Author: MGEL TECH
Keywords: Occurrence,Land-based,Strandings,Sea turtles, Observation, Occurrence

Akazul sea turtle strandings at La Barrona, Guatemala 2013

Rachel Brittain^1, OBIS-SEAMAP^2

1 AKAZUL – Community, Conservation, and Ecology, ; 2 Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University, A328 LSRC building, 27708, Durham, United States

Corresponding author(s): Rachel Brittain (rachbrittain@yahoo.co.uk), OBIS-SEAMAP (seamap-contact@duke.edu)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Brittain, R. 2014. Akazul sea turtle strandings at La Barrona, Guatemala 2013. Data downloaded from OBIS-SEAMAP (http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1000) on yyyy-mm-dd. https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1000

Abstract

Original provider:
Akazul

Dataset credits:
Akazul

Abstract:
Akazul: Community, Conservation & Ecology has been operating its sea turtle conservation project since 2011 at La Barrona, one of Guatemala’s key nesting sites, utilized primarily by olive ridley (<i>Lepidochelys olivacea</i>) and infrequently by eastern Pacific green (<i>Chelonia mydas</i>) and leatherback (<i>Dermochelys coriacea</i>) sea turtles.

From 1st July 2013 to 31st December 2013, Akazul conducted daily beach patrols across a 7.5 km study area and encountered a total of 67 dead sea turtles. Of these, 55 were <i>L. olivacea</i>, 11 were <i>C. mydas</i> and 1 was unknown. A peak of 35 dead turtles occurred in July where 28 olive ridley and 7 black sea turtles were recorded. A second peak was observed in October (N = 16), consisting of 12 olive ridley, 3 black and 1 unknown species of sea turtle. 

When possible, curved carapace length (CCL) and curved carapace width (CCW) measurements were collected and recorded in centimeters. Mean CCL and CCW for: 32 olive ridleys was 63.1 cm (range: 57-69.5 cm; SD = 3.1) and 68.0 cm (range: 61-73 cm; SD = 3.3), respectively; and 10 eastern Pacific green turtles was 68.2 cm (range: 54-81 cm; SD = 9.1) and 68.9 cm (range: 58-76 cm; SD =  6.2), respectively. 

Condition of stranded turtles was noted by the observer using the following classification scheme: alive without injuries, alive with injuries, fresh dead, moderately decomposed, dried carcass, skeleton (bones only). 44 turtles were recorded as fresh dead, 9 were moderately decomposed, 3 were severely decomposed and 2 were dried carcases. Cause of death was difficult to determine in virtually all turtles recorded and it is difficult to ascertain whether observed external injuries were obtained post-mortem. 

It is highly recommended that a regionally coordinated strandings program is implemented in the future as well as standardized sampling procedures to enable thorough analysis to effectively determine sources of mortality.

Purpose:
Key to Akazul’s long-term goal is conducting monitoring activities on the turtle nesting beach at La Barrona in order to further our understanding of Guatemala’s sea turtle populations. There are undoubtedly additional sea turtle strandings along unmonitored areas of Guatemala’s Pacific coast and the opportunity exists to collect substantial data on annual sea turtle mortalities. Such data provides valuable insights into the biology of and threats impacting populations of sea turtles present in Guatemalan waters (e.g. sources of mortality, locations of negative interactions between humans and sea turtles and spatial and temporal species distribution).

Supplemental information:
[2020-09-30] The following invalid species names were corrected according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
Turtles: Testudines (173749) => Testudines (948936)

Keywords: Occurrence,Land-based,Strandings,Sea turtles, Observation, Occurrence

General description

Purpose: Key to Akazul’s long-term goal is conducting monitoring activities on the turtle nesting beach at La Barrona in order to further our understanding of Guatemala’s sea turtle populations. There are undoubtedly additional sea turtle strandings along unmonitored areas of Guatemala’s Pacific coast and the opportunity exists to collect substantial data on annual sea turtle mortalities. Such data provides valuable insights into the biology of and threats impacting populations of sea turtles present in Guatemalan waters (e.g. sources of mortality, locations of negative interactions between humans and sea turtles and spatial and temporal species distribution).
Additional information: marine, harvested by iOBIS

Project details

Project title: Akazul sea turtle strandings at La Barrona, Guatemala 2013
Personnel: Rachel Brittain
Funding: NA

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.env.duke.edu/resource?r=zd_1000

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Scientific names are based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
Taxonomic ranks
Order: Testudines
Species: Chelonia mydas, Lepidochelys olivacea
Common names: Green Sea Turtle, Olive Ridley, Turtles

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Pacific Ocean
Coordinates: 13°44'49.2''N and 13°46'22.8''N Latitude; 90°11'49.2''W and 90°8'9.6''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: July 9, 2013 - December 28, 2013

Natural collections description

Parent collection identifier: OBIS-SEAMAP
Collection name: zd_1000
Collection identifier: zd_1000

Methods

Method step description: NA
Study extent description: NA
Sampling description: NA

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Akazul sea turtle strandings at La Barrona, Guatemala 2013
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://ipt.env.duke.edu/archive.do?r=zd_1000
Publication date of data: 2021-04-24
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License

External datasets

Dataset description
Object name: OBIS-SEAMAP Dataset Page
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Interactive map
Distribution: http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1000

Dataset description
Object name: FGDC Metadata
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: XML
Distribution: http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1000/xml

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2014-06-17
Hierarchy level: Dataset