The influence of oceanographic features on the foraging behavior of the olive ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys olivacea along the Guiana coast

Chambault, Philippine; Thoisy, Benoı̂t de; Heerah, Karine; Conchon, Anna; Barrioz, Sébastien; Reis, Virginie Dos; Berzins, Rachel; Kelle, Laurent; Picard, Baptiste; Roquet, Fabien; Maho, Yvon Le; Chevallier, Damien

doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2016.01.006

Cited by 36 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…The average size of our migrant turtles was larger than those found by Meylan, Meylan, and Gray () (mean CCL in Martinique: 85.9 cm vs. 81.9 cm), who performed a series of laparoscopies on juvenile green turtles in Panama to determine the minimum size at sexual maturity. Although the turtles tracked from Martinique waters were smaller (CCL range: 78.5–93 cm) than the reproductive females observed in French Guiana (CCL range: 103–133 cm, Chambault, de Thoisy, Kelle, et al, ), Costa Rica (CCL range: 95.5–110.9 cm, Troëng, Evans, Harrison, & Lagueux, ), Ascension Island (CCL range: 100–130 cm, Hays, Broderick, Glen, & Godley, ), and Guinea‐Bissau (CCL range: 92–103 cm, Godley, Almeida, et al, ; Godley, Lima, et al, ), this suggests that our migrant individuals are close to reach sexual maturity. These turtles might therefore initiate their migration, either to discover new developmental habitats (Carr, Carr, & Meylan, ) or to directly reach adult habitats (foraging grounds or breeding sites).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…That is the reason why many species perform long‐distance migrations, exploiting distinct habitats during their life cycle. In the marine realm, such long migrations have been reported in seabirds (e.g., Egevang et al, ; Storr, ), cetaceans (e.g., Fossette et al, ; Garrigue et al, ; Rasmussen et al, ), pinnipeds (e.g., Hindell et al, ; Robinson et al, ), large pelagic fishes (e.g., Block et al, ; Potter, Galuardi, & Howell, ; Skomal et al, ), and sea turtles (e.g., Chambault et al, ; Chambault, de Thoisy, Heerah, et al, ; Chambault et al, ; Polovina et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Connecting paths between juvenile and adult habitats in the Atlantic green turtle using genetics and satellite tracking

Chambault

Thoisy

Huguin

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Although it is commonly assumed that female sea turtles always return to the beach they hatched, the pathways they use during the years preceding their first reproduction and their natal origins are most often unknown, as it is the case for juvenile green turtles found in Martinique waters in the Caribbean. Given the oceanic circulation of the Guiana current flowing toward Martinique and the presence of important nesting sites for this species in Suriname and French Guiana, we may assume that a large proportion of the juvenile green turtles found in Martinique are originating from the Suriname–French Guiana beaches. To confirm this hypothesis, we performed mixed stock analysis (MSA) on 40 green turtles sampled in Martinique Island and satellite tracked 31 juvenile green turtles tagged in Martinique to (a) assess their natal origin and (b) identify their destination. Our results from MSA confirm that these juveniles are descendant from females laying on several Caribbean and Atlantic beaches, mostly from Suriname and French Guiana, but also from more southern Brazilian beaches. These results were confirmed by the tracking data as the 10 turtles leaving Martinique headed across the Caribbean–Atlantic region in six different directions and 50% of these turtles reached the Brazilian foraging grounds used by the adult green turtles coming from French Guiana. One turtle left the French Guianan coast to perform the first transatlantic migration ever recorded in juvenile green turtles, swimming toward Guinea‐Bissau, which is the most important nesting site for green turtles along the African coast. The extensive movements of the migrant turtles evidenced the crossing of international waters and more than 25 exclusive economic zones, reinforcing the need for an international cooperative network to ensure the conservation of future breeders in this endangered species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Connecting paths between juvenile and adult habitats in the Atlantic green turtle using genetics and satellite tracking

Chambault

Thoisy

Huguin

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Therefore, integrating ABI can complement ocean observing platforms such as Argo floats, gliders and other autonomous vehicles to provide unique and cost-effective data from poorly sampled ocean regions (Block et al, 2016;Bograd, Block, Costa, & Godley, 2010;Fedak, 2004;Harcourt et al, 2019;Hays et al, 2016;Hussey et al, 2015;Roemmich et al, 2010;Roquet et al, 2014). For instance, ABI in the marine environment have been deployed on pinnipeds (Bailleul et al, 2015;Roquet et al, 2014), cetaceans (Laidre et al, 2010), marine turtles (Chambault et al, 2015(Chambault et al, , 2016McMahon et al, 2005;McMahon & Hays, 2006;Patel et al, 2018), sharks (Coffey & Holland, 2015;Payne et al, 2018), fish (Block, Costa, Boehlert, & Kochevar, 2002), flying seabirds (Wilson et al, 2002;Wilson & Vandenabeele, 2012), penguins (Charrassin, Park, Maho, & Bost, 2002;Sala, Pisoni, & Quintana, 2017) and sirenians (Hagihara et al, 2018). Animals can travel to regions that are relatively inaccessible to other ocean observing technologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards the integration of animal‐borne instruments into global ocean observing systems

