Sea Turtles in North Carolina Waters

Abstract

Until the turn of the century the inshore waters of North Carolina harbored populations of sea turtles large enough to support a commercial fishery. Based on a 4‐ to‐5‐year record of sighting reports by the public, interviews of recreational fishermen, and records kept by commercial fishermen the waters continue to provide important developmental habitats for loggerhead, green, and Kemp's ridley sea turtles. Leathertback and hawksbill sea turtles infrequently entered the inshore waters. Reports from the public and commercial fishermen indicated that sea turtles were present offshore North Carolina all year and were present in inshore waters April through December. Sea turtles were encountered most frequently in the Atlantic Ocean, but seasonal encounters in some inshore waters, such as Core and Pamlico Sounds, often were greater. In early May large numbers of leatherbacks were sighted in the ocean and moved northward along the beach. Reported sightings of leatherbacks declined markedly by late June. Based on incidental captures by commercial fishermen loggerhead turtles were the most numerous species in Pamlico and Core Sounds (80%), followed by green (15%) and Kemp's ridley sea turtles (5%). Most captured turtles were immature, and all were released alive. The abundance of immature sea turtles in North Carolina inshore waters serves to emphasize that southeast U.S. estuaries are important habitats for these threatened and endangered species. This recognition supported the decision of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to extend the requirement for turtle excluder devices in shrimp trawls to inshore areas during the entire year, full implementation of these requirements was achieved by December 1994.

Navigation and seasonal migratory orientation in juvenile sea turtles

“…In North Carolina, sea turtles occupy inshore waters from approximately April through September and begin to migrate when water temperatures decrease during October and November (Epperly et al, 1995a). Data obtained between May and September ('summer') were therefore analyzed to determine whether turtles exhibited orientation that might represent homing to the feeding areas where they were captured.…”

Modeling and mapping isotopic patterns in the Northwest Atlantic derived from loggerhead sea turtles

“…Both MAB and North Carolina estuaries are known to be important summer foraging grounds (Epperly et al 1995, Musick and Limpus 1997, McClellan and Read 2007, and aerial surveys (Shoop and Kenney 1992) have documented that large numbers of loggerheads aggregate in the MAB from May to October and undertake seasonal north-south migrations along the US coastline between MAB (May to October) and SAB (November to April) (Mansfield et al 2009). The loggerhead population off Canaveral consists of a mix of year-round residents and seasonal (winter) residents: in spring and summer, this area hosts a major breeding aggregation (Henwood 1987 Reich et al 2008) but RBC and epidermis are estimated to reflect foraging habits at least 4 months prior to sampling (Brace and Altland 1955, Seminoff et al 2007.…”

“…Loggerheads sampled off Cape Canaveral were included in the training subset if they transmitted for at least 80 days and remained within the SAB. We chose the 80-day cut-off because loggerheads were sampled in early March 2013 and individuals undergoing seasonal migration between the SAB and the MAB usually leave the SAB by the end of April/early May (i.e., within 60 days from capture date) (Epperly et al 1995, Mansfield et al 2009, Ceriani et al 2012.…”

“…Similarly, SAB loggerheads are either year-round or seasonal residents (Henwood 1987, Hawkes et al 2011, Arendt et al 2012a, Ceriani et al 2012; therefore, their skin represents the isotopic signature of the SAB foraging area. On the other hand, satellite telemetry, fishery interaction, and aerial survey data have shown that loggerheads form seasonal aggregations and forage at high latitudes (MAB and off the Scotian Shelf ) from May to October every year (Shoop and Kenney 1992, Epperly et al 1995, Witzell 1999, Brazner and McMillan 2008, Mansfield et al 2009). MAB loggerheads as well as many from North Carolina estuaries overwinter south of Cape Hatteras (NC) or move as far south as North Florida (McClellan and Read 2007, Mansfield et al 2009, Hawkes et al 2011.…”

Sea Turtles in Florida's Atlantic Waters

“…We completed a thorough review Ehrhart et al, 2007;Hawkes et al, 2007Hawkes et al, , 2011Arendt et al, 2012a,b,c), satellite telemetry (Blumenthal et al, 2006;Girard et al, 2009;Mansfi eld et al, 2009;Arendt et al, 2012a,b,c;Ceriani et al, 2012), shipboard surveys (Bresette et al, 2010), aerial surveys (Fritts et al, 1983;Schroeder and Thompson, 1987;Epperly et al, 1995Epperly et al, , 2002McClellan, 1996;Witzell and Azarovitz, 1996;Henwood and Epperly, 1999;Goodman et al, 2007), stable isotopes (Reich et al, 2007a, b;Ceriani et al, 2012), and bycatch records (Thompson et al, 1991;Epperly et al, 2002). Mark-recapture via fl ipper or pit tagging provides start and end point data demarking some travels (Meylan, 1995;Schmid and Witzell, 1997;Witzell, 1998;Williams and Frick, 2008).…”