Padre Island National Seashore

Nesting Trends of Sea Turtles in the U.S.

Monitor trends of sea turtle nestings in six national seashores in the southwestern United States.

Issue: Nesting trends and long-distance movements of sea turtles in national seashores within the southeastern U.S.

Important nesting and foraging habitats for threatened and endangered sea turtles are found in several areas within the southeastern United States that are administered by the National Park Service (NPS). Because of NPS management policies, turtles inhabiting these National Seashores can be afforded greater protection than those inhabiting privately owned areas. Additional biological information, data analysis, and technical assistance are necessary for the NPS to develop effective management plans, decisions, and protection strategies for these organisms.

This project has two components nesting habitat and marine habitat. Nesting habitat: A cooperative study of sea turtle nesting at six National Seashores located in the southeastern United States will be undertaken, and participants from USFWS. The six National Seashores will provide general information on monitoring protocols, nest protection strategies, factors possibly affecting trends in nest counts, nest distributions, and hatchling emergence, data on nest counts, nest distributions, and hatchling emergence. The USFWS will provide previously collected data on nest counts and hatchling emergence rates within the states in which the six areas are located. Marine Habitat: A cooperative study of habitat utilization and long-distance movements of juvenile green turtles.

Other data to be collected in this study (seasonal movements, habitat utilization, vulnerability to various threats) will result from the analysis and interpretation of the location data. To obtain data on locations, Telonics ST-10 satellite transmitters will be affixed to green turtles. Turtles used in this study will be selected from those captured during the on-going, directed-capture study conducted at the Mansfield Channel, PAIS (Padre Island National Seashore). Transmitters will provide information on locations and time at the surface of the tracked turtles for periods ranging up to six months. In order to ensure that variations in seasonal movements and migratory patterns can be studied, transmitters will be deployed during various months of the year, with particular focus on deployment during the spring and fall.