INTERNATIONAL EFFORT

Sea turtles have several characteristics that require an intense international effort to conserve the global populations.  All species migrate long-distances between foraging grounds and breeding grounds (adults).  Turtles tagged on their nesting beach are routinely located thousands of kilometers from the nesting beach.  Satellite tracking has allowed us to follow individual sea turtles across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.  These migrations place sea turtles in waters belonging to many different nations, thus requiring a collaborative effort of all nations to ensure these turtles have a safe migration route.

Sea turtles have a complex life cycle that isn’t fully understood but is thought to involve seasonal and ontogenetic changes in the utilized habitats.  The model indicates hatchlings may live near the ocean surface and then move, as juveniles, to a foraging ground that is different from the foraging habitat utilized as an adult.  All sea turtles have unique migration patterns and diets; thus, each species requires different types of habitats.  For example, olive ridleys are a more coastal species that will feed on crustaceans in shallow waters including estuaries and bays.  Whereas leatherback sea turtles are highly pelagic, can dive to deep depths, and feed primarily on jellyfish.

Nesting female sea turtles commonly return to a beach near the area where they hatched to deposit their own eggs (natal homing).  Although adult sea turtle from different nesting populations may utilize the same foraging and breeding grounds, the females will return to a very specific area for nesting.  All sea turtles nesting in a specific area are though to be from eggs that were deposited in that area.  This means that nesting populations are actually independent conservation units since depletion of a nesting population will not be compensated by the recruitment of individuals from another nesting population.  Thus, the sea turtle nesting populations in Ghana can only be recovered by increasing recruitment of hatchlings being produced from beaches in Ghana.