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Migratory patterns of Yucatan Peninsula hawksbills
Citation
Coyne, M. S., and B. J. Godley. 2005. Satellite Tracking and Analysis Toos (STAT): an integrated system for archiving, analyzing and mapping animal tracking data. Marine Ecology Progress Series. Vol. 301: 1-7. https://marineinfo.org/id/dataset/3608

Availability: Creative Commons License This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Notes: Only data aggregated per 1-degree cell are available through OBIS. For access to additional data, the provider needs to be contacted.

Description
Satellite tracking data on post-nesting migratory behavior of hawksbills in the Yucatan Peninsula. more

The hawksbill population that nests in the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) is considered the largest in the Atlantic and one of the four largest in the world. However, from about 6,400 registered annual number of nests in 1999 (when the Mexican population represented about 43% of all recorded hawksbill nests in the Greater Caribbean), the population's reproductive output dropped to less than 2,400 nests/yr by 2004. No single cause has been demonstrated but as major nesting sites are under protection this alarming decline (a drop of 63% in 5 years) is suspected to be associated with threats impacting the species at foraging grounds or migratory routes. Unfortunately not only has there been no capacity to study and protect these habitats but, with the exception of studies by Byles and Swimmer (1994) and Garduño et al. (2003), there is also insufficient information on the routes taken and foraging destinations for the various rookeries in the region. To address these issues, the current satellite tracking project was instrumented to reveal the post-nesting migratory behavior of hawksbills in the Yucatan Peninsula, starting in 2006 with animals nesting in Campeche State, where about 50% of the reproductive output by the species in the whole Peninsula is concentrated. Knowledge on the migratory routes and foraging sites will be helpful in identifying and mitigating potential threats in the marine habitats and for the establishment of research programs on the status of the habitats themselves. Furthermore, discovering whether or not these lie within or outside Mexican territorial waters has important consequences for the management strategies. If they are inside, the responsibility for addressing the hawksbills' conservation needs is totally Mexico's. If, on the other hand, some or all of the turtles cross into international waters or into other countries' jurisdictions it would indicate an internationally shared responsibility. Future studies by the group will be directed towards tracking hawksbills nesting in the two other sates using similar techniques and learning from the lessons obtained from this season's experience. Literature cited Byles, R. A. and Swimmer, Y. B. 1994. Post-nesting migration of Eretmocheyls imbricata in the Yucatán Península. In: K. A. Bjorndal, A. B. Bolten, D. A. Johnson and P. J. Eliazar (compilers). 1994. Proc. Fourteenth Ann. Symp. Sea Turtle Biol. And Cons. NMFS-SEFSC-351. p. 202. Garduño-Andrade, M., Schroeder, B. Balazs, G. and Lope, R. 2003. Migration and dive behavior of female hawksbills (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Yucatan Peninsula. In: Seminoff, J. A. Compiler, Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC-503, p. 285

Scope
Themes:
Biology > Reptiles
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, ASW, Caribbean, I, Pacific, Testudines

Geographical coverage
ASW, Caribbean [Marine Regions]
I, Pacific [Marine Regions]

Temporal coverage
17 July 2006 - 4 July 2008

Taxonomic coverage
Testudines [WoRMS]

Related datasets
Published in:
OBIS-SEAMAP: Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations, more

Publication
Based on this dataset
Coyne, M.S.; Godley, B.J. (2005). Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT): an integrated system for archiving, analyzing and mapping animal tracking data. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 301: 1-7, more

URL

Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Data origin: Research
Metadatarecord created: 2012-11-27
Information last updated: 2012-11-27
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy