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Archived data
Availability: Creative Commons License This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Description
The Kemp's ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys kempii is recovering from declines that reduced nesting from a single-day estimate of 10000 to 40000 females in 1947 to <300 during the entire 1985 nesting season. Although beach monitoring is crucial to estimating nesting population size and activity, in-water data are essential for understanding population dynamics, evaluating management strategies, and ensuring the species’ continued recovery. Fifteen immature and 7 adult female ridleys were fitted with platform terminal transmitters and released off the upper Texas coast during 2004 through 2007. more

Immature individuals were tracked primarily during warmer months and exhibited preferences for tidal passes, bays, coastal lakes, and nearshore waters, although movement patterns varied among years. Females tracked during their inter-­nesting intervals remained in the vicinity of the upper Texas coast and, upon entering the post-nesting stage, moved eastward along the 20 m isobath to foraging areas offshore of central Louisiana. Satellite telemetry indicated that inshore and continental shelf waters of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico serve as developmental, migratory, inter-nesting, and post-nesting habitat for the Kemp’s ridley. Projected population growth will likely lead to increased use of the northwestern Gulf by the species and more frequent encounters with human activities. The extent of such anthropogenic interactions and need for mitigation measures should be examined and considered by natural resource managers to facilitate continued recovery of this and other sea turtle species in the Gulf of Mexico. Likewise, research efforts should be continued to better understand seasonal in-water distributions, abundances, population dynamics, and mortality risks to all life history stages.

Purpose: The following research objectives were identified: (1) to characterize movements of benthic-stage im mature and adult female Kemp’s ridleys in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico; and (2) to identify Kemp's ridley migration patterns and foraging grounds in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.

This dataset is a summarized representation of the telemetry locations aggregated per species per 1-degree cell.

Scope
Themes:
Biology > Reptiles
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, ASW, Mexico Gulf, Northwest, Lepidochelys kempii Garman, 1880

Geographical coverage
ASW, Mexico Gulf, Northwest [Marine Regions]

Temporal coverage
21 September 2004 - 17 September 2007

Taxonomic coverage
Lepidochelys kempii Garman, 1880 [WoRMS]

Parameter
Occurrence of biota

Contributors
Duke University; Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences; Marine Laboratory, more
Texas A & M University at Galveston; Sea Turtle & Fisheries Ecology Research Laboratory (STFERL), moredata creator

Related datasets
Published in:
OBIS-SEAMAP: Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations, more

Publication
Based on this dataset
Seney, E.E.; Landry Jr., A.M. (2011). Movement patterns of immature and adult female Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 440: 241-254. https://dx.doi.org/10.3354/meps09380, more
Seney, E.E.; Landry Jr., A.M. (2008). Movements of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles nesting on the upper Texas coast: implications for management. Endang. Species Res. 4(1-2): 73-84. http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/esr00077, more

Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Data origin: Research: field survey
Metadatarecord created: 2015-03-18
Information last updated: 2015-03-18
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy