Oct. 27, 2011
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LONGBOAT KEY, Fla., GULFPORT, Miss. — A student researcher working this summer with ERDC Environmental Laboratory's (EL) Aquatic Ecology and Invasive Species Branch used advanced technology to monitor a species unchanged in form from the age of dinosaurs through satellite-tagging of sea turtles. Working under the direction of EL Biologist Dena Dickerson, Mississippi State University student Larry Southern successfully fitted five sea turtles with satellite tags which transmit location, swimming speeds and diving depth data, predicted to continue for a year.
Dickerson said, "Two of these turtles were adult male loggerhead sea turtles which are rare to encounter and the first to be satellite tagged in the Gulf of Mexico. From these tags, a lot can be learned about how these turtles use habitats in the Gulf and more effective methods can be developed to protect sea turtles during dredging, oil and gas exploration, fishing, and emergency disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill."
The project is sponsored by the Corps of Engineers and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA mission strives to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources.
According to Dr.Chris Sasso, NOAA research fishery biologist, "Larry was an excellent asset to the project and went above and beyond what was necessary to ensure we were able to deploy the satellite tags on turtles. We would have not been able to deploy all the tags we did on turtles captured in the trawl relocation without his participation."
Southern acquired his specimens during dredging projects at Longboat Key, Fla., and Gulfport, Miss., as the turtles were captured by relocation trawling.
Development of relocation trawling
EL Biologists Jan Hoover and Dickerson explained that one of the Corps' earliest civil works missions involved maintaining and improving navigation channels. When the dredge known as a "hopper" excavates sediment along the southeastern U.S., it can potentially impact five different species of endangered sea turtles. To prevent any type of incidental take of these endangered species, the Corps developed protection protocols for annual work on 12,000 miles of waterways, in which 270 million cubic yards of sediment in more than 125 projects are removed.
"Relocation trawling is conducted to try and remove sea turtles in the area of the dredging project to prevent them from being entrained and killed by the hopper dredge. If a turtle is caught by the trawler, they are then moved and released three to five miles away from the dredging area," Dickerson explained.
NOAA scientists relate that "sea turtles are migratory animals, which means that they feed and live in one place and swim many thousands of miles to another place where they breed and lay their eggs. Of the seven species of sea turtles, six are listed as either critically endangered or endangered. Since sea turtles nest on land, most sea turtle nesting beaches are identified and well studied. However, after turtles leave the nesting beaches and swim away, we have little idea where they go. The only way right now that we can track a sea turtle in the open ocean is to attach a transmitter and wait for uplinks to be received when the turtle swims to new locations."
For those interested, these graceful creatures can be tracked by accessing seaturtle.org Satellite Tracking. Unique gifts featuring sponsorships and adoptions of these endangered sea turtles, with such catchy names as "Hunky," "Spunky," and "Scooterpie," are available at seaturtle.org.