tezak and Itzel Romero described their new\r\n methods for identifying the sex of hatchling sea turtles and discussed how sex\r\n determination in mammals and birds differs from that of marine turtles. Sex\r\n determination in mammals and birds is controlled by sex chromosomes; in marine turtles\r\n (and many other reptiles), environmental factors determine the sex that embryos in the\r\n nest develop. Specifically, warmer temperatures in the middle third of incubation\r\n produce more females and cooler temperatures produce more males (Figure 1.). Other\r\n environmental factors affecting sex ratios produced in each nest include rainfall, sand\r\n moisture and shading. What this means is that as the earth continues to warm, we can\r\n expect to see more female and fewer male hatchlings. This outcome is especially\r\n important in Florida where, at the present time, estimates are that over 90% of\r\n loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings are female! As Florida beaches produce several million\r\n hatchlings per year, it is likely that the adult sex ratios in this population will\r\n become increasingly skewed toward females.\r\n
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\r\n You may be wondering why this might be a problem? After all, wouldn’t more females = a\r\n larger breeding population = more turtles?!{\" \"}\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 1: Theorized sex ratio curve based off of nest incubation temperatures. Warmer\r\n temperatures produce more females (“hot chicks”) and colder temperatures produce more\r\n males (“cool dudes”). Intermediate temperatures produce a mixture of male and female\r\n hatchlings.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n But the situation isn’t that simple. As the proportion of females increases, their\r\n choice of mates can be expected to dwindle, and this is not a positive outcome. Marine\r\n turtles display sexual reproduction, in which both males and females “scramble” their\r\n genes to produce offspring that not only differ genetically from each parent, but also\r\n from their siblings (brothers and sisters). This offspring genetic variation is\r\n essential for coping with an uncertain world as it increases the chances that at least\r\n some young, by chance alone, will be able to withstand future stresses associated with\r\n changes in their food supply, competition from other organisms, disease-producing\r\n microbes, predators, and other threats (including climate change). If the proportion of\r\n males in relation to the proportion of females is reduced, the result is a loss of\r\n genetic variation that the males contribute to offspring. When genetic variation is thus\r\n reduced, so is the probability of offspring survival. It is therefore reasonable to\r\n speculate that the increasing temperatures in Florida could further alter marine turtle\r\n sex ratios to the point where adults in “male-deficient” populations would be unable to\r\n produce enough competent offspring to replace themselves, with the eventual result that\r\n the turtles might go extinct.\r\n
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\r\n Have I gotten your attention?! I hope so!! New methods to identify hatchling sex ratios\r\n (described by Tezak and Romero) reveal how environmental change alters hatchling sex\r\n ratios, but that knowledge is only half of the equation. My research focuses on the\r\n other side of the sex ratio question: what is happening at the level of the adult\r\n breeding population? Specifically, I look at the present-day composition of breeding\r\n adult populations to estimate the proportion of males to females.\r\n
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\r\n Some organisms are challenging to study because their habitat is not readily accessible.\r\n In some extreme examples, one sex is readily observable but the other sex remains\r\n cryptic; this is especially true for marine turtles. The most significant events in the\r\n life of a marine turtle take place at sea and can’t be directly observed (e.g. mating,\r\n Figure 2). In Florida, it is easy to walk the beach on a summer night and find a nesting\r\n female. They can also be tagged and counted by observers.{\" \"}\r\n
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\r\n Figure 2: Two green turtles mating in-water. Image taken by Guinjata Dive Center.\r\n
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\r\n Males, though, typically stay in the ocean where they can’t be seen. One might assess\r\n population health and estimate adult sex ratio by taking a boat into open water to count\r\n all the turtles you encounter. However, this census method is very expensive and fails\r\n to detect all the individuals in a population. Also, even if these problems could be\r\n overcome, one couldn’t be sure that every male is competitive and is able to contribute\r\n his genes to the next generation. Much depends on whether a female finds him attractive.\r\n
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\r\n Thus, in reality, in marine turtle populations with skewed sex ratios, I seek to answer\r\n two questions: (i) how many males are “out there”, and (ii) how many of those males\r\n routinely mate with each female? If, from the genetics of the hatchlings produced in\r\n each nest, I can identify the males as individuals, I can answer both questions\r\n simultaneously.\r\n
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\r\n Our lab is developing new techniques to understand the process of environmental sex\r\n determination, and to estimate current hatchling sex ratios on our beaches. However,\r\n because marine turtles can take 20 – 30 years to reach sexual maturity, these new\r\n techniques provide us with little understanding of the sex ratios in the adult\r\n population. In-water counts indicate that there are more sexually mature females than\r\n males; we might expect this outcome if hatchling sex ratios 20 – 30 years ago were also\r\n biased toward females. However these numbers are obtained, they are always a proportion,\r\n rather than the entirety, of the breeding population. Females, for example, do not breed\r\n every year; they require a few years of feeding to accumulate the energy used to produce\r\n the hundreds of eggs they place in nests during a single breeding year.\r\n
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\r\n Mature males, however, may breed more frequently since the energetic demands involved in\r\n searching for mates (and competing with other males for mating opportunities) may not be\r\n as great. Thus, what’s really important to determine is the operational sex ratio, or\r\n the ratio of breeding males to breeding females during any one breeding season. My\r\n research project is designed to address this question by identifying parentage.\r\n
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\r\n I can identify how many males a female has mated with by using genetic markers, or\r\n “fingerprints,” from small samples of blood or skin. I use tissue samples from females\r\n to identify maternal genes, and tissue samples from hatchlings to identify their genes.\r\n Half of each hatchling’s genes are maternal; half are paternal. For each hatchling, I\r\n identify maternal genes by matching their characteristics (how they migrate on the\r\n surface of a charged gel) with those of the mother; any genes that don’t match are\r\n paternal (Figure 3). The final step in this molecular detective work is to compare the\r\n characteristics of the paternal genes in tissue samples taken from hatchlings in a\r\n single female’s nest. The number of different paternal genes in a nest equals the number\r\n of males mating with the female laying the eggs placed in that nest.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 3: Illustrative gel showing how paternity is analyzed from the genetics of the\r\n female (“Mom”) and three of her hatchling offspring (H1, H2 and H3). The female has\r\n two copies of the pink and orange gene. The hatchlings receive one copy of each gene\r\n from Mom. Any other genes that the hatchlings’ possess (green,blue) must have come\r\n from “Dad”. Thus, in this example,the female mated with only one male. My data\r\n indicate that in sea turtles, that’s rare, as most of my females mated with more than\r\n one male.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 4: My study sites (Blue star, Juno Beach; Red star, Boca Raton) in Palm Beach\r\n County, Florida, where I was assisted by the marine turtle program at the Loggerhead\r\n Marinelife Center and the Gumbo Limbo Nature Complex, respectively.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n I’ve collected tissue samples from loggerhead, leatherback and green turtles nesting on\r\n two different beaches in Palm Beach County (Figure 4). These beaches were selected\r\n because of their profound differences in nesting density: Juno Beach appears to be a\r\n preferred nesting site for all three species. If these two locations are within the same\r\n nesting/breeding assemblage, I would expect to see similar behavior (e.g. similar\r\n successful mating attempts).\r\n
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\r\n What we found was impressive. From 2013-2015 I determined that all three species do mate\r\n with multiple males (Loggerheads > Greens > Leatherbacks; Table 1). However, I\r\n never found a male that mated more than once. I hypothesize that either a) there are\r\n more males mating than expected, or b) females encounter unique assemblages of males\r\n as they migrate from different locations toward the nesting beach. In reality, the\r\n number of males I documented for loggerheads (~29,000) is a relatively small proportion\r\n compared to the number of females nesting in Florida (~ 200,000 turtles).\r\n
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\r\n We also determined that females nesting at Boca Raton on average mated with fewer males\r\n than females at Juno Beach. Why that happens remains an interesting, but presently\r\n explained, result.\r\n
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\r\n My next goal is to analyze data from 2016 which include repeat nests from the same\r\n female. Those results should indicate whether females only mate before they start\r\n nesting, or if they continue to select mates while they nest and in the process, produce\r\n hatchlings with different fathers as the breeding season progresses.\r\n
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\r\n To properly plan current and future conservation efforts it is essential that baseline\r\n census estimates be quantified and robust. That’s why the information I’ve obtained is\r\n so important. It’s encouraging that the nesting populations of marine turtles in Florida\r\n are increasing. However, while this finding is positive we have no idea whether the\r\n population of males is also keeping pace. If, as our data on hatchling sex ratios\r\n suggests, the number of males being produced is in decline then so, also, should be\r\n operational sex ratios in future studies done much like mine. Those observations will be\r\n an early warning signal that the quality of future hatchlings may not match the quality\r\n of present-day hatchlings, and that a dramatic shift in population size and health may\r\n be just around the corner.\r\n
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\r\n This research was partially supported by The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s\r\n Scholarship Program.\r\n
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\r\n Species and Study Site\r\n
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\r\n Mean Number of Fathers per Nest (A)\r\n
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\r\n Mean Number of Nesting Females (B)\r\n
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\r\n Estimated Number of Males (A x B)\r\n
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\r\n Loggerheads
\r\n Juno Beach
\r\n Boca Raton
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\r\n 5.1
4.2\r\n
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\r\n 5,717
\r\n 487\r\n
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29,161
\r\n 2,045\r\n
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\r\n Greens
\r\n Juno Beach
\r\n Boca Raton
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\r\n 2.7
\r\n 1.4\r\n
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\r\n 3,432
\r\n 220\r\n
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\r\n 9,266
\r\n 308\r\n
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\r\n Leatherbacks
\r\n Juno Beach
\r\n Boca Raton
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\r\n 1.6
\r\n 1.2\r\n
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\r\n 121
\r\n 11\r\n
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\r\n 193
\r\n 13\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Table 1: Method for estimating the number of males breeding at my study sites. I used\r\n data from the gels (Figure 3) to determine how many males, on average, contributed\r\n genes to the hatchlings emerging from each sampled nest (Column A). I used known\r\n information about how many nests each female places on a beach during a given breeding\r\n season to estimate the size of the female population (Column B). The estimated number\r\n of males is then A x B, assuming each female mated with a different subset of males.\r\n That assumption was confirmed at my study sites.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Florida Hawksbill Project Partners with Inwater Research Group, Inc. to Study\r\n Sea Turtles in Biscayne National Park\r\n
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Cody Mott, Inwater Research Group, Inc.
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\r\n Florida’s nearshore waters are home to thousands of marine species that, collectively, play\r\n an important role in the health and well-being of Florida’s ecological and economic future.\r\n Among the diverse assemblages of marine organisms that thrive there, several species of\r\n marine turtles also reside among the shallow waters of Florida’s bays and estuaries.\r\n
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\r\n The first trip to BNP in July was a success. Thanks to the National Park Service, our\r\n team members were housed at Elliot Key, giving us immediate access to the Bay each\r\n morning. Each day the team surveyed among the barrier mangrove islands, the nearshore\r\n reefs, and within the Bay itself. These baselines surveys will be used to locate sea\r\n turtle “hot spots” and selected for more detailed investigation on future trips. Though\r\n more turtles were observed in some areas than others, enough data were collected to\r\n begin estimating the relative abundance of sea turtle species and age groups in the\r\n park. Depending on our location, green turtles were most likely to be encountered\r\n followed by loggerheads. No hawksbills were positively identified, but that’s\r\n understandable given the habitat types were surveyed.\r\n
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\r\n The group plans to return to BNP in the summer of 2017 to continue the research. Next\r\n year the team will continue to survey within Biscayne Bay to search for more sea turtle\r\n “hot spots.” The surveys will also be expanded to include deeper offshore barrier reefs,\r\n preferred habitat for hawksbill turtles. These surveys will give BNP the necessary\r\n scientific information to better protect the threatened and endangered sea turtles\r\n living within the park.\r\n
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\r\n Encompassing Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs, Biscayne National Park (BNP)\r\n is located just south of Miami, Florida, USA. It is unusual because 95% of the park’s\r\n 175,000 acres are under water and most of the land within the Park is only accessible by\r\n boat. These waters provide refuge to 16 endangered or threatened marine species\r\n including potentially significant numbers of green, loggerhead, and hawksbill sea\r\n turtles. Despite its proximity to the busy Miami metropolitan area and its known\r\n suitability as sea turtle foraging habitat, there has been surprisingly little effort to\r\n study the sea turtle populations found in the park. Managers depend on solid scientific\r\n research to make important decisions regarding the waters, habitats, and organisms\r\n living within the park. The Florida Hawksbill Project at The National Save The Sea\r\n Turtle Foundation are partnering with the Inwater Research Group, Inc. to undertake the\r\n first detailed study of threatened and endangered sea turtles within BNP waters. The\r\n resulting data will provide a long-awaited baseline of sea turtle abundance and\r\n distribution in this important and biologically productive part of Florida’s coastline.\r\n This data will then be reported to the BNP and benefit the management strategies for sea\r\n turtles within the park’s boundaries.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n This Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta) was one of many sea turtles the
team\r\n encountered in Miami’s Biscayne National Park. A few were
selected for capture\r\n and taggiug.\r\n \r\n
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![\"\"]({VariousRoutes} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n \r\n The various routes the Team explored in search of the sea turtles of Biscayne National\r\n Park (yellow lines), and where they were spotted along the way (turtles). These\r\n preliminary data inform the Team of the relative abundance and distribution of the\r\n turtles in the Bay, and help target future efforts.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Evaluating the Effects of Paternity on Hatchling Body Size in Leatherback Sea Turtle\r\n Hatchlings
\r\n (Dermochelys coriacea) Using DNA Microsatellites\r\n
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\r\n Shreya Banerjee,
\r\n M.S. Student, Marine Biology,
\r\n Scripps Institution of Oceanography
\r\n University of California, San Diego
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\r\n Marine Mammal and Turtle Division
\r\n Southwest Fisheries Science Center
\r\n National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA
\r\n 8901 La Jolla Shores Drive
\r\n La Jolla, CA, 92037
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\r\n Male leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are rarely seen, and it is difficult to\r\n assess aspects of their reproductive success, such as the quantity and body size of\r\n their offspring. Molecular techniques can reveal paternal contributions to hatchlings\r\n without sampling the males themselves, provided that the female’s identity is known.\r\n From June through August (2015, 2016), we measured body size and collected skin samples\r\n from leatherback hatchlings at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, St. Croix, USVI.\r\n Seven microsatellite DNA markers will be used to evaluate paternity within 20\r\n leatherback nests laid by individual females. Maternal and hatchling genotypes will be\r\n used to reconstruct paternal genotypes and assign hatchlings to a father. For nests with\r\n multiple paternity, we will compare the carapace lengths and weights of hatchlings from\r\n the same mother but from different fathers to determine whether there is a significant\r\n difference in size for hatchlings based on paternal identity. We will determine whether\r\n nests with multiple paternity have greater size variation than single paternity nests.\r\n
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\r\n We will also quantify the overall size variation among leatherback hatchlings at SPNWR.\r\n Understanding factors that affect hatchling body size, which may be a measure of fitness,\r\n and identifying males through paternity analysis will help inform management strategies\r\n for leatherbacks. We greatly appreciate the financial support of The National Save The Sea\r\n Turtle Foundation in furthering this important research.\r\n
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\r\n\r\n Objectives:\r\n\r\n
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\r\n Determine if there is a correlation between hatchling size variation and differential\r\n paternity within leatherback clutches.\r\n
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\r\n Determine whether there is a correlation between hatchling size variation and the number\r\n of contributing fathers among leatherback clutches.\r\n
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\r\n Quantify overall leatherback hatchling size variation at Sandy Point National Wildlife\r\n Refuge, St. Croix, USVI.\r\n
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\r\n Expected Outcomes:\r\n
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\r\n A preliminary study using eight nests with 12 hatchlings each revealed multiple paternity\r\n in four out of eight nests. For these four nests, we found no significant difference\r\n between the sizes of hatchlings based on paternal identity within a clutch. A larger\r\n sample size is needed to strengthen and further evaluate this conclusion. This\r\n investigative study found a much higher rate of multiple paternity (50%) than the\r\n previously reported rate of 23.6% (Stewart and Dutton, 2014). The eight nests analyzed\r\n were selected because they had the highest size variation of nests measured. It is\r\n possible that this biased selection, in addition to small sample size, explains the high\r\n rate of multiple paternity. This indicates that nests with multiple paternity may have\r\n more within nest body size variation, and this warrants further investigation with more\r\n hatchlings from additional nests using random selection of both nests and hatchlings.\r\n
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Can Marine Turtles Navigate? How Do We Know?
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\r\n Mike Salmon, Professor
\r\n Department of Biological Sciences
\r\n Florida Atlantic University
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\r\n Some animals have an uncanny ability to complete long distance migrations, and in many\r\n species that task is done repeatedly during each individual’s lifetime. Migrators are\r\n organisms that specialize in finding habitats ideal for particular activities at\r\n particular times during their growth and development. For example, they may occupy\r\n habitats as juveniles (“nursery” or “developmental” habitats), different from those\r\n occupied by adults. They may also use specific habitats for breeding, for overwintering,\r\n or for finding food or shelter.\r\n
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\r\n All species of marine turtles are superb migrators! In fact, they demonstrate this\r\n ability almost immediately as hatchlings that have completed embryonic development\r\n within an underground nest. Hatchlings then dig their way upward to the beach surface,\r\n scamper unerringly toward the surf zone, and swim vigorously offshore and out to sea.\r\n Thus begins a migration toward oceanic nursery areas hundreds of miles distant where\r\n they usually reside for many years.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 1. Offshore migration by hatchling sea turtles is accomplished by using three\r\n sets of cues in succession. After emerging from their nest, the turtles use visual\r\n cues to locate the surf zone, the motion of waves in shallow water to swim, and\r\n finally in deep water the earth’s magnetic field (where the waves no longer reliably\r\n indicate an offshore direction). (Modified from The Biology of Sea Turtles, Vol. I,\r\n CRC Press).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n You might be curious about how a small turtle, minutes after it leaves an underground\r\n nest, can achieve a such a difficult task in a world it has never before experienced.\r\n Experiments done by inquisitive biologists have shown that the hatchlings accomplish\r\n this feat using three sets of cues, each of which keeps them on course during specific\r\n portions of their journey (Figure 1). While scampering down the beach, the turtles use\r\n visual cues; they crawl away from high structures (the dune and its vegetation toward\r\n land) and crawl toward lower vistas (the unobstructed view toward the sea). Once they\r\n enter the ocean, vision is switched\r\n
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\r\n off and the turtles turn on a motion sensitivity that enables them to respond to the\r\n up-and-down displacements produced by oceanic waves where they swim: near the ocean\r\n surface. The turtles can actually use those displacements to determine the direction of\r\n the oncoming waves. They continue offshore by swimming in the opposite direction. This\r\n “wave compass” works because in shallow water, the waves are turned by bottom friction\r\n and always approach the shore parallel to the coastline (Figure 1). But later, in deeper\r\n water, wave direction is dictated by winds which can blow from other directions.\r\n Hatchlings “know” about how long their wave compass is reliable (~ 30 minutes) and so\r\n when that time ends, they switch to a third cue, the earth’s magnetic field, which\r\n dominates as a compass for the remainder of their migration. Magnetic cues also guide\r\n the migratory directions chosen by older turtles during their return from oceanic\r\n nursery sites to coastal habitats, where they finish growing. That return is\r\n characteristic of most species of marine turtles because food is more abundant near\r\n shore than in the open ocean, and more food results in faster, healthier growth.\r\n
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\r\n Orientation biologists are fascinated by the precision and complexity of animal\r\n migratory movements as well as the variety of underlying mechanisms that enable the\r\n animals to complete these journeys. Here, I review their discoveries that explain how\r\n marine turtles migrate. In particular, I’ll emphasize the many experiments done by\r\n Professors Ken and Cathy Lohmann at the University of North Carolina, and by one of\r\n their doctoral students, Nathan Putman. It is largely through their efforts that we now\r\n understand how marine turtles became expert migrators, millions of years before we even\r\n thought about inventing the GPS!\r\n
