U.S. flag An official website of the United States government.
Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

i

Marine protected areas and migratory species: residency of green turtles at Palmyra Atoll, Central Pacific



Details

  • Journal Title:
    Endangered Species Research
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
    NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service)
  • Description:
    Protected areas are a cornerstone of conservation strategies globally, yet questions remain about their impacts, including on highly migratory species. The Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, one of the Northern Line Islands in the Central Pacific, contains a regionally significant green turtle Chelonia mydas foraging ground. Residency patterns of this species were investigated through satellite telemetry (n = 15 males, 1 female, 2 subadults) and flipper tagging (n = 555) between 2008 and 2013. Almost every captured turtle was flipper-tagged, but telemetry efforts focused primarily on adult males, which have been studied infrequently. Overall, the turtles tracked during 4076 transmission days (mean = 227, range = 37 to 633) had high site fidelity and small home ranges, and remained close to their capture sites in waters ≤50 m deep. Five turtles were tracked for >1 yr, but none left Palmyra on annual breeding migrations. Only one satellite-tracked turtle departed the atoll, covering a total distance of ~5600 km in a near-circular loop. Similarly, flipper tag recaptures on the atoll (n = 67) occurred near the original capture site. However, additional tags were recovered from 1 female in Kiritimati, Northern Line Islands, and from 1 subadult in Kosrae, Micronesia, ~690 and 3800 km away from Palmyra, respectively. Such extended, spatially restricted residency with low turnover is expected in small, high-quality habitats. The study highlights the importance of this protected area, which harbors regionally endangered turtles whose movements over several years are almost entirely encompassed within its established boundaries.
  • Source:
    Endangered Species Research, 37, 165-182
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    1863-5407 ; 1613-4796
  • Format:
    PDF
  • Publisher:
    Inter-Research Science Center
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • Funding:
  • License:
  • Rights Information:
    CC BY
  • Compliance:
    Library
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:95b21c6f2ed1aaac98d851f5b3670809bfd0ebce9233419e384a3f5eb63ea424749e57a3bb575b12d7f16dc668a14f004c9ba03ef34d79f82b478b3738a39e44
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 2.79 MB ]
PREVIOUS
ON THIS PAGE
Details
The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
BACK TO TOP