Sea turtle movement

During my year in the United States Virgin Islands I have the opportunity to volunteer with the marine biologists and oceanographers at the University of the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas. One particularly interesting and exciting project involved catching and tagging sea turtles to track their movement and behavior in and around Brewer's Bay. There are two common species of sea turtles in the waters surrounding St. Thomas: the endangered green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and the critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata). We would dive off the university's dock into Brewer's Bay with masks, fins, snorkels, and dive lights to swim transects of the bay looking for slumbering turtles in the rocks and coral. Typically you would spot the turtle butts poking out of crevices. Just dive down and wrestle it to the surface. It seems easy but keeping old of a struggling sea turtle is some of the most difficult technical tasks I've ever accomplished in the field. Captured sea turtles would have various bodily measurements taken on them and would be outfitted with a radio transmitter, which resembled a large marshmellow that was glued to th posterior portion of the carapace. Turtles would then be released unharmed where they were caught.

The radio transmitters the turtles were outfitted with would ping off of bouys scattered throughout the bay as the turtles passed them. These data have been used for various interesting studies on turtle movement and behavoir around the island. One publication that resulted from explored the behavoir sea turtles before and during two catastrophic catergoy 5 hurricanes (Irma & Maria) that hit the islands at full force in 2017. The authors found that the trutle would make for deeper waters and remain there fore the duration of the storm. Other marine fauna had different response strategies including vacating the area and remaining more dormant (Mately et al. 2019). Research continues on these populations of sea turtles using some of the same turtles.

Matley, J.K., S. Eanes, R.S. Nemeth, and P.D. Jobsis. 2019. Vulnerability of sea turtles and fishes in response to two catastrophic Caribbean hurricanes, Irma and Maria. Scientific Reports, 9(1):14254.