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\r\n After many years of study biologists realized that two processes, differing in\r\n complexity, appeared to control how all animals complete their migratory movements. One\r\n process is called orientation, or an ability to maintain a direction using an external\r\n cue, or guidepost, as a reference. Which cue is used varies with when and where the\r\n animal migrates; it can be astronomical in nature (the sun, stars, moon), an odor\r\n carried downstream by wind or water currents, a sound, the pull of gravity, the tides\r\n or, for sea turtles, even oceanic waves.\r\n
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![\"\"]({HomingEx} "\\"\\"")
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\r\n Figure 2. Homing experiments distinguish between an animal’s ability to orient from\r\n its ability to navigate, based upon how the animals behave when released in an\r\n unfamiliar area. The red circles are “home” (the capture site); the black hexagons are\r\n unfamiliar release sites. Arrows show what direction the released animal selects. An\r\n animal that can orient chooses the same direction, regardless of whether that path\r\n actually takes it toward home. An animal that navigates, however, first determines its\r\n location relative to home and then chooses a direction that will return it to home.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The offshore orientation of hatchlings, described above, took many experiments, done\r\n over several years, to fully understand and appreciate. How was it possible for most\r\n hatchlings to migrate successfully, given the variation in conditions they encounter in\r\n nature? For example, on some evenings hatchlings crawled from the nest to sea when the\r\n ocean was glassy calm. Yet, even in the absence of waves hatchlings still swam directly\r\n offshore in spite of other experiments showing that when waves were present, hatchlings\r\n used them as a guidepost.\r\n
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\r\n The answer came from other experiments showing that the beach crawl could also be used\r\n to establish an offshore directional preference, transferred immediately in the absence\r\n of waves to the turtle’s magnetic compass. Similarly, if a female placed her nest too\r\n close to the surf zone, hatchlings experience an abbreviated crawl that was insufficient\r\n to establish an offshore directional preference. Under those conditions, swimming into\r\n oncoming waves served that purpose. Collectively, then, these experiments established\r\n that hatchlings possessed an amazingly effective set of flexible orientation mechanisms\r\n characterized by built-in redundant features. These virtually guarantee that under most\r\n circumstances, turtles successfully complete their offshore migration. It turns out that\r\n redundancy, the use of alternative mechanisms to orient migrations, is a general feature\r\n of these systems that applies to a wide variety of species, from birds to fishes and of\r\n course, to marine turtles!\r\n
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\r\n But even an impressive system based exclusively on orientation pales in comparison with\r\n an ability to navigate. Navigation underlies some (but not all) migratory movements and\r\n is defined as an ability to reach a goal from any unfamiliar location. One can’t\r\n distinguish between orientation and navigation on the basis of how well animals maintain\r\n a direction; instead, homing experiments are done in which an animal is displaced to an\r\n unfamiliar location, released, and its ability to return observed (Figure 2). These\r\n tests show that orientation is a one-step process (a similar response to a guidepost)\r\n but navigation requires two steps. First, the animal must determine its location\r\n relative to a goal; this is known as the “map step”. Second, it uses that information to\r\n orient on an appropriate homeward path (the “compass step”; Figure 2). The guidepost(s)\r\n used for the second step are often identical to those used by animals only capable of\r\n orientation, but that’s where the similarities end. It’s the map sense that makes\r\n navigation such an interesting and more complicated process.\r\n
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\r\n Think for a moment about what such a capacity means to a migrating animal! Maps only\r\n work if each location within the range of places an animal might frequent has a unique\r\n characteristic, one that defines and distinguishes it from any other location within\r\n that range. Humans create abstract maps of the entire world using a labelling system of\r\n orthogonal (fixed at a 90° to one another) bi-coordinates we call latitude and\r\n longitude. Animal maps must also consist of bi-coordinates though they do not\r\n necessarily have to be\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 3. Left: The earth’s magnetic field consists of lines of force (small arrows)\r\n that produce a symmetric array of gradually changing dip angles. These range between\r\n 0° (lines parallel to the earth’s surface) at the magnetic equator that gradually\r\n increase to 90° at the magnetic poles. An animal that can detect dip angle can use\r\n that information to determine its North-South (N-S), or latitudinal, location on the\r\n earth’s surface. Magnetic field strength also varies along a N-S axis. It is weakest\r\n at the magnetic equator and strongest at the magnetic poles. Right: Hatchling\r\n loggerheads orient in different directions (see circle diagrams) when exposed in the\r\n laboratory to the magnetic field present on the west, northeast, and south side of the\r\n circular current (the North Atlantic Gyre) that is their nursery. Since their\r\n orientation varies with N-S location, the turtles must be able to determine their\r\n latitude. That determination can be based upon magnetic field dip angle, magnetic\r\n field intensity, or both qualities. However, their ability to determine their\r\n longitudinal (E-W) position is not conclusively proven by these observations.\r\n (Modified from Lohmann Lab. Webpage, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n arranged orthogonally. Ken and Cathy Lohmann showed that hatchling loggerhead turtles\r\n used the earth’s magnetic field as a kind of map to maintain their position within the\r\n North Atlantic Gyre current, their nursery area (Figure 3). This ability was evident in\r\n turtles captured immediately after they left the nest but before they crawled down the\r\n beach to the ocean. Thus, the hatchling map enabled the turtles to orient appropriately\r\n in an environment that they had yet to experience!\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 4. This experiment shows that hatchling loggerheads can use the earth’s\r\n magnetic field to determine their East-West (longitudinal) position. Upper diagram:\r\n Loggerhead hatchlings are divided into two groups. One group is exposed to a magnetic\r\n field on the east side of the Atlantic Ocean while a second group is exposed to a\r\n magnetic field on the west side. Both fields occur in the North Atlantic Gyre nursery\r\n area, and both are centered at the same (20° N) latitude. The hatchlings in each group\r\n orient in opposite directions (circle diagrams below the gyre), and so distinguish\r\n between the two locations. Lower diagram: Colored layers represent the gradient in\r\n dip-angle while the white lines represent the gradient in magnetic intensity. Both\r\n increase to the north but in patterns that differ so that each location has unique\r\n values of dip angle (here, 46.4° vs. 26.1°) and magnetic intensity (39 nT vs. 35 nT [=\r\n nanotesla]). These results show that the turtles distinguish between those values to\r\n determine their longitudinal position. (Modified from N. Putman et al., Current\r\n Biology, Vol 21, pp. 463-466, 2011).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Perhaps most interesting of all, the Lohmanns also showed that the hatchling map used\r\n two features of the earth’s magnetic field: its dip angle (the angle between the field\r\n lines and the earth’s surface) and field intensity, or strength. Dip angle varies from\r\n 0° (parallel to the earth’s surface) at the magnetic equator to 90° at the magnetic\r\n poles (Figure 3, left). Intensity showed a similar arrangement of values, from weakest\r\n at the magnetic equator to strongest at the magnetic poles. But bi-coordinates can only\r\n act as labels if their signatures at each location differ. Dip angle and intensity do\r\n vary at different locations but those differences are large only along a north-south\r\n (N-S), or latitudinal axis. Those observations led to the conclusion that hatchlings\r\n could use magnetic cues to determine their latitude (Figure 3, right), but were\r\n incapable of responding to the much smaller magnetic differences along an east-west\r\n (E-W), or longitudinal axis. If that was true, then marine turtles could not complete\r\n the map step from a location to the east or west of a goal. Was that actually true?\r\n
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\r\n To find out, Nathan Putman challenged loggerhead hatchlings to distinguish between two\r\n locations within their migratory range, one on the east and the other on the west side\r\n of the North Atlantic gyre current (Figure 4). Those locations were at the same (20° N)\r\n latitude but at a different longitude. The turtles easily made that discrimination; in\r\n fact, at each site they oriented in the opposite direction (Figure 4). No question,\r\n then, that the turtles were capable of distinguishing between the much smaller\r\n differences in dip angle and intensity along an E- W axis using magnetic cues. The\r\n inescapable conclusion: even as hatchlings, marine turtles can navigate! Amazing stuff!\r\n
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\r\n And so what we’ve learned, over almost 30 years of study, is that marine turtles\r\n complete their migrations using sophisticated systems of orientation and navigation,\r\n with orientation playing a dominant role during the initial phase of migration and\r\n navigation being used during the later stages. Both systems are apparently innate and\r\n show little, if any, evidence that experience (in the form of learning) has much of an\r\n influence on how they work. At the same time, we know that the earth’s magnetic field\r\n changes through time. Those changes require that human mariners adjust their compasses\r\n every year or two. Turtles must also make adjustments, perhaps during their migrations\r\n between feeding and breeding habitats, and certainly as different generations over their\r\n long evolutionary history. After all, marine turtles have been migrating across ocean\r\n basins for over 100 million years. That history shaped their already remarkable ability\r\n to locate distant goals, hundreds or even thousands of miles away.\r\n
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Octopus Superpowers
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\r\n Fig. 1a: The Atlantic Longarm Octopus, Macrotritopus defilippi\r\n
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\r\n I descend beneath the surface at Blue Heron Bridge in South Florida and watch as an\r\n Atlantic longarm octopus soars across the sandy bottom while hunting a crab.\r\n
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\r\n Fig. 1b: The Common Octopus, Octopus vulgaris\r\n
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\r\n As a graduate student at Florida Atlantic University, I am studying the superpowers of\r\n two octopus species, the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) and the Atlantic longarm\r\n octopus (Macrotritopus defilippi; Figure 1). To fend off predators (fishes, marine\r\n reptiles, marine birds, and marine mammals), feed, and find mates, octopuses and their\r\n relatives, squids and cuttlefishes, are equipped with a large brain that allows complex\r\n body patterns and behaviors, thanks to millions of years of evolution (Figure 2).\r\n
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\r\n Most of us only think of the color changing organs (chromatophores) as being responsible\r\n for the octopus’s extraordinary color changing ability. However, these chromatophores\r\n act in conjunction with reflecting cells and other structures in the skin to produce a\r\n final appearance known as a body pattern. Color change is accomplished by these tiny\r\n color-filled sacs acting under direct control of the brain. Chromatophore patterns are\r\n controlled by the octopus’s eyes. This visual input travels to the brain, the brain\r\n selects a body pattern, and then this information is sent to muscles in the skin that\r\n are connected to these tiny color-filled sacs. Those sac muscles will either expand\r\n (display color) or contract (minimize color) the chromatophores (Figure 3).\r\n Chromatophores are either red, orange, yellow, brown, or black. To produce other colors,\r\n octopuses use reflecting cells known as iridophores, reflector cells, and leucophores\r\n that reflect blues, greens, silvers, pinks and white. By working under neuromuscular\r\n control, tens of hundreds to thousands of chromatophores are able to change an octopus’s\r\n body pattern in under a second!\r\n
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Fig. 2: O. vulgaris being stalked by a diving cormorant\r\n
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\r\n\r\n Skin texture is controlled by muscles in the skin that can change the skin from smooth\r\n to rugose to highly papillate (Figure 4). Skin texture and the appearance of the\r\n octopus’s arms, head, eyes, mantle, or arm webbing, as well as how the octopus moves,\r\n all contribute to the animal’s body pattern. Essentially, body patterns are used either\r\n for crypsis (resemblance to background) or for communication. The cryptic pattern may be\r\n uniform if the octopus is on sand, mottled if the octopus is on contrasting light and\r\n dark rubble, or a disruptive pattern that breaks up the outline of the body so the shape\r\n of the octopus is obscured. But camouflage doesn’t stop there! Octopuses can mimic other\r\n animals or resemble plants, algae, or rocks, a behavior known as masquerade and used to\r\n deceive either predators or prey. The ability to generate patterns and to change them\r\n instantly is a powerful combination. “Chameleons of the sea” is a weak description of\r\n these animals and their superpowers!\r\n
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\r\n The octopus’s world is full of villains (its predators) and the octopus must be equipped\r\n to survive its foraging journeys (Superheros have got to eat, too!). Most octopuses are\r\n active predators, balancing their life by attacking prey and retreating back to the\r\n safety of their home (commonly referred to as a den). Octopuses have a well-developed\r\n brain and learn quickly; in fact many of their activities depend on previously learned\r\n individual experiences. Those activities include knowing their surroundings so they can\r\n return to their den after a foraging journey, and attacking potential prey with caution.\r\n With familiar objects, an octopus may pounce on its prey. With unfamiliar objects the\r\n octopus may be extremely cautious and extend its arm(s), touching the object with the\r\n arm tip before grasping and then drawing it underneath its web. Finally, it may make a\r\n beeline and land directly on the object. Octopuses have good image-forming eyes and most\r\n of them hunt their prey by sight. Yet they supplement vision with the use of\r\n chemotactile senses based in the suckers, which allows them to taste by touch! The main\r\n food items of the two species I am studying are clams, conch, and crabs (Figure 5A & B).\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 3: Schematic diagram of octopus skin: The epidermis (top skin) protects the\r\n underlying skin and is transparent. Directly underneath are three layers of\r\n chromatophores with colors depending on each octopus species. Each chromatophore is\r\n surrounded by a ring of muscles. These small muscles expand and contract tiny\r\n color-filled sacs (color cells) under control of the nervous system. Underneath the\r\n color cells are the different types of reflecting cells and under these cells is a layer\r\n of muscles that can change the texture of the skin.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Fig. 4: O. vulgaris changing skin texture. Notice the raised skin or skin papillae.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The two shallow-water octopuses I am study will use flounder mimicry (Figure 6), the\r\n moving rock trick (Figure 7), or flat camouflage (Figure 8) to avoid predators while\r\n searching for prey. Predators are not always avoided. When octopuses are detected by a\r\n potential predator they use their behavior and body patterns for deceptive communication\r\n and/or warning. Octopuses may flash dark spots as warning signals (“Back off, I see\r\n you”!) or will expand their web to appear much larger than they actually are (Figure 9).\r\n
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\r\n Octopus superpowers ultimately aid their survival; however, these superpowers are not\r\n important unless they are passed on to the next generation. Octopuses are like\r\n rockstars- live fast and die young. Their lifespan is about 1-2 years, but it can be\r\n longer depending on species. Observations suggest that physical contact plays a role in\r\n species and sex recognition. Octopuses have been observed to mate in different ways. The\r\n common octopus, O. vulgaris, conducts mating at a distance using the “reach” method\r\n (Figure 10), or by the male mounting the female. Recent field observations showed that\r\n male M. defilippi mounted his female.\r\n
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\r\n In many species of octopus, males compete aggressively for mating opportunities.\r\n Behavioral displays involve the use of enlarged webbing, showing arm suckers, or actual\r\n physical force (fighting). In those contests the larger male usually wins and ultimately\r\n drives off the smaller male (Figure 11). During mating, a male will place a packet of\r\n sperm in a modified arm (“hectocotylus”) that is inserted inside the female’s mantle\r\n cavity, where her reproductive organs are located. Once the eggs are fertilized, females\r\n will extrude the eggs, either individually or intertwined with other eggs in a cluster\r\n containing of many eggs. These are then attached to a hard substrate in a protected,\r\n den-like area. The female guards the eggs for several months, up to a quarter of her\r\n life span! Females only leave their eggs briefly to feed, and some never do. Females\r\n also keep the eggs clean and well aerated by moving fresh, oxygenated seawater over them\r\n until they hatch.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 6. M. defilippi using flounder mimicry while foraging. A fish follows to catch any\r\n scraps of food left behind!\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 7. O. vulgaris using the moving rock trick (masquerade) to walk across the sand\r\n (images left to right).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Octopuses have these superpowers to survive in environments with predation and\r\n competition pressures. However, predation is a natural process where octopuses serve an\r\n important role in many marine food webs. They are a food source for animals higher in\r\n the food web such as fishes, diving birds, and marine mammals and serve as important\r\n grazers on animals lower in the food web such as clams, conch, and crab. Overall, this\r\n is crucial for a marine ecosystem’s community structure and biodiversity. Let’s do our\r\n part in conserving the marine environments (reefs, tide pools, seagrass beds, sandy\r\n plains, deep sea) that octopuses need for a habitat, food source, and reproduction to\r\n make sure these superheros live on.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 8. M. defilippi using flat camouflage (general background resemblance) to match\r\n its surroundings. Arrow indicates the octopus’s head.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 9. Octopus “reach” mating behavior. Male O. vulgaris (left) sitting on top of rock\r\n extending its hectocotylus (sex arm) inside the mantle of female O. vulgaris (right).\r\n \r\n
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Seeking Green Turtles
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\r\n Understanding the distribution of sea turtles at each of their life stages is fundamental\r\n to their conservation. This is the goal of the Inwater Research Group, Inc. (IRG), a group\r\n of dedicated biologists who study in-water populations of sea turtles (as opposed to\r\n land-based nesting research) throughout Florida.\r\n
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\r\n Recently, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation partnered with IRG to spend several\r\n days surveying the waters west of Key West in the Marquesas Keys in search of loggerhead,\r\n green, and hawksbill turtles.\r\n
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\r\n The June 2016 Marquesas Keys Team with “Flagler”, a 270 lb. green sea turtle that had\r\n been first identified in 2006.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The conditions were ideal for turtle counts, which entail two observers perched in a\r\n boat’s tuna tower calling out the species, size, and location of each turtle they spot\r\n down to data recorders on deck. Don’t be fooled; this isn’t always an easy chore...the\r\n turtles are so abundant in some locations that the data recorders can barely keep up.\r\n During just four 6-km survey transects one day, the team counted in excess of 250 large\r\n subadult and adult green turtles, many zipping away from the boat at near-light speed and\r\n all too often colliding with others, scattering turtles in all directions.\r\n
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\r\n In some cases, turtles are captured to gather basic information concerning their body\r\n condition, size, weight etc. Easier said than done. Out here, the turtles are big; two-\r\n to- four-hundred pounds big. This imposing trait, however, becomes their disadvantage\r\n during tests of stamina.\r\n
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\r\n The chosen turtles quickly tire after a short boat chase, and unwillingly permit their\r\n exhausted selves to be hand-captured and carefully hauled through a specially-designed\r\n access hatch in the boat’s port side.\r\n
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\r\n On June 28th, a previously-tagged turtle was captured that has an interesting history.\r\n “Flagler”, as she is known, was first captured near the Marquesas Keys in July of 2008 as\r\n a subadult weighing in at 70.5 kg (155 lbs.). She carried a satellite transmitter for 116\r\n days before it stopped transmitting. Eight years later, there she was (definitely a she),\r\n still hanging out near her original capture site, only she’s 56 kg (123 lbs.) heavier, now\r\n topping the scales at 275 lbs.!\r\n
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\r\n Hawksbill Turtle Aggregation Being Documented in the Lower Florida Keys\r\n
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Larry Wood, Ph.D.
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\r\n Since its inception in 2004, the Florida Hawksbill Project has aimed to gather\r\n comprehensive data concerning the abundance, distribution, and behavior of hawksbills in\r\n Florida waters. The majority of the effort has been focused on the reefs of Palm Beach\r\n County, where their abundance has been important in developing a baseline from which we\r\n can compare aggregations elsewhere.\r\n
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\r\n Hawksbill turtles are known for the unparalleled
beauty of their shells. Each\r\n plate, known a s a
“scute”, is made of keratinized tissue, just like
\r\n your fingernails. Hawksbill scutes have been
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\r\n With the support of the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, the Project has been\r\n able to extend its focus to the opposite end of the Florida Reef Tract, in the beautiful\r\n shallow coral reefs just off the shores of Key West. Here, team members were able to\r\n discover areas most likely to be inhabited by hawksbills, and were able to capture six\r\n individuals for evaluation and documentation. They were healthy young turtles with\r\n strikingly patterned heads and beautiful shells. As expected, these turtles were, on\r\n average, smaller than those we typically find in the deeper waters of Palm Beach County,\r\n indicating that they have more recently arrived from pelagic ‘juvenile-stage’ habitats\r\n to the nearshore ‘subadult-stage’ environment. We suspect that some may move northward\r\n along Florida’s east coast as they mature, and carry with them clues of their\r\n whereabouts as they go. To test our hypothesis, we are taking small samples of blood,\r\n skin, and shell from hawksbills all along the coastline to help track their intake of\r\n carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur as they’ve grown. Some of the variants of these elements\r\n are known to be unique to certain food sources and locations along Florida’s coast, thus\r\n leaving a timeline of their intake (and associated location) within the slow-growing\r\n tissues of the turtles.{\" \"}\r\n
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\r\n Hawksbill turtles were briefly retained aboard the RV Hawksbill II for measurements,\r\n tagging, sampling and photographs. They were then released where they were found.{\" \"}\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Science educators Leslie and Tanner Thomas
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\r\n \r\n Ms. Cole Reintsma, Mr. Rick Newman, and Captain Nick
Reeves with a newly tagged\r\n young hawksbill turtle,
Eretmochelys imbricata.\r\n \r\n
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Why sexing a sea turtle hatchling is important!