March

Boehme

Tintoré

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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Marine animals are increasingly instrumented with environmental sensors that provide large volumes of oceanographic data. Here, we conduct an innovative and comprehensive global analysis to determine the potential contribution of animal‐borne instruments (ABI) into ocean observing systems (OOSs) and provide a foundation to establish future integrated ocean monitoring programmes. We analyse the current gaps of the long‐term Argo observing system (>1.5 million profiles) and assess its spatial overlap with the distribution of marine animals across eight major species groups (tuna and billfishes, sharks and rays, marine turtles, pinnipeds, cetaceans, sirenians, flying seabirds and penguins). We combine distribution ranges of 183 species and satellite tracking observations from >3,000 animals. Our analyses identify potential areas where ABI could complement OOS. Specifically, ABI have the potential to fill gaps in marginal seas, upwelling areas, the upper 10 m of the water column, shelf regions and polewards of 60° latitude. Our approach provides the global baseline required to plan the integration of ABI into global and regional OOS while integrating conservation and ocean monitoring priorities.

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“…Not all olive ridley populations, however, are oceanic nomads; some groups have been observed to habitually occupy neritic waters near nesting sites, as observed in North West Australia (McMahon et al, 2007;Whiting et al, 2007), French Guiana (Plot et al, 2015), and Oman (Rees et al, 2012). This behavior may be explained by nearby food resource abundance, favorable temperatures, or other oceanic conditions (Plot et al, 2015;Chambault et al, 2016Chambault et al, , 2017 but nevertheless demonstrates significant behavioral plasticity for the species throughout their global range.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through their nomadic migrations these turtles can encounter different local environmental conditions, which can determine the travel direction, traveling speed, diving behavior and residence time (Chambault et al, 2016(Chambault et al, , 2017(Chambault et al, , 2019. Mesoscale eddies, which drive ocean productivity in the open ocean, transport heat, salts and nutrients (Revelles et al, 2007), are known to aggregate different sea turtle species, both in cold-core cyclonic eddies, and in warm-core anticyclonic eddies (Polovina et al, 2006;Mansfield et al, 2014;Chambault et al, 2016Chambault et al, , 2019.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral States Related to Environmental Conditions and Fisheries During Olive Ridley Turtle Migration From Pacific Panama

2019

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Sea turtles migrate from breeding grounds to foraging areas through the territorial waters of several countries. Olive ridleys lack clear migratory routes, which makes it a challenge for conservation. This study aimed to evaluate if the migratory behavior of olive ridleys nesting on the Pacific Coast of Panama is correlated to environmental conditions along the migration and to identify common foraging areas. Thirty-four olive ridley turtles were tagged with satellite transmitters along the Pacific coast of Panama and tracked for up to 9 months. A Hidden Markov Model was used to identify behavioral states (foraging and migrating) and their correlation to chlorophyll a concentration, sea surface temperature (SST), eddy kinetic energy (EKE), and primary productivity. Turtle tracks overlapped with eddies and industrial fishing areas. The probability of foraging rather than migrating was positively correlated to SST, productivity and chlorophyll levels and negatively correlated to EKE. Turtles spent an average 30% of their time migrating and 70% foraging. Only 8.4% of the turtle locations occurred within an eddy, and 82.7% of the locations overlapped with previously described industrial fishing areas. Although this sea turtle species seems to migrate freely, without clear migratory corridors, turtles may have preferred foraging destinations that they travel to through different migratory routes, such as the gulfs of Tehuantepec, Fonseca, and Guayaquil. Turtles traveled up to 6,684 km through nine countries, most of them foraging in oceanic waters in Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama, which highlights the importance of collaborative conservation strategies throughout foraging and nesting areas. The creation of a regional management unit (RMU), including Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, is discussed based on the observed seasonal overlap with the use of multiple fishing gears in coastal and oceanic fishing areas.

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The influence of oceanographic features on the foraging behavior of the olive ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys olivacea along the Guiana coast

Cited by 36 publications

References 92 publications

Connecting paths between juvenile and adult habitats in the Atlantic green turtle using genetics and satellite tracking

Connecting paths between juvenile and adult habitats in the Atlantic green turtle using genetics and satellite tracking

Towards the integration of animal‐borne instruments into global ocean observing systems

Behavioral States Related to Environmental Conditions and Fisheries During Olive Ridley Turtle Migration From Pacific Panama

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