Protected areas host important remnants of marine turtle nesting stocks in the Dominican Republic

Revuelta, Ohiana; León, Yolanda; Feliz, Pablo; Godley, Brendan J.; Raga, Juan Antonio; Tòmàs, Jesús

doi:10.1017/s0030605311001529

Cited by 20 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Focusing research in these areas that can be considered as temporary, site specific or seasonal ranges is crucial to conservation management strategies (Hearn et al 2010, Heupel et al 2010, Revuelta et al 2012, Da Silva et al 2013. By using movement data, home range estimates (first described by Burt 1943 andMcNab 1963) have been used to define boundary lines for protected areas, reveal hotspots and areas of concern and inform policy makers on the effectiveness of management initiatives (Meyer & Holland 2005, Hearn et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Core habitat use of an apex predator in a complex marine landscape

Jewell

Wcisel

Towner

et al. 2014

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Manual acoustic telemetry was used to describe core habitat use of white sharks in the complex marine landscape of the Dyer Island and Geyser Rock system near Gansbaai, South Africa. We compared home range estimates and swimming pattern analyses to those established at Mossel Bay, another white shark aggregation area roughly 300 km to the east. Traditional home range estimates used in Mossel Bay did not account for movement or barriers, and were thus biased towards areas with very little shark movement (i.e. potential resting areas). We found that adapting a Movement-based Kernel Density Estimate (MKDE) could account for movement and barriers, resolving these issues. At Dyer Island and Geyser Rock, daytime shark habitat use was adjacent to the seal colony, with low rates of movement, non-linear swimming patterns and small activity areas. At night, rates of movement and linearity increased as sharks travelled further from the islands into deeper waters. MKDEs revealed 4 focal areas of habitat use: a channel between the 2 islands, an area to the south of the seal colony, another area near a kelp feature to the southwest of the seal colony and a reef system to the northwest. These results differed significantly from the habitat use at Mossel Bay, where focal areas occurred adjacent to the seal colony during the hours of dawn and dusk. We discuss possible explanations for these differences. This study is the first to make use of MKDEs in a complex marine landscape and highlights important differences in habitat use of a threatened species between 2 separate aggregation areas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Core habitat use of an apex predator in a complex marine landscape

Jewell

Wcisel

Towner

et al. 2014

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…During the 2007 and 2008 nesting seasons (from March to October), samples from three nesting marine turtle species were collected within an extensive monitoring project to assess nesting marine turtle abundance and distribution in the Dominican Republic [22] (Figure 1, Table 1). Samples from green turtles (n = 2; DRS), hawksbill turtles (n = 48; DRS n = 33, DRJ n = 15) and leatherback turtles (n = 42; DRJ) were collected from the Jaragua National Park (DRJ/DR) and Saona Island (DRS), with the permission and support of the office of Protected Areas of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic Government.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All mixed stock analysis included population size as a weighting factor as several studies have proved that the inclusion of this factor improved the accuracy of results [41], [81]. Source population sizes (as mean number of nesting females) were taken from the literature [22], [67], [82] (Tables S1 and S3). …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to these threats, turtles are also incidentally captured at sea [19]–[20]. Although marine turtles have been legally protected by law since 1966 in the Dominican Republic [21]–[22] it was estimated that there was an annual capture of between 1000 and 2000 green ( Chelonia mydas ), loggerhead ( Caretta caretta ) and leatherback ( Dermochelys coriacea ) turtles during the 1980s [19]. In addition, a total of 4366 kg of hawksbill ( Eretmochelys imbricata ) shell was exported to Japan between 1970 and 1986 [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The consequences of the accumulation of these threats to the Dominican Republic nesting populations were not properly addressed until a recent study [22], which suggested that the Dominican Republic is an important nesting area for the hawksbill and leatherback turtle and includes some sporadic nesting by green turtles. However, the persistence of threats appears to have led to population reduction and a significant contraction of nesting habitats, with nesting largely restricted to protected areas [14]–[15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contextualising the Last Survivors: Population Structure of Marine Turtles in the Dominican Republic

et al. 2013

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Nesting by three species of marine turtles persists in the Dominican Republic, despite historic threats and long-term population decline. We conducted a genetic survey of marine turtles in the Dominican Republic in order to link them with other rookeries around the Caribbean. We sequenced a 740bp fragment of the control region of the mitochondrial DNA of 92 samples from three marine turtle species [hawksbill (n = 48), green (n = 2) and leatherback (n = 42)], and incorporated published data from other nesting populations and foraging grounds. The leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) in the Dominican Republic appeared to be isolated from Awala-Yalimapo, Cayenne, Trinidad and St. Croix but connected with other Caribbean populations. Two distinct nesting populations of hawksbill turtles (Eremochelys imbricata) were detected in the Dominican Republic and exhibited interesting patterns of connectivity with other nesting sites and juvenile and adult male foraging aggregations. The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) has almost been extirpated from the Dominican Republic and limited inference could be made from our samples. Finally, results were compared with Lagrangian drifting buoys and published Lagrangian virtual particles that travelled through the Dominican Republic and Caribbean waters. Conservation implications of sink-source effects or genetic isolation derived from these complex inter-connections are discussed for each species and population.

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Green and hawksbill turtles in the Lesser Antilles demonstrate behavioural plasticity in inter-nesting behaviour and post-nesting migration

Esteban

Dam²,

Harrison

et al. 2015

Mar Biol

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Satellite transmitters were deployed on three green turtles, Chelonia mydas, and two hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, nesting in the Lesser Antilles islands, Caribbean, between 2005-2007 to obtain preliminary information about the inter-nesting, migratory and foraging habitats in the region. Despite the extremely small dataset, both year-round residents and migrants were identified; specifically (1) two green turtles used local shallow coastal sites within 50 km of the nesting beach during all of their inter-nesting periods and then settled at these sites on completion of their breeding seasons, (2) one hawksbill turtle travelled 200 km westward before reversing direction and settling within 50 km of the original nesting beach and (3) one green and one hawksbill turtle initially nested at the proximate site, before permanently relocating to an alternative nesting site over 190 km distant. A lack of nesting beach fidelity was supported by flipper tag datasets for the region. Tagging datasets from 2002-2012 supported that some green and hawksbill individuals exhibit low fidelity to nesting beaches, whereas other females exhibited a high degree of fidelity (26 turtles tagged, 40.0km maximum distance recorded from original nesting beach). Individual turtles nesting on St Eustatius 2 and St Maarten appear to exhibit behavioural plasticity in their inter-nesting behaviour and postnesting migration routes in the Eastern Caribbean. The tracking and tagging data combined indicate that some of the green and hawksbill females that nest in the Lesser Antilles Islands are year-round residents, while others may nest and forage at alternative sites. Thus, continued year-round protection of these islands and implementation of protection programmes in nearby islands could contribute towards safeguarding the green and hawksbill populations of the region.

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Protected areas host important remnants of marine turtle nesting stocks in the Dominican Republic

Cited by 20 publications

References 23 publications

Core habitat use of an apex predator in a complex marine landscape

Core habitat use of an apex predator in a complex marine landscape

Contextualising the Last Survivors: Population Structure of Marine Turtles in the Dominican Republic

Green and hawksbill turtles in the Lesser Antilles demonstrate behavioural plasticity in inter-nesting behaviour and post-nesting migration

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