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\r\n Boris Tezak and Itzel Sifuentes Romero
\r\n Department of Biological Sciences
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\r\n If you walk the beach in South Florida during a summer night, you might get the\r\n impression that sea turtles are everywhere. You might very well see hatchlings\r\n scampering to the ocean and adults nesting! That’s because we have the largest nesting\r\n population of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) in the world (Figure 1), about 48,000\r\n nests just last year! Additionally, the numbers of nesting green turtles (Chelonia\r\n mydas; ~ 28,000 nests) and leatherbacks (Dermochelys coriacea; 650 nests) have also\r\n increased over the past few years.\r\n
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\r\n Although these numbers are encouraging, currently the six extant species of sea turtle\r\n found in U.S. waters are considered threatened or endangered. Together, the stresses\r\n introduced by humans have increased pollution, disease, habitat degradation and habitat\r\n destruction as risks for marine turtle survival. Humans have also hunted turtles and\r\n harvested their eggs. All of these activities have contributed to significant population\r\n declines, especially compared to historical numbers which were several orders of\r\n magnitude greater.\r\n
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\r\n Figure 2. Sex ratio-temperature response curve. This graph shows the theoretical\r\n expected sex ratio response to incubation temperatures derived from laboratory\r\n experiments. Note that temperatures of 29°C produce a 50:50 sex ratio. Lower\r\n temperatures produce mostly males while higher temperatures produce mostly females.\r\n (Graph by J. Wyneken & B. Tezak)\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Figure 1. Loggerhead Turtle laying eggs in a Florida nesting beach (B.E. Witherington,\r\n photo)\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The fragile nature of all present sea turtle populations makes it important to\r\n understand and assess the different factors that affect sea turtle populations now, and\r\n those that will remain important in the years to come. By knowing those factors we can\r\n hope to successfully promote the recovery of marine turtle populations. One particularly\r\n important factor that could influence the survival of sea turtles is climate change.\r\n Globally, we are already experiencing some of the effects of climate change with\r\n extremely hot summers, incredibly cold winters, as well as increased frequency and\r\n severity of storms. Although we can escape some of these changes through the use of\r\n technology (Air conditioning during the summer is a MUST in South Florida!), most\r\n animals are not so lucky and may soon be faced with environmental conditions that are\r\n not suitable for many key biological processes. For example, climate change may very\r\n well affect the proportion of male and female offspring produced by marine turtles and\r\n those proportions, in turn, the ability of each species to successfully reproduce. There\r\n can be no successful recovery of marine turtle populations without successful\r\n reproduction!\r\n
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\r\n In sea turtles, unlike mammals (That’s us!), the sex of an individual is not determined\r\n at the moment of fertilization. This is because sea turtles lack sex chromosomes (X and\r\n Y in humans) and therefore, they don't have sex-specific genes (genes present only in a\r\n male or a female) that direct an embryo to become one or the other sex. Instead, sex in\r\n turtles is determined by the environment that the embryos experience during incubation\r\n inside the nest, and in particular by nest temperature (Figure 2).\r\n
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\r\n In sea turtles, this pattern of temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) is\r\n informally characterized by the “hot chicks, cool dudes” rule. That translates formally\r\n into the now well substantiated observation that when nest temperatures are relatively\r\n warm, most of the hatchlings will be female and when relatively cool, male. At\r\n intermediate temperatures, both sexes will be represented. But recent research at\r\n Florida Atlantic University suggests that while temperature is an important factor, it\r\n isn’t the only factor (Figure 3).\r\n
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\r\n Rainfall, and its effect on moisture conditions inside the nest, also modifies sex\r\n ratios by promoting the production of proportionally more male hatchlings in the nest\r\n than predicted by temperature, alone. This effect, which is slight but none-the-less\r\n significant, was only revealed by field studies and careful measurements carried out\r\n over the past 14 years (Figures 4). Measurements of turtle sex proportions were\r\n documented from nests exposed to known conditions of temperature and humidity by\r\n actually looking inside young turtles that came from those nests. The “look inside” was\r\n done using a laparoscope to see the immature ovaries and testes. This labor-intensive\r\n technique was developed by Dr. Jeanette Wyneken (Figure 5) and until recently, was the\r\n only reliable way to determine turtle sex in juvenile marine turtles without sacrificing\r\n the animal. (Obviously, killing the turtle to find out its sex defeated the purpose of\r\n promoting the recovery of marine turtle populations!)\r\n
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\r\n However, this technique has shortcomings. Hatchlings are too small for laparoscopic\r\n surgery so the turtles must be raised in captivity for at least three months, making the\r\n entire procedure a very expensive and labor intensive method for determining sex and\r\n nest sex ratios. Additionally, an expert must perform the surgery and make the\r\n identification.\r\n
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\r\n Those requirements make it impractical to obtain data on a large scale, for example, to\r\n determine how many males and females are being produced from the thousands of nests\r\n deposited each year on Florida’s beaches. What is needed, instead, is a simple and\r\n relatively inexpensive procedure for estimating nest sex ratios from hatchlings, without\r\n harming the turtles.\r\n
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\r\n Figure 3. Expected vs. observed hatchling sex ratios of the loggerhead turtle. The red\r\n curve shows the expected sex ratio under laboratory conditions where external\r\n temperatures in incubators where the eggs develop remain constant. The black dots show\r\n the sex ratios obtained from natural loggerhead nests in south Florida, where\r\n temperature (and other conditions) fluctuates. The large blue dot shows the lab\r\n temperature (29°C) at which the hatchling sex ratio should be 50:50. Natural nests,\r\n exposed to variable temperatures that averaged 30° C (dashed box), should produce\r\n mostly females but instead, sex ratios are variable and can even result in a few nests\r\n that produce mostly males. This lack of agreement between lab and field results\r\n indicates that temperatura is not the only factor determining sex ratios (Adapted from\r\n published studies by Jeanette Wyneken and her student, Alexandra Lolavar, 2015).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Figure 4. Loggerhead hatchling sex ratios from natural nests over many nesting seasons\r\n (adapted from Wyneken & Lolavar). Sex ratios have been female-biased since 2002 but\r\n during years with heavy rainfall (bars containing storm clouds), the sex ratio is less\r\n female-biased than during dry years. This effect occurs because during wet years, some\r\n nests produce more males than expected.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Because sex determination in turtles is so closely linked to environmental conditions,\r\n the most common prediction associated with climate change is that marine turtles will be\r\n at a higher risk of extinction if warmer temperatures cause sex ratios to become even\r\n more dramatically female-biased than they already are. These concerns highlight the\r\n importance of identifying current and historical sex ratios at sea turtle nesting\r\n beaches, and using long-term sex ratio data to predict how sex ratios could change in\r\n the future. Put most simply, there may be a danger that if current trends continue,\r\n there won’t be enough males around to serve as mates for the steadily increasing numbers\r\n of marine turtle females.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 5. Left: Dr. Wyneken uses a laparoscope to peer inside a young turtle and inspect\r\n its developing gonad (ovary if female, testes if male). The examination takes only a few\r\n minutes and the turtle recovers from the surgery within 3-4 days. Right: a view of what\r\n Wyneken sees. Arrow shows the location of an ovary.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n To reiterate, the sex of hatchling marine turtles cannot at the present time be\r\n determined by their external appearance; it can only be determined by methods that\r\n require sacrificing the hatchling. Attempts to estimate nest sex ratios have\r\n historically been based on nest temperatures but new studies show that temperature alone\r\n does not provide an accurate assessment. Moisture conditions must also be known but\r\n until recently, moisture has not been considered. Laparoscopy provides an accurate\r\n estimate of sex ratios for juvenile turtles but requires raising the turtles for several\r\n weeks before the surgery can be performed, an expensive and time-consuming procedure.\r\n What is needed is a reliable, non-lethal and relatively inexpensive technique to\r\n identify sex at the hatchling stage for large numbers of turtles, without harming any of\r\n them.\r\n
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\r\n That’s where our work enters the scene! We are exploring a new technique to identify\r\n hatchling sex and, thus far, the results are promising. This technique takes advantage\r\n of some recent advances in molecular biology, coupled with a better understanding of the\r\n molecular signals that guide how each sex develops. According to current knowledge,\r\n temperature and moisture trigger the activity of specific genes that promote the\r\n development of each sex (Figure 6). The activity of those genes results in the\r\n production of different, sex-specific proteins that, in turn, cause an undifferentiated\r\n gonad to develop into either an ovary or a testis. This, at least, is what occurs in\r\n other reptiles such as the American alligator and the snapping turtle.\r\n
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\r\n Our studies reveal that similar processes also occur in marine turtles (Figure 6). Our\r\n new method is based upon detecting these proteins from a tiny drop of hatchling blood, a\r\n sample so small that it does not impair hatchling health or affect hatchling survival.\r\n
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\r\n Finding such a sex-specific marker in hatchlings would allow for large scale\r\n measurements and verification of naturally occurring sea turtle sex ratios. Our project\r\n is very timely, especially when we consider increasing nesting temperatures and the\r\n potential impacts of continued climate change on these and other turtle species with\r\n temperature-dependent sex determination. Our goal is to provide definitive information\r\n that confirms the accuracy and economic feasibility of this approach. Once that’s done,\r\n it should be possible to determine sex ratios of hatchlings from many sea turtle nests\r\n on an annual basis, and closely monitor how changes in temperature and rainfall are\r\n affecting each generation. That information will be essential for anticipating how\r\n changes in the environment are affecting marine turtle populations now, and for planning\r\n how to manage those populations in the future.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 6. Schematic representation of the mechanism behind sex determination in turtles.\r\n Marine turtles take about 50 days to complete embryonic development. The middle third of\r\n that (“thermos-sensitive”) period is when environmental features (temperature, moisture)\r\n trigger development down a “maleness” or “femaleness” path. Tezak and Romero are\r\n determining whether that path can be discovered on the basis of blood proteins that are\r\n specific to each sex. (Graph based upon studies by B. Tezak and I. S. Romero)\r\n \r\n
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\r\n National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation’s Hawksbill Project Highlighted in Video Production\r\n
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\r\n Hawksbill Sea Turtles Fast Facts
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Type: Reptile\r\n
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Diet: Carnivore\r\n
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Average life span in the wild: 30 to 50 years (est.)\r\n
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Size: 24 to 45 in (62.5 to 114 cm)\r\n
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Weight: 100 to 150 lbs (45 to 68 kg)\r\n
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Protection status: Endangered\r\n
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\r\n Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:\r\n
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\r\n Did you know? \r\n \r\n Young hawksbill turtles are unable to dive deep and spend their early years floating\r\n amongst sea plants near the water’s surface.\r\n \r\n \r\n Hawksbill turtles are found throughout the tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and\r\n Indian Oceans. They avoid deep waters, preferring coastlines where sponges are abundant\r\n and sandy nesting sites are within reach.\r\n \r\n \r\n Not particularly large compared with other sea turtles, hawksbills grow up to about 45\r\n inches (114 centimeters) in shell length and 150 pounds (68 kilograms) in weight. While\r\n young, their carapace, or upper shell, is heart-shaped, and as they mature it elongates.\r\n Their strikingly colored carapace is serrated and has overlapping scutes, or thick bony\r\n plates. Their tapered heads end in a sharp point resembling a bird’s beak, hence their\r\n name. A further distinctive feature is a pair of claws adorning each flipper. Male\r\n hawksbills have longer claws, thicker tails, and somewhat brighter coloring than females.\r\n \r\n \r\n They are normally found near reefs rich in the sponges they like to feed on. Hawksbills\r\n are omnivorous and will also eat mollusks, marine algae, crustaceans, sea urchins, fish,\r\n and jellyfish. Their hard shells protect them from many predators, but they still fall\r\n prey to large fish, sharks, crocodiles, octopuses, and humans.\r\n \r\n \r\n Like other sea turtles, hawksbills make incredible migrations in order to move from\r\n feeding sites to nesting grounds, normally on tropical beaches. Mating occurs every two to\r\n three years and normally takes place in shallow waters close to the shore. The nesting\r\n procedure begins when the turtles leave the sea to choose an area to lay their eggs. A pit\r\n is dug in the sand, filled with eggs, and then covered. At this stage the turtles retreat\r\n to the sea, leaving the eggs, which will hatch in about 60 days. The most dangerous time\r\n of their lives comes when hatchlings make the journey from their nests to the sea. Crabs\r\n and flocks of gulls voraciously prey on the young turtles during this short scamper.\r\n \r\n \r\n Like many sea turtles, hawksbills are a critically endangered species due mostly to human\r\n impact. Hawksbill eggs are still eaten around the world despite the turtle’s international\r\n protected status, and they are often killed for their flesh and their stunning shells.\r\n These graceful sea turtles are also threatened by accidental capture in fishing nets.{\" \"}\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles Fast Facts
