Original provider: Marine Turtle Research Group Dataset credits: Data provider Marine Turtle Research Group Originating data center Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT) Project partner Society for Protection of Turtles (SPOT) was founded in the late 1980s by British expatriates Ian and Celia Bell who came together with local conservationist Kutlay Keço. In 1988 a preliminary field study was carried out by Brian Groombridge and Claire Whitmore and SPOT later made further surveys of the North Cyprus coast and found numbers of nesting green and loggerhead turtles sufficient to merit further investigation. In the early 1990s SPOT contacted Glasgow University and in 1992 the first pioneering team of students were sent to make a thorough survey. On the basis of this expedition, Kutlay agreed to provide accommodation on his land at Alagadi, and this became the Alagadi Goat Shed and Sleeping House, which twenty years on are still used by the Marine Turtle Conservation Project (MTCP) as the hub of research and conservation of turtles in North Cyprus. MTCP is a collaboration between the University of Exeter's Marine Turtle Research Group, SPOT and the North Cyprus Department for Environmental Protection. Supplemental information: Visit STAT's project page for additional information. This dataset is a summarized representation of the telemetry locations aggregated per species per 1-degree cell.
The MTCP have placed 22 satellite trackers on green turtles since 1998 which have revealed several major foraging areas within the Mediterranean. However, recent research using stable isotope analysis suggest that an important foraging area may have been missed due to chance. Therefore, MTCP have taken the opportunity to attach satellite trackers to 5 turtles which the stable isotopes suggest forage in the area of interest.