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Preparation of fresh dead sea turtle carcasses for at-sea drift experiments
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2018
[PDF-1.20 MB]
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Description:Many researchers utilize at-sea drifters, such as bottles and oranges, to study environmental factors affecting floating objects. Studies have combined results from at-sea drifters with sea turtle stranding data to evaluate and understand seasonal stranding trends and potential locations for at-sea mortalities in U.S. Atlantic and Mexican Pacific waters (Hart et al. 2006, Koch et al. 2013). To date, no research has been conducted in the GOM, which would likely encompass different environmental conditions. In Mississippi, located in the nGOM (Figure 1), the majority of strandings (80%) occur from March to June. There is typically a second small peak in stranding numbers in the fall (October) with few strandings reported throughout the rest of the year (Figure 2). These trends are prevalent across years and raise questions pertaining to the forces driving noted fluctuations. In order to understand seasonal stranding patterns, a comprehensive field study was conducted during the 2017 calendar year in state and federal waters off Mississippi using fresh dead, cold stun sea turtles and wooden effigies.
Real sea turtle carcasses were used for this study in order to mimic reality and determine how dead sea turtles float and drift in the water. This also allowed for gathering data on potential scavenging and the decomposition rate of carcasses, factors that may also affect whether a sea turtle carcass will strand. Twice a month from January to December 2017, 6‒9 sea turtle carcasses and 3‒6 neon colored wooden effigies (size 11.25” x 11.25” x 4.5”) were deployed at three sites in Mississippi state and adjacent federal waters (Figure 3). Small, 2" x 3" x 1", SPOT Trace® (SPOT) GPS satellite transmitters were vacuum sealed, placed in small plastic jars and attached to carcasses and effigies. The SPOT transmits locations every 10 min and is accurate towithin a meter, therefore, their location was known throughout the deployment. All objects were monitored closely during deployment and were retrieved as soon as possible after beaching. Results of this study were presented by Reneker et al. (2018). This report documents the techniques used to prepare sea turtle carcasses for this study and provide evidence that cold-stun turtles make an excellent proxy for stranded sea turtles.
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Rights Information:Public Domain
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