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Type: Reptile\r\n
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Diet: Omnivore\r\n
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Average life span in the wild: About 50 years (est.)\r\n
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Size: 2 ft (65 cm)\r\n
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Weight: 100 lbs (45 kg)\r\n
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Protection status: Endangered\r\n
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\r\n Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:\r\n
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\r\n Did you know? \r\n \r\n A 1947 amateur film showed some 40,000 female Kemp's ridley turtles nesting in Mexico in a\r\n single day. Today, it is estimated that only about 1,000 breeding females exist worldwide.\r\n \r\n \r\n The Kemp’s ridley turtle is the world’s most endangered sea turtle, and with a worldwide\r\n female nesting population roughly estimated at just 1,000 individuals, its survival truly\r\n hangs in the balance. Their perilous situation is attributed primarily to the\r\n over-harvesting of their eggs during the last century. And though their nesting grounds\r\n are protected and many commercial fishing fleets now use turtle excluder devices in their\r\n nets, these turtles have not been able to rebound.\r\n \r\n \r\n For this reason, their nesting processions, called arribadas, make for especially high\r\n drama. During an arribada, females take over entire portions of beaches, lugging their big\r\n bodies through the sand with their flippers until they find a satisfying spot to lay their\r\n eggs. Even more riveting is the later struggle to the ocean of each tiny, vulnerable\r\n hatchling. Beset by predators, hatchlings make this journey at night, breaking out of\r\n their shells using their caruncle, a single temporary tooth grown just for this purpose.\r\n \r\n \r\n Found primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, but also as far north as Nova Scotia, Kemp’s\r\n ridleys are among the smallest sea turtles, reaching only about 2 feet (65 centimeters) in\r\n shell length and weighing up to 100 pounds (45 kilograms). Their upper shell, or carapace,\r\n is a greenish-grey color, and their bellies are off-white to yellowish.\r\n \r\n \r\n They prefer shallow waters, where they dive to the bottom to feed on crabs, which are\r\n their favorite food, and other shellfish. They also eat jellyfish, and occasionally munch\r\n on seaweed and sargassum. They may live to be 50 years old.\r\n \r\n \r\n Females aren’t sexually mature until about ten to twelve years of age. They nest every one\r\n to three years and may lay several clutches of eggs each season. Highly migratory animals,\r\n they often travel hundreds of miles (kilometers) to reach their nesting beach, usually the\r\n same beach they hatched from.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Loggerhead Sea Turtles Fast Facts
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Type: Reptile\r\n
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Diet: Carnivore\r\n
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\r\n Average life span in the wild: More than 50 years (est.)\r\n \r\n
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Size: 36 in (90 cm)\r\n
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Weight: 253 lbs (115 kg)\r\n
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Protection status: Endangered\r\n
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\r\n Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:\r\n
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\r\n Did you know? \r\n \r\n Sea turtles can move through the water at speeds of up to 15 mi (24 km) per hour.\r\n \r\n \r\n Loggerhead turtles are the most abundant of all the marine turtle species in U.S. waters.\r\n But persistent population declines due to pollution, shrimp trawling, and development in\r\n their nesting areas, among other factors, have kept this wide-ranging seagoer on the\r\n threatened species list since 1978.\r\n \r\n \r\n Their enormous range encompasses all but the most frigid waters of the world's oceans.\r\n They seem to prefer coastal habitats, but often frequent inland water bodies and will\r\n travel hundreds of miles out to sea.\r\n \r\n \r\n They are primarily carnivores, munching jellyfish, conchs, crabs, and even fish, but will\r\n eat seaweed and sargassum occasionally.\r\n \r\n \r\n Mature females will often return, sometimes over thousands of miles, to the beach where\r\n they hatched to lay their eggs. Worldwide population numbers are unknown, but scientists\r\n studying nesting populations are seeing marked decreases despite endangered species\r\n protections.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Green Sea Turtles Fast Facts
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Type: Reptile\r\n
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Diet: Herbivore\r\n
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Average life span in the wild: Over 80 years (est.)\r\n
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Size: Up to 5 ft (1.5 m)\r\n
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Weight: Up to 700 lbs (317.5 kg)\r\n
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Protection status: Endangered\r\n
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\r\n Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:\r\n
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\r\n Did you know? \r\n \r\n Like other sea turtles, the green turtle cannot pull its head into its shell.\r\n \r\n \r\n The green turtle is a large, weighty sea turtle with a wide, smooth carapace, or shell. It\r\n inhabits tropical and subtropical coastal waters around the world and has been observed\r\n clambering onto land to sunbathe.\r\n \r\n \r\n It is named not for the color of its shell, which is normally brown or olive depending on\r\n its habitat, but for the greenish color of its skin. There are two types of green\r\n turtles—scientists are currently debating whether they are subspecies or separate\r\n species—including the Atlantic green turtle, normally found off the shores of Europe and\r\n North America, and the Eastern Pacific green turtle, which has been found in coastal\r\n waters from Alaska to Chile.\r\n \r\n \r\n Weighing up to 700 pounds (317.5 kilograms) green turtles are among the largest sea\r\n turtles in the world. Their proportionally small head, which is nonretractable, extends\r\n from a heart-shaped carapace that measures up to 5 feet (1.5 meters). Males are slightly\r\n larger than females and have a longer tail. Both have flippers that resemble paddles,\r\n which make them powerful and graceful swimmers.\r\n \r\n \r\n Unlike most sea turtles, adult green turtles are herbivorous, feeding on sea grasses and\r\n algae. Juvenile green turtles, however, will also eat invertebrates like crabs, jellyfish,\r\n and sponges.\r\n \r\n \r\n While most sea turtles warm themselves by swimming close to the surface of shallow waters,\r\n the Eastern Pacific green turtle will take to land to bask in the sun. Occasionally seen\r\n sunbathing alongside seals and albatrosses, it is one of the few marine turtles known to\r\n leave the water other than at nesting times.\r\n \r\n \r\n Green turtles, like other sea turtles, undertake lengthy migrations from feeding sites to\r\n nesting grounds, normally on sandy beaches. Mating occurs every two to four years and\r\n normally takes place in shallow waters close to the shore. To nest, females leave the sea\r\n and choose an area, often on the same beach used by their mothers, to lay their eggs. They\r\n dig a pit in the sand with their flippers, fill it with a clutch of 100 to 200 eggs, cover\r\n the pit and return to the sea, leaving the eggs to hatch after about two months. The most\r\n dangerous time of a green turtle’s life is when it makes the journey from nest to sea.\r\n Multiple predators, including crabs and flocks of gulls, voraciously prey on hatchlings\r\n during this short scamper.\r\n \r\n \r\n Green turtles are listed as an endangered species, and a subpopulation in the\r\n Mediterranean is listed as critically endangered. Despite this, they are still killed for\r\n their meat and eggs. Their numbers are also reduced by boat propeller accidents,\r\n fishnet-caused drowning, and the destruction of their nesting grounds by human\r\n encroachment.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Leatherback Sea Turtles Fast Facts
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Type: Reptile\r\n
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Diet: Carnivore\r\n
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Average life span in the wild: 45 years (est.)\r\n
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Size: Up to 7 ft (2 m)\r\n
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Weight: Up to 2,000 lbs (900 kg)\r\n
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Protection status: Endangered\r\n
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\r\n Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:\r\n
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\r\n Did you know? \r\n \r\n Leatherbacks are the largest turtles on Earth, growing up to seven feet (two meters) long\r\n and exceeding 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms). These reptilian relics are the only remaining\r\n representatives of a family of turtles that traces its evolutionary roots back more than\r\n 100 million years. Once prevalent in every ocean except the Arctic and Antarctic, the\r\n leatherback population is rapidly declining in many parts of the world.\r\n \r\n \r\n While all other sea turtles have hard, bony shells, the inky-blue carapace of the\r\n leatherback is somewhat flexible and almost rubbery to the touch. Ridges along the\r\n carapace help give it a more hydrodynamic structure. Leatherbacks can dive to depths of\r\n 4,200 feet (1,280 meters)—deeper than any other turtle—and can stay down for up to 85\r\n minutes.\r\n \r\n \r\n Leatherbacks have the widest global distribution of all reptile species, and possibly of\r\n any vertebrate. They can be found in the tropic and temperate waters of the Atlantic,\r\n Pacific, and Indian Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. Adult leatherbacks also\r\n traverse as far north as Canada and Norway and as far south as New Zealand and South\r\n America. Unlike their reptilian relatives, leatherbacks are able to maintain warm body\r\n temperatures in cold water by using a unique set of adaptations that allows them to both\r\n generate and retain body heat. These adaptations include large body size, changes in\r\n swimming activity and blood flow, and a thick layer of fat.\r\n \r\n \r\n Leatherbacks undertake the longest migrations between breeding and feeding areas of any\r\n sea turtle, averaging 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) each way. After mating at sea,\r\n females come ashore during the breeding season to nest. The nighttime ritual involves\r\n excavating a hole in the sand, depositing around 80 eggs, filling the nest, leaving a\r\n large, disturbed area of sand that makes detection by predators difficult, and finally\r\n returning to the sea.\r\n \r\n \r\n The temperature inside the nest determines the sex of the hatchlings. A mix of male and\r\n female hatchlings occurs when the nest temperature is approximately 85.1 degrees\r\n Fahrenheit (29.5 degrees Celsius), while higher temperatures produce females and cooler\r\n temperatures produce males. Female hatchlings that make it to sea will roam the oceans\r\n until they reach sexual maturity, when they return to the same nesting areas to produce\r\n their own offspring. Males spend the rest of their lives at sea.\r\n \r\n \r\n Their lifespan is unknown but many leatherbacks meet an early end due to human activity.\r\n It is estimated that only about one in a thousand leatherback hatchlings survive to\r\n adulthood. Eggs are often taken by humans from nests to be consumed for subsistence or as\r\n aphrodisiacs. Many leatherbacks fall victim to fishing lines and nets, or are struck by\r\n boats. Leatherbacks also can die if they ingest floating plastic debris mistaken for their\r\n favorite food: jellyfish. Some individuals have been found to have almost 11 pounds (5\r\n kilograms) of plastic in their stomachs.\r\n \r\n \r\n Leatherbacks are currently designated as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.\r\n The number of leatherbacks in the Atlantic appears to be stable or increasing, but the\r\n Pacific population is declining at an alarming rate due to egg harvest, fishery by catch,\r\n coastal development, and highly variable food availability. Some Pacific populations have\r\n disappeared entirely from certain areas, such as Malaysia.\r\n \r\n \r\n Scientists around the world are tracking and studying leatherbacks to learn more about\r\n these reptilian giants and how they can be saved.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Experimental Analysis of Wavelength Preferences Shown by Hatchling Leatherback Sea\r\n Turtles (Dermochelys coriacea)\r\n
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\r\n Article in Chelonian Conservation and Biology · October 2022\r\n
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Samantha Trail
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Florida Atlantic University
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Michael Salmon
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Florida Atlantic University
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\r\n \r\n Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 2022, 21(2): 283–286 doi:10.2744/CCB-1535.1 ©\r\n 2022 Chelonian Research Foundation\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Experimental Analysis of Wavelength Preferences Shown by Hatchling Leatherback Sea\r\n Turtles (Dermochelys coriacea)\r\n \r\n
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\r\n SAMANTHA E. TRAIL* AND MICHAEL SALMON\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida\r\n 33431-0991 USA [strail2019@fau.edu; salmonmichael07@gmail.com] *Corresponding author\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n ABSTRACT. - In marine turtles it is well established that the shorter light\r\n wavelengths in the visible and near- ultraviolet spectrum provide more potent, and\r\n pre- ferred, cues for nocturnal seafinding orientation than the longer light\r\n wavelengths. In this study, we simultaneously presented leatherback hatchlings (Der-\r\n mochelys coriacea) with a short near-ultraviolet (380 nm) and a longer visible (500\r\n nm) light stimulus to determine whether that preference was based upon differences\r\n in light intensity, light wavelength, or a combination of both variables. We found\r\n that under light conditions mimicking those at the nesting beach on the darkest\r\n evenings, the behavioral preference for the shorter light wavelengths was based upon\r\n intensity cues, though we speculate that under brighter illumi- nation, wavelength\r\n cues might also be utilized.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Marine turtles crawl up the beach to nest, generally at night. They dig an egg chamber\r\n where they deposit 50– 200 eggs (depending upon species) before covering the nest with\r\n sand and returning to the sea. After completing development, the embryos break out of\r\n the egg and, as hatchlings, dig their way upward until they emerge from the nest.\r\n Emergence usually occurs at night and is followed almost immediately by an oriented\r\n crawl from the nest to theocean — an innate behavior known as ‘‘seafinding’’ (Lohmann\r\n et al. 1997).\r\n
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\r\n Evidence gathered since the 1940s has established that seafinding is mediated by\r\n visual cues (Daniel and Smith 1947) and takes the form of a positive phototaxis; the\r\n turtles crawl towards the lowest and brightest (that is, most light-radiant) horizon,\r\n generally located in a seaward direction (Mrosovsky and Shettleworth 1968; Limpus\r\n 1971). The wavelengths they detect emanate from celestial sources (stars, moon) and\r\n consist of both visible and near- ultraviolet (near-UV) portions of the\r\n electromagnetic spectrum. Behavioral experiments have revealed that the wavelengths\r\n used by the hatchlings during seafinding range between 340 and 600 nm (Celano et al.\r\n 2018).\r\n
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\r\n Previous studies have also demonstrated that the turtles are more strongly attracted\r\n to the shorter than to the longer light wavelengths (Mrosovsky and Carr 1967;\r\n Ehrenfeld 1968; Mrosovsky and Shettleworth 1968; Witherington and Bjorndal 1991;\r\n Witherington 1992), leading to the assertion that these light stimuli are\r\n ‘‘preferred.’’ Why marine turtle hatchlings should show such a bias is not at all\r\n obvious. One possibility is that by doing so, they can more accurately discriminate\r\n differ- ences shown between the landward and seaward horizon. Recent measurements have\r\n shown that these horizons vary quantitatively in radiance (the seaward view is\r\n generally brighter), but not qualitatively in light spectra (Celano et al. 2018).\r\n Nevertheless, this issue remains an intriguing puzzle that requires further\r\n investigation.\r\n
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\r\n A second feature of the orientation response, and one we consider in this study,\r\n centers on how that preference is determined when it most commonly occurs: at night.\r\n In this paper we explored the possibilities that the preference was based upon\r\n differences in light intensity (radiance), light wavelength, or some combination of\r\n both variables. Similar designs have been used to test whether sea turtles are capable\r\n of discerning color (Young et al. 2012). On the basis of our experimental results, we\r\n conclude that most commonly at night light intensity, not wavelength, is the primary\r\n cue used by hatchlings to orient in a seaward direction.\r\n
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\r\n Methods. — The methods used in this study have been described in 2\r\n publications (Celano et al. 2018; Trail and Salmon 2022) and will be only briefly\r\n summarized here. We obtained leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) hatch- ings from nests\r\n monitored between May and September 2020, at 2 nesting beaches in southeastern\r\n Florida: Juno Beach (lat 26.888N, long 80.058W) and Boca Raton (lat 26.378N, long\r\n 80.138W). All of the hatchlings were collected from each nest in the late afternoon of\r\n the evening that they would naturally emerge. They were then transported to our lab on\r\n the campus of Florida Atlantic University, used for tests that night, then immediately\r\n released at the Boca Raton nesting beach.\r\n
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\r\n Experiments were done using a black PlexiglasTM Y- maze to simultaneously present the\r\n hatchlings with a short, near-UV (380 nm) and a longer, visible (500 nm) light\r\n wavelength stimulus. Each light was projected from the end of one maze arm (Fig. 1)\r\n and each induced a positive phototaxis. A preference for one light over the other was\r\n measured by the distribution of crawl entries into each arm.\r\n
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\r\n To determine if that preference was based upon light intensity or light wavelength, it\r\n was necessary to control for differences in stimulus intensity. That was done by using\r\n threshold data determined previously at each of the 2 chosen wavelengths (Fig. 2,\r\n upper graph; Trail and Salmon 2022). That threshold is defined as the dimmest light\r\n stimulus that evoked a statistically significant preference for one arm illuminated by\r\n that wavelength over the other arm, lacking any light stimulus. Each of the paired\r\n lights was then presented to the turtles at an identical quantal intensity (0.3-, 0.7-\r\n or 1.0-log unit) above threshold, and at radiance values that might duplicate those\r\n measured at the beach under new moon conditions. Thus, if the preference was based\r\n upon intensity cues, then the turtles should show a random (near 50:50) distribution\r\n of arm entries. However, if the preference was based upon light wavelength, then the\r\n turtles should prefer one arm (predictably, the one presenting the shorter, near-UV\r\n wavelength) over the other.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n CHELONIAN CONSERVATION AND BIOLOGY , Volume 21, Number 2 – 2022\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 1. The Y-maze system used to determine wavelength\r\n preferences. (1) near-ultraviolet wavelength (380 nm); (2) visible wavelength (500\r\n nm); (3) start area. The Y-maze measures 38 3 15 cm (length 3 width) within the\r\n start area and the split, and 41 3 13 cm within each arm.\r\n \r\n
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\r\n The 500-nm light stimulus was projected at the end of one arm as a circular target, 6\r\n cm in diameter, using a Kodakt slide projector (Model 440) containing a 300-W tungsten\r\n halogen lamp. The 380-nm stimulus was projected at the end of the other arm using a\r\n Great Value TM 14-W fluorescent ‘‘blacklight’’ bulb (Model EDXO-14), placed inside a\r\n foil-lined, 21-l Styrofoam TM box containing a 6-cm circular hole positioned against\r\n the arm end. Interference (5-nm half band width) and neutral density filters (Edmund\r\n Scientific Optics, Blackwood, NJ; 25-mm diameter) were used to obtain the desired\r\n wavelength and radiance, excluding any variation that might occur due to voltage\r\n fluctuations. Each stimulus was confirmed to be within 6 3 nm of its designated\r\n wavelength by spectrometer measurements (SRI 2000, Allied Scientific Pro, Gatineau,\r\n Quebec, Canada). Intensity measurements were also verified regularly between trials\r\n and adjusted as necessary. Stimulus intensities were measured in W/sec using a UDT\r\n S471 Optometer (UDT, San Diego, CA), calibrated for use with a UDT 247 sensor for\r\n nearly equivalent sensitivity to wavelengths between 340 and 600 nm. Values were then\r\n converted into photons/ cm 2 /sec.\r\n
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\r\n Hatchlings were initially dark-adapted, then placed in the starting area of the Y-maze\r\n where they were briefly prevented from crawling ahead by a clear plastic barrier. Once\r\n that barrier was lifted, each hatchling had 5 min to crawl into one or the other arm.\r\n Between trials with different clutches, excess sand was removed and the maze was\r\n cleaned with 0.05% chlorohexidine solution. Up to 14 hatchlings (depending upon\r\n availability), each used only once, were tested to obtain an informative distribution\r\n of arm entries based upon a 1-tailed binomial test (at p ≤ 0.05; Zar 1999).\r\n
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\r\n Results and Discussion. — A total of 41 hatchlings from 7 nests, tested at\r\n each of the 3 perceptually equivalent paired intensities, showed no statistically\r\n significant preference for either arm (Table 1). That outcome indicated their choices\r\n were based upon the detection of what they perceived as equivalent radiances. These\r\n data also showed that because the turtles performed so consistently, only a small\r\n number of trials were required to obtain statistically significant results (Celano et\r\n al. 2018; Trail and Salmon 2022). We conclude that the preference for the shorter\r\n wavelengths, demonstrated by many others, was based upon differences in stimulus\r\n radiance. Given that the turtles are more sensitive to the shorter light wavelengths\r\n (Fig. 2), it is likely that at the nesting beach those stimuli were perceived as\r\n brighter than the longer light wavelengths.\r\n
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\r\n Different conclusions were reached in earlier studies carried out by Mrosovsky and\r\n Carr (1967) and Mrosovsky and Shettleworth (1968), working with green turtles\r\n (Chelonia mydas). They concluded that the preference was based upon both intensity and\r\n wavelength cues. However, the evidence for wavelength discrimination was based upon\r\n the assumption that physiological and behavioral thresholds for light were concordant.\r\n That assumption was subsequently proven false (see below).\r\n
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\r\n Specifically, Mrosovsky and Shettleworth (1968) presented hatchlings with a choice\r\n between crawling toward 2 light sources presented simultaneously: a red (long\r\n wavelength) and a blue (short wavelength) stimulus. As expected, the blue stimulus was\r\n initially preferred, but that preference was reversed when the intensity of the red\r\n light was 2.8 log units brighter than the intensity of the blue light. Mrosovsky and\r\n Shettleworth (1968) noted that the blue light threshold (as measured physiologically\r\n from the retina by Granda and O’Shea 1972) was 2 log units lower than the red light\r\n threshold. On that basis, they concluded that the ‘‘...0.8 log unit discrepancy\r\n between the brightness estimated by the ERG method and the brightness estimated by the\r\n behavioral method...’’ implied that both light intensity and light wavelength governed\r\n the preference. But in marine turtles, spectral sensitivities measured physiologically\r\n (Fig. 2, lower graph) differ from those measured perceptually (Celano et al. 2018;\r\n Trail and Salmon 2022) and so the 2 sources of data are not comparable.\r\n
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\r\n NOTES AND FIELD REPORTS\r\n
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\r\n Table 1. \r\n \r\n Distribution of Y-maze arm entries by leatherback hatchlings when presented with\r\n 380-nm and 500-nm light stimuli. Each wavelength was projected from one arm of the\r\n Y-maze at the same time, and at perceptually equivalent intensities relative to the\r\n threshold at that wavelength. Under those conditions, the turtles showed no\r\n statistical preference for the shorter light wavelength (by a 1-tailed binomial\r\n test).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n Response distribution\r\n
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\r\n Log intensity above threshold\r\n
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\r\n 380 nm \r\n
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\r\n 500 nm\r\n
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\r\n No. of hatchlings tested \r\n
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\r\n \r\n p\r\n \r\n
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\r\n 0.3
\r\n 0.7\r\n
\r\n 1.0\r\n
\r\n Totals:\r\n
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\r\n 9\r\n
\r\n 4
8
21\r\n \r\n
\r\n 5\r\n
\r\n 9
6
20\r\n \r\n
\r\n 14\r\n
\r\n 13\r\n
14
41\r\n \r\n
\r\n 0.21\r\n
\r\n 0.13\r\n
0.40
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\r\n These experiments and resulting conclusions were made possible by obtaining information\r\n that was previ- ously unavailable, specifically, detailed measurements of the light\r\n spectra present at night, tests to determine which wavelengths elicited a positive\r\n phototaxis, and thresholds of the hatchlings to those wavelengths (Celano et al. 2018;\r\n Trail and Salmon 2022). This approach was long overdue as previous demonstrations that\r\n the turtles preferred the shorter wavelengths implied wavelength discrimination in the\r\n absence of relevant supporting data.\r\n
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\r\n Our conclusions are also consistent with the condi- tions under which visual tasks are\r\n usually accomplished by most vertebrates under nocturnal lighting conditions. At night,\r\n vision is dominated by rods, which typically provide no information useful for color\r\n discrimination, especially in eyes that are designed for function (as are those of\r\n marine turtles) primarily under bright lighting conditions (Fritsches and Warrant 2013).\r\n However, if hatchlings emerge just before dusk (as often occurs in this species;\r\n Gonzales and Stewart 2019) or under full moon illumina- tion, both rods and cones might\r\n be activated. Under those conditions, Mrosovsky and Shettleworth (1968) could be correct\r\n — color might also contribute to a phototaxis preference.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Figure 2. Above, spectral sensitivity of leatherback hatchlings to\r\n near-monochromatic light wavelengths (k) measured behaviorally as phototaxis\r\n thresholds relative to the nocturnal light radiance present at a (Juno Beach) Florida\r\n nesting site, and (below) physiologically as ERG response thresholds recorded from the\r\n retina. The 2 distributions differ in the following respects: First, the range of\r\n threshold values is greater behaviorally (. 2 log units) than physiologically (, 2 log\r\n units). Second, the wavelengths detected with the greatest sensitivity (open diamonds)\r\n are among the shortest behaviorally and among the longest physiologically. (Above,\r\n from Trail and Salmon [2022]; below, modified from Horch et al. [2008]).\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n Acknowledgments.\r\n \r\n — This study was completed by S.E.T. in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a\r\n Master of Science degree in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic\r\n University (FAU). We thank M.J. Saunders, J. Seminoff, and 2 anonymous referees for\r\n comments that improved manuscript organization and clarity. The project was supported by\r\n the department and by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation of Fort Lauderdale,\r\n Florida. The study was authorized by the State of Florida (FWC Permit no. MTP-19-173A)\r\n and by the FAU animal care committee (IACUC Protocol A20-13).\r\n
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\r\n LITERATURE CITED\r\n
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\r\n CELANO, L., SULLIVAN, C., FIELD , A., AND S ALMON, M. 2018. Seafinding revisited: how\r\n hatchling marine turtles respond to natural lighting at a nesting beach. Journal of\r\n Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural & Behavioral Physiology\r\n 204:1007–1015.
