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!
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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 in close collaboration with the Belize Fisheries Department in tagging nesting turtles, and turtles captured during in-water surveys. The goal is to learn more about the species nesting and foraging in Belize and how they migrate through our waters. Working in close collaboration with the Fisheries Department Dr Rimkus has enabled members to track migration paths of turtles nesting in Gales Point, Port Honduras Marine Reserve, and Half Moon Caye Natural Monument. Additionally, there have been 2 turtles tagged that were injured and rehabilitated, and a new study on loggerhead sea turtles feeding on discarded lobster carcasses was initiated.
Gales Point Wildlife Sanctuary
2016 - Hawkeye Hope Meeko
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2015 - Hawkeye Hope
Dr Todd Rimkus and his son after an all nighter tagging Hawkeye Hope. Hawkeye Hope had been flipper tagged on the same beach!
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HAWKSBILL HOPE/MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
Belize Audubon Society
Half Moon Caye Natural Monument at Lighthouse Reef Atoll
In collaboration with the Belize Fisheries Department, Hawksbill Hope & Marymount University have made it possible for the Belize Audubon Society to tag the first nesting turtles (a loggerhead and a hawksbill) at Lighthouse and the first nesting loggerhead in Belize! All three common species of turtle nest on Half Moon Caye and interestingly anecdotal reports have green sea turtles basking on the sandy beaches during the daytime! As a result of this collaboration two of the species have been tagged, the only species left to tag is a green sea turtle.
2016 - Beacon of Hope
Beacon of Hope represents several firsts for satellite telemetry studies in Belize. She is
- the first nesting loggerhead sea turtle ever satellite tagged in Belize!
- the first nesting turtle from Lighthouse Reef Atoll satellite tagged in Belize!
- the first nesting turtle satellite tagged at Half Moon Caye!
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After leaving Lighthouse Reef Atoll, Beacon of Hope travelled to the South Water Caye Marine Reserve before heading to Honduras and the Mosquito Shore. Her tag only lasted 79 days, but she traveled 593 km and showed us new migration routes of loggerheads nesting on Half Moon Caye.
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2016 - WABAKI HOPE 4 BAS
WABAKI - Hope 4 BAS - was tagged by Belize Audubon Society staff and intern Mark Rimkus just after she completed nesting on Half Moon Caye. Wabaki is the first nesting hawksbill tagged at Lighthouse Reef!
The migration path of Wabaki reveals she traveled northward over deep seas to Chinchorro Bank then along the Yucatan Peninsula to Punta Allen, where she reversed her direction and followed the Belize Barrier Reef and ended up foraging in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve, managed by TIDE.
The migration path of Wabaki reveals she traveled northward over deep seas to Chinchorro Bank then along the Yucatan Peninsula to Punta Allen, where she reversed her direction and followed the Belize Barrier Reef and ended up foraging in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve, managed by TIDE.
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2013 - Moochula
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.
Marymount University students assist Gales Point Wildlife Sanctuary in locating and tagging sea turtles on the turtle nesting beach at Gales Point.
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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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2014 - Shiloh 4 Hope
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MAR ALLIANCE
2015 - LRA 66Mar 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.
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2015 - LRA 65 |
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2014 - Esperanza
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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 
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HAWKSBILL HOPE/MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
TIDE - Toledo Institute for Development & Environment
Port Honduras Marine Reserve
2015 - Tide of Hope II
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2014 - Tide of Hope
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NOAA
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.
2011 - 110815
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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.
2000 - zenit
Maps created by Sea Turtle Survival League
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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. |
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2000 - BELIZE - GALE
