Satellite Telemetry - Historical Tracks

Sea turtles can migrate great distances through several countries between their nesting beaches and foraging grounds, while some travel short distances within one country.  Following a turtle's migration path each day is interesting to see how far they have gone and where they are traveling to. With the increased use of satellite tags on turtles in Belize and other countries, there is always a turtle to track! Tracking sea turtles would make a great school project, and seaturtle.org has a webpage specifically for teachers so they can introduce sea turtle migration into the classroom. 

Special thanks to SEATURTLE.ORG for making it possible to easily track sea turtles!

MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY & HAWKSBILL HOPE

Dr Todd Rimkus has been raising funds for satellite tags since 2011.  As of early 2017 there have been a total of 22 tags that have been made available for members of the Belize Sea Turtle Conservation Network.  Turtle Network members work on close collaboration with the Belize Fisheries Department in tagging nesting turtles, and turtles captured during in-water surveys.  

Belize Audubon Society
The Belize Audubon Society manages the Blue Hole and Half Moon Caye Natural Monument.   There are historical reports of green sea turtles basking on the beach at Half Moon Caye long ago.  Today the three common species of sea turtle nest here.  The island is Belize's first Natural Monument designated in 1928.  Beacon of Hope is the first nesting loggerhead sea turtle and Wabaki is the very first nesting hawksbill turtle tagged after nesting on Half Moon Caye, Lighthouse Atoll.

Beacon of Hope - 2016

Hawksbill Hope & Marymount University have made it possible for the Belize Audubon Society to tag the first nesting turtle at Lighthouse and the first nesting loggerhead in Belize.  Beacon of Hope was found by Belize Audubon Conservation Officer Eli Romero and Research Assistant Reinaldo Caal along with other staff and members of the Belize Coast Guard.  All three common species of sea turtle nest on Half Moon Caye. Beacon of Hope will provide important data on the migration path of adult loggerheads that nest in the Half Moon Caye Natural Monument.

WABAKI HOPE 4 BA​S - 2016

WABAKI - Hope 4 BAS - was tagged by Belize Audubon Society and intern Mark Rimkus just after she completed nesting on Half Moon Caye in Belize

Gales Point Wildlife Sanctuary

Hawkeye Hope (2015)

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Dr Todd Rimkus and his son after an all nighter tagging Hawkeye Hope. Hawkeye Hope had been flipper tagged on the same beach!

Shiloh 4 Hope (2014)

Moochula (2013)

Moochula, local name meaning "nice, fine, so good" was tagged by Dr Rimkus class in 2013.   Marymount University Professor Barry Erdeljon & student Sarah Gulick produced a mini-documentary on the Gales Point community and the important sea turtle nesting beach featuring Hawksbill Hope & the Gales Point Wildlife Sanctuary Management Committee team.  In 2015 it premiered at the Belize Film Festival.  The 8 minute piece showcases Belize's most important nesting beach for the endangered hawksbill sea turtle.
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Migration path of Moochula, a hawskbill sea turtle tagged at Gales Point, is the first turtle tagged at Gales Point to migrate into another country.
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Marymount University students assist Gales Point Wildlife Sanctuary in locating and tagging sea turtles on the turtle nesting beach at Gales Point.

ECOMAR

 Isla Esperanza 2015

Toledo Institute for Development & Environment

Tide of Hope II (2015)

2014 - Tide of Hope I

MAR ALLIANCE
​Lightouse Reef (2015)
Mar Alliance tagged LRA 66 in 2015 and migrated to Punta Sal National park east of Omoa, Honduras. This area has also been shown to be used by hawksbills tagged by TIDE in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve.  Sea turtles do have different developmental habitats depending on their age.  The data resulting from this turtle provides valuable information on the development habitats of sea turtles in Belize.

LRA 65

LRA 66

2014 - Esperanza

After nesting in Costa Rica, an adult green sea turtle tagged by the Sea Turtle Conservancy on July 3, 2014 travelled to her foraging ground in Belize near Colson Point, just south of the important hawksbill nesting beach.  Esperanza was one of 6 turtles tracked in the Tour de Turtle Program. 

http://www.tourdeturtles.org/2014/turtlemap.php?id=107

NOAA

2011 - 110815

The office of NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service Southeast Fisheries Science Center has tagged 13 juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in Punta Allen, Mexico.  One of these turtles travelled to Belize after it was tagged, on Belize Independence Day in 2011, and made a u-turn at Robinson Point by the end of September and returned to the location where it was tagged. The tag on this turtle lasted a whopping 742 days! Many of the juvenile loggerheads tagged at Punta Allen made there way to the northern shelf of the Yucatan Peninsula west of Holbox Island, where Hope 4 Freya travelled to in Sep 2015.
 2000 - BELIZE - GALE
2000 - JAMAICA

In 2000 NOAA collaborated with Fisheries Departments throughout the Caribbean to study the paths of migrating sea turtles.  Belize and Jamaica participated in the program.  Gale was tagged in Belize and the only confirmed link of a nesting turtle tagged in Jamaica that migrated to Belize, was the turtle that was tagged that year.  Jamaica's foraging area is off the coast of Placencia between the South Water Caye Marine Reserve and Laughing Bird Caye National Park.

2000 - zenit

In 2000, NOAA also funded the tagging of 8 nesting turtles in Costa Rica.  The first turtle tracked to Belize by satellite telemetry was ZENIT, an adult green sea turtle nesting in the Costa Rica rookery, the most important nesting beach for green sea turtles in the Atlantic Ocean. There is an important link between Costa Rica's nesting beach and Belize's marine ecosystems, and the path made by Zenit highlighted the important foraging ground for sea turtles in Belize at Robinson Point.   Over the years there have been about 2 dozen tag returns to the Caribbean Conservation Corps, now the Sea Turtle Conservancy, from fishermen that capture sea turtles and returned the flipper tag for the reward. 
Maps created by Sea Turtle Survival League