Important areas at sea for adult loggerhead sea turtles in the Mediterranean Sea: satellite tracking corroborates findings from potentially biased sources

By Judith A. Zbinden, A. Aebischer, D. Margaritoulis, R. Arlettaz. 2008

111 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Sea turtle populations worldwide suffer from reduced survival of immatures and adults due to fishery bycatch. Unfortunately, information about the whereabouts of turtles outside the breeding habitat is scarce in most areas, hampering the development of spatially explicit conservation plans. In the Mediterranean, recoveries of adult females flipper-tagged on nesting beaches suggest that the Adriatic Sea and Gulf of Gabès are important foraging areas for adults, but such information could be heavily biased (observing and reporting bias). In order to obtain unbiased data, we satellite-tracked seven loggerhead sea turtles after they completed nesting in the largest known Mediterranean rookery (Bay of Laganas, Zakynthos, Greece). Three females settled in the north Adriatic Sea, one in the south Adriatic Sea and two in the Gulf of Gabès area at the completion of their post-nesting migrations (one individual did not occupy a distinct foraging area). The concordance of tracking results with information from recoveries of flipper-tagged turtles suggests that the north Adriatic Sea and the Gulf of Gabès represent key areas for female adult Mediterranean loggerhead sea turtles.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/aed222c3c3d6d90d39f509ee142c754e69c267c8

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Global and Planetary Change

1. G. Hays
2. Bj Godley
3. AC Broderick
4. Lucy A. Hawkes
5. P. Luschi
6. G. Schofield
7. P. Casale
8. Michael S. Coyne

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. G. Hays
2. Bj Godley
3. G. Schofield
4. Lucy A. Hawkes
5. P. Casale
6. P. Luschi
7. AC Broderick
8. K. A. Katselidis

Citations in the corpus

• Home on the range: spatial ecology of loggerhead turtles in Atlantic waters of the USA (2011, background): “Adult male and female loggerheads in the Mediterranean use home range areas on average smaller than those in this study (Broderick et al., 2007; Zbinden et al., 2008; Schofield et al., 2010a) but Schofield et al. (2010b) and Hart et al. (2010) showed that inter-nesting home ranges for loggerhead…”
• Migratory dichotomy and associated phenotypic variation in marine turtles revealed by satellite tracking and stable isotope analysis (2011, background): “…of this breeding population gained through recapture data of flipper-tagged females (Margaritoulis et al. 2003) and limited satellite tracking (Zbinden et al. 2008) had indicated 2 geographically separated coastal foraging regions (the Adriatic Sea and the Gulf of Gabès off North Africa;…”
• Inter-annual variability in the home range of breeding turtles: implications for current and future conservation management. (2010, background): “…individuals was recorded at the breeding site, which contrasted to the disparity of home ranges at distant foraging grounds along extensive coastal and oceanic areas (Hochscheid et al., 1999; Houghton et al., 2002; Hays et al., 2004b; James et al., 2005b; Casale et al., 2007; Zbinden et al., 2008).”
• Bycatch of loggerhead sea turtles: insights from 14 years of stranding data (2008, background): “Although adults from Mediterranean nesting stocks appear limited to the eastern basin (Godley et al 2003, Broderick et al. 2007, Zbinden et al. 2008), the western Mediterranean hosts juveniles from both Mediterranean and Atlantic rookeries (Laurent et al. 1998).”
• Behavioural polymorphism in one of the world’s largest populations of loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta (2010, background): “Thus, post-nesting migrations normally terminate at neritic foraging habitats (Papi et al. 1997, Godley et al. 2003b, Schroeder et al. 2003, Hawkes et al. 2007, Zbinden et al. 2008).”
• Satellite tracking large numbers of individuals to infer population level dispersal and core areas for the protection of an endangered species (2013, methodology): “turtle research, including satellite tracking and by-catch studies (e.g. Broderick et al., 2007; Zbinden et al., 2008; Schofield et al., 2009; Casale et al., 2010; Schofield et al., 2010a; Zbinden et al., 2011).”
• Mediterranean sea turtles: current knowledge and priorities for conservation and research (2018, unknown): “; 6: Zbinden et al. (2008), Mingozzi et al. (2016), Hays et al. (2010b); 7: Erk’akan (1993), Baran & Türkozan (1996), Broderick & Godley (1996), Türkozan (2000), Margaritoulis & Rees (2001), Margaritoulis (2005), Margaritoulis et al. (2011a); 8: Stokes et al. (2014); 9: Wright et al. (2012a); 10:…”
• Movement patterns of marine turtles in the Mediterranean Sea: a review (2014, background): “…feeding in adults (Reich et al. 2010), the presence of seasonal migrations between different feeding and wintering areas (Hawkes et al. 2007; Zbinden et al. 2008, 2011) or convoluted segments in the migratory routes (Dodd & Byles 2003; Hatase et al. 2007; Hawkes et al. 2007) of uncertain…”
• Satellite-tracking of female loggerhead turtles highlights fidelity behavior in northeastern Brazil (2010, background): “Our study also documented swimming speeds similar to those noted in previous studies of loggerheads migrating to neritic foraging areas (Zbinden et al. 2008).”
• BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH: Fidelity to foraging sites, consistency of migration routes and habitat modulation of home range by sea turtles (2010, background): “The Mediterranean, while smaller in comparison with oceans, does host both neritic and oceanic habitats of depths exceeding 3000 m in places (Casale et al., 2007, 2008; Zbinden et al., 2008); however, large tracts of open sea also fall on the continental shelf which is considered neritic habitat.”