\r\n DANIEL, R.S. AND S MITH , K.U. 1947. The sea-approach of the neonate loggerhead turtle (\r\n Caretta caretta). Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology 40:413–420.\r\n
\r\n EHRENFELD, D.W. 1968. The role of vision in the sea-finding orientation of the green\r\n turtle (Chelonia mydas). Animal Behaviour 16:281–287.
\r\n FRITSCHES, K.A. AND WARRANT , E.J. 2013. Vision. In: Wyneken, J., Lohmann, K.J., and\r\n Musick, J.A. (Eds.). The Biology of Sea Turtles, Vol 3. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, pp.\r\n 32–53.
\r\n GONZALES, C.M. AND STEWART, K.R. 2019. Emergence timing of leatherback hatchlings (\r\n Dermochelys coriacea) at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, 2010–2014.\r\n Chelonian Conservation and Biology 18:241–248.
\r\n GRANDA , A.M. AND O’S HEA , P.J. 1972. Spectral sensitivity of the green turtle (\r\n Chelonia mydas mydas) determined by electrical responses to heterochromatic\r\n light. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 5:143–154.
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\r\n HORCH, K.W., GOCKE , J.P., SALMON , M. AND FORWARD, R.B. 2008. Visual spectral\r\n sensitivity of hatchling loggerhead (Caretta caretta L.) and leatherback (\r\n Dermochelys coriacea L.) seaturtles, as determined by single-flash\r\n electroretinography. Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology 41:79–91.
\r\n LIMPUS, C.J. 1971. Sea turtle ocean finding behaviour. Search 2: 385–387.
\r\n LOHMANN , K.J., W ITHERINGTON , B.E., LOHMANN , C.M., AND SALMON, M. 1997. Orientation,\r\n navigation, and natal beach homing in sea turtles. In: Lutz, P.L. and Musick, P.A.\r\n (Eds.). The Biology of Sea Turtles. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, pp. 107–136.
\r\n MROSOVSKY, N. AND CARR , A. 1967. Preference for light of short wavelengths in hatchling\r\n green sea turtles, Chelonia mydas, tested on their natural nesting beaches.\r\n Behaviour 28:217–231.
\r\n by MROSOVSKY , N. AND SHETTLEWORTH , S.J. 1968. Wavelength preferences and brightness\r\n cues in the water finding behaviour of sea turtles. Behaviour 32:211–257.
\r\n TRAIL , S.E. AND SALMON , M. 2022. Differences in visual perception are correlated with\r\n variation in sea-finding behaviour between hatchling leatherback\r\n (Dermochelys cor- iacea)\r\n and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) marine turtles. Animal Behaviour 187:47–54.\r\n
\r\n WITHERINGTON, B.E. 1992. Behavioral responses of nesting turtles to artificial lighting.\r\n Herpetologica 48:31–39.
\r\n WITHERINGTON, B.E. AND BJORNDAL, K.A. 1991. Influences of wavelength and intensity on\r\n hatchling sea turtle phototaxis: implications for sea-finding behavior. Copeia\r\n 1991:1060– 1069.
\r\n YOUNG , M., SALMON , M., AND FORWARD , R. 2012. Visual wavelength discrimination by the\r\n loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta. Biological Bulletin (Woods Hole) 222:46–55.\r\n
\r\n ZAR, J.H. 1999. Biostatistical Analysis. Fourth edition. Hoboken, NJ: Prentice-Hall.\r\n
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\r\n \r\n Received: 20 December 2021 Revised and Accepted: 10 May 2022 Handling Editor: Jeffrey\r\n A. Seminoff\r\n \r\n
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The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation supports NOVA Southeastern University Oceanographic Center’s students and Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program.
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Oceanographic Center students are just beginning our 23rd Year of The Sea Turtle Conservation Program. The operation employs 23 field workers who are primarily NSUOC Graduate Students or recent graduates. Students patrol over 38 km of Broward County beaches each morning at dawn, from March 1 through September 30. Endangered Sea Turtle nests are identified, marked, located by GPS and sometimes relocated from intensely lighted beaches to avoid Hatchling disorientation.
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Loggerhead yearly nest counts were in decline from 2000 To 2009, but in 2010, 2,282 Loggerhead nests were recorded, which was 26% higher than in 2009, the highest number since 2000.
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Green Sea Turtles deposited the second highest number of nests since project inception which was only 4 nests below the record number of 272 recorded in 2008.
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Leatherback Turtles continue to nest in Broward County in lower numbers (14 nests last year), but there is a long term increasing trend.
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The project depends upon the support and cooperation of the public. A portion of the project is funded by The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation from donations to their Adopt a Nest Program.
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Here are some ways that concerned and interested residents can help:
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You will receive a free one-year subscription to
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With your tax-deductible contribution in the amount of only $50.00, you will receive a certificate and a picture of the nest assigned to you or your group.
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After the nest hatches, you will receive information about the nest and how many of the hatchlings were released into the ocean.
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In Broward County 3,539 sea turtle nests were laid last year. Marine biologists invest time and energy to protect these endangered animals. Frequently these nests must be relocated to prevent hatchling disorientation.
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\r\n }\r\n aria-controls=\"panel1bh-content\"\r\n id=\"panel1bh-header\"\r\n className=\"dark\"\r\n >\r\n Read more about Adopt A Nest
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YOU CAN HELP US SAVE A SEA TURTLE BY
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handleSubmenuClick(e, link.label)}\r\n sx={{\r\n color: \"#F27920\",\r\n fontWeight: \"bold\",\r\n // minWidth: '150px',\r\n // padding: \"10px 16px\",\r\n fontSize: \"0.875rem\", // Standardized text size\r\n }}\r\n >\r\n {link.label}\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n {link.submenu.map((sublink) => (\r\n \r\n \r\n {sublink.label}\r\n \r\n \r\n ))}\r\n \r\n \r\n {renderLinks()}\r\n
\r\n\r\n {/* Mobile Navigation */}\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n {/* Base font size for mobile menu */}\r\n {links.map((link) =>\r\n link.submenu ? (\r\n \r\n
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\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n );\r\n};\r\n\r\nexport default Navigation;\r\n","import React from 'react'\r\nimport { Typography, Divider, Button, Link } from '@mui/material'\r\nimport { createTheme, ThemeProvider } from \"@mui/material/styles\";\r\nimport VolunteerActivismIcon from '@mui/icons-material/VolunteerActivism';\r\n\r\nconst theme = createTheme({\r\n palette: {\r\n primary: {\r\n main: \"#99aab5\", // custom primary color\r\n },\r\n secondary: {\r\n main: \"#F27920\", // custom secondary color\r\n },\r\n },\r\n});\r\n\r\nexport default function BecomeAMember() {\r\n return (\r\n \r\n
Membership
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Since 1987, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has worked tirelessly to provide educational programming, promote public awareness, and support sea turtle research in the U.S. and abroad. Your contribution is critical to our continued success. Thank you!
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\r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has greatly expanded its support of scholarship programs over the last several years. Chosen by each school’s faculty, the ideal candidates are senior-year undergraduate students or graduate students that have an interest in any aspect of marine turtle research, and plan to continue their careers in the marine sciences. Your contribution to the Foundation helps provide critical support that young scientists so desperately need to complete their graduate studies.\r\n
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Florida Atlantic University
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\r\n For many years, the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University has been the recipient of numerous scholarships from the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation. These funds are used to support graduate research at the Master of Science and Doctoral levels. While in the past the Foundation has provided funding for projects involving marine turtles, in recent years the decision was made to support broader topics of research dealing with the conservation, management, and/or basic biology of marine fishes as well as turtles.\r\n
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University of Florida
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\r\n In 2020, the Foundation established the Fibropapillomatosis (FP) Training and Research Initiative at the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory in St. Augustine to specifically address the ongoing concerns surrounding this debilitating, globally-distributed sea turtle disease. Since then the Program has supported over six graduate students and has expanded to include topics such as sea turtle genomics and health assessments in wild populations.\r\n
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University of Central Florida
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\r\n Since 2021, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation has been supporting the Marine Turtle Research Group at the University of Central Florida in a number of ways. Starting with partial funding for a research vessel, our partnership has since grown to support over six exceptional undergraduates who have demonstrated a sincere interest in marine turtle research. In 2023, we also established the Dr. Llewellen Ehrhart Sea Turtle Research Internship Endowed Fund to support student interns seeking to work with the Marine Turtle Research Group at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.\r\n
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Florida International University
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\r\n The undergraduate research scholarships provided to FIU by the Foundation have enabled several undergraduate students and interns to pay for tuition, supplies, and research expenses associated with projects ranging from the ecology of sea turtles here and abroad to sea turtle health and public education. We also recently established the NSTSTF Scholarship Endowment, which helps ensure that funding will be available well into the future.\r\n
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Florida Gulf Coast University
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\r\n The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarship at FGCU was established in 2020 to provide undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in studies focused on nest success on Florida beaches and the movements of rare leatherback turtles nesting on the coast of West Africa. Since then, six students have received NSTSTF Scholarship awards.\r\n
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University of the Virgin Islands
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\r\n The Foundation’s commitment to the research and conservation of hawksbill turtles led to a partnership with the University of the Virgin Islands, located in St. Thomas, USVI. The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarship at UVI has supported several undergraduate and graduate students that have focused their research on this critically endangered species in and around the Virgin Islands.\r\n
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\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t{securityReport?.severity === 'HIGH'\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t? 'Access Denied'\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t: 'Page Not Found'}\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t{securityReport?.severity === 'HIGH'\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t? \"This request has been blocked for security reasons.\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t: \"The page you're looking for doesn't exist. Please check the URL and try again.\"}\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Go Back to Home\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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