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Tagged Atlantic sea turtles trace journeys online, Reuters 9-14-05

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Tagged Atlantic sea turtles trace journeys online,

Reuters 9-14-05

 

Tagged Atlantic sea turtles trace journeys online

Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:10 PM IST

 

 

By Ed Stoddard

 

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Aitkanti the sea turtle has

already braved

fishing nets and shark infested waters in her swim

from breeding grounds

in South America but is only half way to the rich

feeding waters off the

coast of West Africa.

 

The endangered leatherback turtle was tagged in

Suriname on June 25

with a satellite transmitter, and now the public can

track her progress

across the Atlantic on the Internet.

 

So far she has swum 3,000 km and dived to depths of

840 metres, more

than twice the greatest depth reached the most

intrepid human scuba

divers.

 

She is one of 11 leatherbacks, the world's largest

turtles, tagged in

June and July and tracked to raise awareness about

turtle conservation.

" This is the first time the public can trace the

movements of so many

sea turtles online, " said Carlos Drews of conservation

group WWF, one of

the project's sponsors along with Tortugas Marinas and

Caribbean

Conservation.

 

" We have tagged 11 turtles so far and we are hoping to

tag 25 in total

to have a representative sample of the movements of

these turtles in

the Atlantic Ocean, " he told Reuters by telephone from

his office in

Costa Rica.

 

" The transmitter gives you their location, their depth

of dives, their

speed of travel, their speed during dives and the

water temperature. "

 

Exact leatherback numbers are not known globally but

the species is

widely regarded as endangered.

 

According to one study, as many as 50,000 leatherbacks

are estimated to

be caught as fisheries " bycatch " each year.

 

One of the tagged creatures has already perished.

Drews said evidence

pointed to a fishing net, the turtles' gravest threat.

 

" If you click on Kawana you will see how she met her

demise off the

coast of Suriname and French Guiana by drowning in a

gill net, " Drews

said.

 

" The record of her last dive indicates that she was

held underwater for

nine hours which suggests gill nets, " he said.

 

A similar fate could await the other turtles.

" Aitkanti is heading

towards the coast of West Africa where she will face

the challenges of

international and coastal fisheries, " Drews said.

 

The turtles are also revealing their migratory routes.

 

Five of the turtles were tagged in Panama and one of

those is already

off the coast of South Carolina and appears to be

headed north for

feeding waters off Nova Scotia.

 

Another could be the first turtle to show how

leatherbacks cross to

Latin America from the West African country of Gabon.

 

Some leatherback populations, such as the one nesting

on South Africa's

Indian Ocean coast, are on the rebound because of

conservation measures

to protect their beach nesting sites.

 

Anyone interested in the movements of the turtles can

find them on

www.panda.org.

 

 

 

© Reuters 2005. .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005

 

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