The mission of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is to understand and predict changes in the Earth=s environment and to conserve and manage coastal and oceanic marine resources and habitats to help meet our Nation=s economic, social, and environmental needs. As a branch of NOAA, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) conducts or sponsors research and monitoring pr...

AIMS The aims of this study were to analyze the causes of stranding of 1,860 loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) admitted at the Tafira Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Gran Canaria Island, Spain, from 1998 to 2014, and to analyze the outcomes of the rehabilitation process to allow meaningful auditing of its quality. METHODS Primary causes of morbidity were classified into seven categories:...

Estimates of instantaneous mortality rates (Z) and annual appar­ ent survival probabilities (Φ) were generated from catch-curve analyses for oceanic-stage juvenile loggerheads (Caretta caretta) in the waters of the Azores. Two age distributions were analyzed: the “total sample” of 1600 log­ gerheads primarily captured by sight­ ing and dipnetting from a variety of vessels in the Azores between ...

Denitrification and nitrogen-fixation processes in the marine environment have been intensively studied, particularly how these processes affect the nitrogen stable-isotope signature (δ15N) of inorganic nutrients and organisms at the base of the food web. However, the assumption that these δ15N differences at the base of food webs are reflected in higher trophic-level organisms has not been wid...

Previous studies have shown that the world's largest reptile - the leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea - conducts flexible foraging migrations that can cover thousands of kilometres between nesting sites and distant foraging areas. The vast distances that may be travelled by migrating leatherback turtles have greatly complicated conservation efforts for this species worldwide. However, we d...

Maximum likelihood mixed stock analysis was used to identify the natal origin of immature loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) in a tropical developmental habitat in Caribbean Panamá. Approximately 65–70% of the loggerhead turtles in Chiriquí Lagoon originate from South Florida nesting beaches, and the other 30–35% originate from Mexico. Haplotype frequencies of the Chiriquí Lagoon loggerhead p...

1. Reproductive fitness is often compromised at the margins of a species' range due to sub-optimal conditions. 2. Set against this backdrop, the Mediterranean's largest loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) rookery at Zakynthos (Greece) presents a conundrum, being at a very high latitude for this species, yet hosting a high concentration of nesting. 3. We used visual surveys combined with glo...

Operational longline fishery characteristics, bycatch information, and loggerhead turtle satellite tracks were all used in conjunction with remotely sensed sea surface temperature data to identify the environmental area where the majority of loggerhead turtle bycatch occurred in the Hawaii-based longline fishery during 1994 to 2006. In the first quarter of each calendar year from 1994 to 2006, ...

Ingestion of marine debris is an established threat to sea turtles. The amount, type, color and location of ingested plastics in the gastrointestinal tracts of 55 sea turtles from Pacific longline fisheries from 2012 to 2016 were quantified, and compared across species, turtle length, body condition, sex, capture location, season and year. Six approaches for quantifying amounts of ingested plas...