ABSTRACT: Satellite tracking studies can reveal much about turtles’ spatial use of breeding areas, migration zones, and foraging sites. We assessed spatial habitat-use patterns of 10 adult female green turtles Chelonia mydas nesting at Buck Island Reef National Monument (BIRNM), US Virgin Islands (USVI; 17° 47.4’ N, 64° 37.2’ W) from 2011 to 2014. Turtles ranged in size from 89.0 to 115.9 cm curved carapace length (CCL) (x − ± SD: 106.8 ± 7.7 cm). The inter-nesting period for all turtles ranged from 31 July to 4 November, and sizes of the 50% core-use areas ranged from 4.2 to 19.0 km2 . We observed consistency of inter-nesting habitat-use patterns, with all turtles using near-shore (<1.5 km), shallow waters (<–20 m depth) within approximately 10 km of Buck Island. Seven of the 10 turtles remained locally resident after the nesting season; 5 turtles (50%) established resident foraging areas around Buck Island, 2 established resident foraging areas around the island of St. Croix, and the other 3 (30%) made longer-distance migrations to Antigua, St. Kitts & Nevis, and Venezuela. This is the first empirical dataset showing limited migration and use of ‘local’ resources after the nesting season in the USVI by this unique management unit of green turtles. Five of the turtles had resident foraging area centroids within protected areas; thus, inter-nesting and foraging areas at BIRNM that overlap with human use zones present an important management concern. Delineating spatial areas and identifying temporal periods of nearshore habitat use can be useful for natural resource managers with responsibility for overseeing vulnerable habitats and protecting marine turtle populations.KEY WORDS: Chelonia mydas · Green sea turtle · Inter-nesting · Foraging · Switching state-space model · Kernel density estimation · Migration · Minimum convex polygon
<p>ENDANGERED SPECIES RESEARCH
Endang Species Res
Vol. 32: 89–101, 2017
doi: 10.3354/esr00793
Published February 7
INTRODUCTION
Delineating high-use areas for marine species is
critical for identifying essential habitat and times of
the year when vulnerable species may warrant
increased levels of protection. However, it is chal-
lenging to delineate such high-use areas for highly
mobile marine species. Satellite telemetry affords the
opportunity to reveal location-based habitat-use pat-
terns for these species (Godley et al. 2008, Hart &
Hyrenbach 2009), and a growing body of literature
indicates that this tool continues to evolve, allowing
researchers to address increasingly complex ques-
tions for many cryptic vertebrates of conservation
concern. To date, the global use of satellite tracking
in marine turtle studies has revealed much about
their spatial use of breeding areas, migration zones,
and foraging sites (Schofield et al. 2009, Fossette et
© The authors and (outside the USA) the US Government 2017.
Open Access under Creative Commons by Attribution Licence.
Use, distribution and reproduction are un restricted. Authors and
original publication must be credited.
Publisher: Inter-Research · www.int-res.com
*Corresponding author: kristen_hart@usgs.gov
Resident areas and migrations of female green
turtles nesting at Buck Island Reef National
Monument, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
Kristen M. Hart1,*, Autumn R. Iverson2, Allison M. Benscoter1, Ikuko Fujisaki3,
Michael S. Cherkiss1, Clayton Pollock4, Ian Lundgren4, Zandy Hillis-Starr4
1US Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, Davie, FL 33314, USA
2CNT, contracted to US Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, Davie, FL 33314, USA
3University of Florida, Ft. Lauderdale Research and Education Center, Davie, FL 33314, USA
4National Park Service, Buck Island Reef National Monument, Christiansted, US Virgin Islands, USA
ABSTRACT: Satellite tracking studies can reveal much about turtles’ spatial use of breeding
areas, migration zones,