Thursday, October 28, 2010

Sea Turtle Tracking Update

When we last checked the progress of Bonaire’s released sea turtles in a previous story, only one had started her journey away from Bonaire. Now all three are on the move.

Valley was tagged on Klein Bonaire on September 3, 2010. On Saturday October 16, she laid her sixth nest of the season. Female turtles usually lay several nests in a season to improve the chances of survival by increasing the number of eggs and varying the times of hatching. Hawksbill turtles normally have 14 days between nests. After laying her last nest of the season, Valley started swimming toward Aruba. She is swimming at a steady rate and now is about 200 miles west of Bonaire.

Piffie who was released on October 6, 2010, laid her final nest of the season on Wednesday October 20 on Bonaire. Shortly after, she departed and began swimming west toward Curacao. Since that time Piffie turned back toward Bonaire and is now heading north, approximately 50 miles north of Bonaire.

Carice who was released on September 20, 2010 departed for Los Roques at our last writing, and has remained there in an area called the central lagoon.

Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (STCB) has now successfully tracked 17 turtles back to their feeding grounds, which include the waters of Nicaragua and Costa Rica in the west, Puerto Rico and the Navidad Banks in the north, and Venezuela and Los Roques in the east. The breeding turtles tracked on Bonaire spend parts of their lives in these areas which are called range states and this knowledge can be used to expand conservation efforts for the turtles in these areas. (Source: Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire)