Proyecto 7 Quillas Satelital- Uruguay

MOVEMENTS OF ATLANTIC LEATHERBACK TURTLES – STEPS TOWARD BY-CATCH REDUCTION AND TRANS-OCEANIC COOPERATION FOR CONSERVATION

See the maps day per day:

http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?tag_id=57123

Name: GURI (male)

Length: 158 cm

http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?tag_id=57125

Name: VICTORIA (juvenile)

Length: 128 cm

NEW TURTLE Name: ZOE

Length: 153 cm (female)

Help us to conserve the leatherback turtle - ADOPT “GURI, VICTORIA & ZOE”

Leatherback turtles are critically endangered due mainly to by-catch mortality in fisheries, but also to over harvest of eggs and meat. It is known that this highly migratory species can travel across the Atlantic. Satellite telemetry of leatherback turtles in the Northern Atlantic has shown wide-ranging migrations into oceanic waters with extensive commercial fishing activities as well as coastal and shelf waters with fixed fishing gear; however information on travel routes from southern regions within the Atlantic basin is lacking. Incidental capture numbers of leatherbacks in the South-western Atlantic (off the coast of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina) are alarming. The project aims are to carry out the tracking of at least three leatherback turtles fitted with satellite tags onboard commercial fishing vessels in order provide new information on leatherbacks movements captured as a result of by-catch (any sex or size could be possible). This study will represent the first effort to document movements of leatherbacks from feeding grounds and /or migratory corridors along the South-western Atlantic Ocean. This project is part of a transatlantic cooperation initiative to increase the knowledge of movements of leatherbacks in the Atlantic basin in order to contribute towards the identification of hot-spots of interaction between leatherbacks and fisheries and also emphasize the importance of international cooperation for conservation.

Zoe, a leatherback female was incidentally captured by an entaglement net in the Rio de la Plata estuary, at the locality of Kiyu, west of Montevideo (Uruguay). Local fishermen (Popo and friends) brought the turtle to the coast and immediately contacted members of the Karumbé project. A satellite tag from PRICTMA (Argentina) was then brought from Buenos Aires to Kiyu by an artist friend "Zoe", making possible to deploy the transmitter on the turtle after a tremendous team effort from both countries.