International movements of adult female leatherback turtles in the Caribbean: results from tag recovery data (2002-2013)

Ja Horrocks,J Gumbs,H Guada,K Stewart,C Lloyd,Kl Eckert,S Stapleton,M Fastigi,E Harris,J Berkel

doi:10.3354/esr00718

Abstract

ESR Endangered Species Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials ESR 29:279-287 (2016) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00718 International movements of adult female leatherback turtles in the Caribbean: results from tag recovery data (2002-2013) J. A. Horrocks1,*, S. Stapleton2, H. Guada3,4, C. Lloyd5, E. Harris6, M. Fastigi7, J. Berkel8, K. Stewart9, J. Gumbs10, K. L. Eckert11 1WIDECAST Marine Turtle Tagging Centre, Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of the West Indies - Cave Hill Campus, Bridgetown BB11000, Barbados 2Jumby Bay Hawksbill Project, Jumby Bay, PO Box 243, St. John’s, Antigua 3Instituto de Zoología y Ecología Tropical, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Facultad de Ciencias, Paseo Los Ilustres, Los Chaguaramos, Apdo. 47058, Caracas 1041, Distrito Capital, Venezuela 4Centro de Investigación y Conservación de Tortugas Marinas, Apdo. 50.789, Caracas 1050-A, Venezuela 5Ocean Spirits, PO Box 1373, Grand Anse, St. George’s, Grenada 6Dominica Sea Turtle Conservation Organization, PO Box 939, Roseau, Commonwealth of Dominica 7YWF-Kido Foundation, Kido Ecological Research Station, Sanctuary, Carriacou, Grenadines of Grenada 8St. Eustatius National Parks, Gallows Bay z/n, Sint Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands 9St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network, PO Box 2298, Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis 10Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Government of Anguilla, PO Box 60, The Valley 2640, Anguilla 11Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST), 1348 Rusticview Drive, Ballwin, Missouri 63011, USA *Corresponding author: julia.horrocks@cavehill.uwi.edu ABSTRACT: Leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea nest across the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR), including at low densities in many Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Most (87.8%) WCR governments protect the species from direct harvest; however, gravid females are at risk as they pass through unprotected regimes, especially among Eastern Caribbean SIDS where mortality can threaten the remnant nesting assemblages that characterize most Caribbean islands. We summarize flipper tag recovery data of adult females moving between WCR States or between islands within States. Between January 2002 and December 2013, WC-series tags obtained from WIDECAST’s Marine Turtle Tagging Centre in Barbados were attached to 3151 leatherbacks. Most (64.3%) were tagged in Eastern Caribbean SIDS, with the remainder tagged in Guyana, Venezuela, and Costa Rica. The majority of females continued to nest at the location of tagging, but 211 tagged females were recovered elsewhere on 240 occasions, including 22 different sites in 17 countries. Females travelled significantly greater straight line distances between locations in different nesting seasons (x̄ = 218.9 km) than within nesting seasons (x̄ = 160.6 km). Rates of within- and between-season recoveries (2.8 and 4.3%, respectively) are similar to previously published estimates, but are likely to be underestimates, as few of the 470 known nesting beaches in the WCR are nocturnally monitored. Our data support a North Caribbean nesting population, a Southern Caribbean/Guianas stock, and suggest the existence of a Central Antillean nesting population nesting primarily within Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, and Saint Lucia. KEY WORDS: Caribbean · Dermochelys coriacea · Leatherback · Nesting · Tag recovery · Within‑season nesting · Between-season nesting · WIDECAST · Population structure Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousCite this article as: Horrocks JA, Stapleton S, Guada H, Lloyd C and others (2016) International movements of adult female leatherback turtles in the Caribbean: results from tag recovery data (2002-2013). Endang Species Res 29:279-287. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00718 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESR Vol. 29, No. 3. Online publication date: February 19, 2016 Print ISSN: 1863-5407; Online ISSN: 1613-4796 Copyright © 2016 Inter-Research.

Highlights

Of all sea turtle species, leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea undertake the most extensive migrations between their foraging and nesting grounds (e.g. Billes et al 2006, Benson et al 2011, Witt et al 2011), deposit the highest number of clutches per female per year (Boulon et al 1996, Rivalan et al 2006, Piedra et al 2007) and, especially on continental shores, display relatively weak nest site fidelity compared to other sea turtle species (Girondot & Fretey 1996, Stewart et al 2014)
Whereas nesting occurs on the warm, sandy beaches of the continental and insular Caribbean, the foraging range of the Northwest Atlantic (NA) sub-population extends from the warm waters of the Gulf of Venezuela and nearby Golfete de Coro (Rondón-Médicci et al 2014) into the temperate latitudes of the North Atlantic across to northwest Africa
Using a combination of flipper-tagging and satellite telemetry, a picture is emerging of adult leatherbacks that migrate from cold temperate foraging grounds in US and Canadian waters in late autumn, and overwinter in warmer Caribbean waters (e.g. James et al 2005, Dodge et al 2014) before depositing their eggs on Wider Caribbean Region (WCR) beaches in March or April (James et al 2007), and returning to temperate foraging grounds post-nesting (e.g. Eckert 2006)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Of all sea turtle species, leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea undertake the most extensive migrations between their foraging and nesting grounds (e.g. Billes et al 2006, Benson et al 2011, Witt et al 2011), deposit the highest number of clutches per female per year (Boulon et al 1996, Rivalan et al 2006, Piedra et al 2007) and, especially on continental shores, display relatively weak nest site fidelity compared to other sea turtle species (Girondot & Fretey 1996, Stewart et al 2014). Intra-seasonal movement (>100 km) among nesting beaches has been documented between sites in French Guiana and Suriname (Schulz 1971, Pritchard 1973, Girondot & Fretey 1996, Fossette et al 2007, Georges et al 2007), Panama and Costa Rica (Chacón-Chaverri & Eckert 2007), Venezuela and Trinidad (Rondón-Médicci et al 2014) and among Caribbean islands (Eckert et al 1989, Bräutigam & Eckert 2006, Georges et al 2007, Stapleton & Eckert 2007). The extent to which animals spread their iterative reproductive investment spatially is of significant conservation interest (Eckert et al 2006, Fossette et al 2007, Georges et al 2007, Rondón-Médicci et al 2012) Such movement has implications related, inter alia, to genetic diversity (Dutton et al 1999), population trend estimates (Stewart et al 2014), and the need for collaboration among range States (Wold 2002, Richardson et al 2013). We provide the first results from flipper tag recoveries reported between January 2002 and December 2013 of adult female leatherbacks marked with MTTC-issued flipper tags, with a focus on within- and between-season inter-island, regional movements

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS

DISCUSSION