Marine Turtle Newsletter

7 downloads 8043 Views 812KB Size Report
Feb 22, 2009 - MTN Online - The Marine Turtle Newsletter is available at the MTN web site: .... Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) software.
Marine Turtle Newsletter Issue Number 132

January 2012

Carcass of a large female leatherback turtle found on the beach on the eastern coastline of Hormozgan Province in April 2010, see pages 5-6 (photo: M. Barmoodeh).

Articles Mitochondrial DNA Variation in Hawksbill Turtles Nesting on Ishigaki Island, Japan........................H Nishizawa et al. Description of mtDNA Markers of Loggerhead Turtles from Caribbean Colombia......................................................................C Franco-Espinosa & J Hernández-Fernández Records of the Leatherback from the Iranian Coast of the Gulf of Oman......M Rezaie-Atagholipour & M Barmoodeh Capture of Green Sea Turtles in Fish Weirs off the Coast of Piauí, Northeastern Brazil...........................ACG Mai et al. Notes on the Spatial Distribution and Foraging Behavior of Green Turtles at the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Northeastern Brazil.........................................................HM Gitirana & AT Souza Digenetic Trematodes of Dermochelys coriacea From the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean...................MR Werneck et al. Leatherback Turtle Nesting in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.....................J Kinch et al. Announcements Recent Publications (2011 inclusive)

Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 1

ISSN 0839-7708

Editors:

Managing Editor:

Kelly R. Stewart NOAA-National Marine Fisheries Service Southwest Fisheries Science Center 3333 N. Torrey Pines Ct. La Jolla, California 92037 USA

Matthew H. Godfrey NC Sea Turtle Project NC Wildlife Resources Commission 1507 Ann St. Beaufort, NC 28516 USA

Michael S. Coyne SEATURTLE.ORG 1 Southampton Place Durham, NC 27705, USA

E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +1 858-546-7003

E-mail: [email protected]

E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +1 919 684-8741

Founding Editor: Nicholas Mrosovsky University of Toronto, Canada

Editorial Board: Brendan J. Godley & Annette C. Broderick (Editors Emeriti) University of Exeter in Cornwall, UK

Nicolas J. Pilcher Marine Research Foundation, Malaysia

George H. Balazs National Marine Fisheries Service, Hawaii, USA

Manjula Tiwari National Marine Fisheries Service, La Jolla, USA

Alan B. Bolten University of Florida, USA

ALan Rees University of Exeter in Cornwall, UK

Robert P. van Dam Chelonia, Inc. Puerto Rico, USA

Kartik Shanker Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

Angela Formia University of Florence, Italy

Oğuz Türkozan Adnan Menderes University, Turkey

Colin Limpus Queensland Turtle Research Project, Australia

Jeanette Wyneken Florida Atlantic University, USA

MTN Online - The Marine Turtle Newsletter is available at the MTN web site: . Subscriptions and Donations - Subscriptions and donations towards the production of the MTN should be made online at or c/o SEATURTLE.ORG (see inside back cover for details).

We are grateful to our major donors:

Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 1

© Marine Turtle Newsletter

Mitochondrial DNA Variation in Hawksbill Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) Nesting on Ishigaki Island, Japan Hideaki Nishizawa1, Junichi Okuyama1, Osamu Abe2,3, Masato Kobayashi2 & Nobuaki Arai1

Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Yoshida Honmachi, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan (E-mail: [email protected]); 2Research Center for Subtropical Fisheries, Seikai National Fisheries Research Institute, Fisheries Research Agency, Fukaiohta 148, Ishigaki, Okinawa 907-0451, Japan; 3Present Address: National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Fisheries Research Agency, 5-7-1 Orido, Shimizu, Shizuoka 424-8633, Japan 1

The hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) is a circumglobal species that prefers tropical reef environments. They are listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List (IUCN 2010). To date, the number of hawksbill turtles has deceased globally, primarily due to overexploitation in the past. For instance, in Japan there is a long history of crafting hawksbill shell (tortoiseshell, or bekko in Japanese) into various decorative items (Campbell 2003). Due to increasing concern about the conservation of hawksbills, various projects have been carried out for conserving and enhancing the hawksbill turtle population in Japan (e.g., Okuyama et al. 2010). Hawksbill nesting in Japan seems to be very rare in comparison with nesting in tropical regions, but hawksbills have been observed nesting in the Ryukyu Archipelago, which includes the Yaeyama Islands of Japan (Kamezaki 1989); this represents the northern limit of hawksbill nesting in the Pacific. Ishigaki Island of the Yaeyama Islands is one of the major nesting locations for sea turtles in Japan. Although a majority of nesting on the island is done by green turtles (Chelonia mydas, Abe et al. 2003), hawksbills also nest on Ishigaki Island at a lower frequency. Between 1995 and 2003, 14 hawksbill nests were observed in comparison with 427 green turtle nests (Abe et al. 2003). Despite the low level of hawksbill nesting, the coastal areas around the Yaeyama Islands including Ishigaki Island are considered a major foraging ground for hawksbill turtles with various mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes (Okayama et al. 1999; Nishizawa et al. 2010). Therefore, nesting hawksbills in Japan may be biogeographically significant despite having a small population size. In this study, we determined the mtDNA profile of hawksbills nesting on Ishigaki Island. Tissue samples were collected from four nesting females between 2003 and 2007. To detect mtDNA haplotypes, DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the mtDNA control region, and sequencing reactions were performed as described in Nishizawa et al. (2010). By using primers LTCM2 (Encalada et al. 1996) and TCR6 (Norman et al. 1994), an approximately 520 bp segment was sequenced. Sequence alignments were performed using CLUSTALW v2.0 (Larkin et al. 2007) in order to assign haplotypes. A neighbor-joining tree (Saitou & Nei 1987) was constructed for

Haplotype EIJ1 EIJ8 EIJ12

Sample size 1 2 1

GenBank accession no. AB485796 AB485803 AB485807

Table 1. Haplotypes observed in this study and GenBank accession numbers.

investigating the diversity and phylogeographic implications for hawksbills at Ishigaki Island. We included the haplotypes detected in this study, previously published haplotypes observed in foraging hawksbill populations around the Yaeyama Islands (Nishizawa et al. 2010), and haplotypes widely observed in Atlantic hawksbills (Bowen et al. 2007) as the outgroup. Bootstrap analysis (10,000 replicates) was performed using MEGA v4.0 (Tamura et al. 2007) for confirming the phylogenetic support. We used the Tamura–Nei model of nucleotide substitutions, which was designed for control region sequences (Tamura & Nei 1993). We detected three haplotypes, EIJ1, EIJ8, and EIJ12 from the four samples (Table 1). The neighbor-joining tree indicated that EIJ12 was phylogenetically distinct from EIJ1 and EIJ8 (Fig. 1). To date, haplotype EIJ12 has not been found in the foraging populations around the Yaeyama Islands (Okayama et al. 1999; Nishizawa et al. 2010), but was assigned to the same phylogenetic group as EIJ9,

Figure 1. Neighbor-joining tree of the hawksbill haplotypes found in this study and from foraging populations around the Yaeyama Islands (GenBank accession nos. AB485796– AB485807, Nishizawa et al. 2010). The percentage of replicate trees in which haplotypes clustered together in the bootstrap test (10,000 replicates) is shown next to the branches. The tree is drawn to scale with branch lengths in the same units as those of the evolutionary distances computed by using Tamura–Nei method. Three haplotypes found in the Atlantic regions (U22368, U37804, and U37806) were included as the outgroup.

Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 1

EIJ10, and EIJ11, which have been found in the foraging populations around the Yaeyama Islands (Nishizawa et al. 2010). At Ishigaki Island, nesting green turtles have haplotypes of various phylogenetic groups, indicating that the populations may have colonized both from equatorial Australasian and Southeast Asian regions after glacial periods (Nishizawa et al. 2011). As noted in Nishizawa et al. (2010), deep splits of intraspecific phylogenies are similar between hawksbill and green turtles and populations of both species in the Pacific appear to have experienced very similar patterns and processes of distribution and subdivision over the last several million years. Despite our small sample size, here we report that nesting hawksbill turtles on Ishigaki Island may have haplotypes of distinct phylogenies, displaying similarities in population dynamics with green turtles in the Pacific. Additional studies in other Indo-Pacific nesting populations may confirm this hypothesis and help contribute to a more detailed phylogeography of hawksbill turtles in the region. Accumulation of this genetic information will enhance conservation of the genetic variation of hawksbill turtles in Japan and throughout the Pacific. Acknowledgments: We would like to acknowledge S. Tanizaki, H. Ishii, and the other members of the Ishigaki Island Sea Turtle Research Group for providing the samples. We also thank K. Okuzawa and staff at the Ishigaki Tropical Station and Yaeyama Station (present name: Research Center for Subtropical Fisheries), Seikai National Fisheries Research Institute, and D. Imakita (Faculty of Agriculture, Kinki University), T. Yasuda, T. Yokota, K. Ichikawa, Y. Kawabata, and H. Watanabe (Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University) for their help with fieldwork and constructive comments on the study plan. M. Kinoshita and H. Sawada (Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University) kindly supported the extraction and amplification of DNA. R. Matsuoka and T. Nishizawa (IREIIMS, Tokyo Women’s Medical University) kindly helped with the sequencing analysis. We are also much indebted to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This study was partly supported by Informatics Education and Research Center for Knowledge – Circulating Society (Global COE Program). ABE, O., T. SHIBUNO, Y. TAKADA, K. HASHIMOTO, S. TANIZAKI, H. ISHII, Y. FUNAKURA, K. SANO & Y. OKAMURA. 2003. Nesting populations of sea turtle in Ishigaki Island, Okinawa. Proceedings of the 4th SEASTAR Workshop: 40-43. AVISE, J.C. 2009. Phylogeography: retrospect and prospect. Journal of Biogeography 36: 3-15. BOWEN, B.W., W.S. Grant, Z. Hillis-Starr, D.J. Shaver, K.A. Bjorndal, A.B. Bolten & A.L. Bass. 2007. Mixed-stock analysis

reveals the migrations of juvenile hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Caribbean Sea. Molecular Ecology 16: 49-60. CAMPBELL, L.M. 2003. Contemporary culture, use, and conservation of sea turtles. In: P.L. Lutz, J.A. Musick & J. Wyneken (Eds.). The Biology of Sea Turtles II. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 307-338. ENCALADA, S.E., P.N. LAHANAS, K.A. BJORNDAL, A.B. BOLTEN, M.M. MIYAMOTO & B.W. Bowen. 1996. Phylogeography and population structure of the Atlantic and Mediterranean green turtle Chelonia mydas: a mitochondrial DNA control region sequence assessment. Molecular Ecology 5: 473-483. KAMEZAKI, N. 1989. The nesting sites of sea turtles in the Ryukyu Archipelago and Taiwan. In: M. Matsui, T. Hikida & R.C. Goris (Eds.). Current Herpetology in East Asia. Herpetological Society of Japan, Kyoto, pp. 342-348. NISHIZAWA, H., J. OKUYAMA, M. KOBAYASHI, O. ABE & N. ARAI. 2010. Comparative phylogeny and historical perspectives on population genetics of the Pacific hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas), inferred from feeding populations in the Yaeyama Islands, Japan. Zoological Science 27: 14-18. NISHIZAWA, H., O. ABE, J. OKUYAMA, M. KOBAYASHI & N. ARAI. 2011. Population genetic structure and implications for natal philopatry of nesting green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Yaeyama Islands, Japan. Endangered Species Research 14: 141-148. NORMAN, J.A., C. MORITZ & C.J. Limpus. 1994. Mitochondrial DNA control region polymorphisms: genetic markers for ecological studies of marine turtles. Molecular Ecology 3: 363373. OKUYAMA, J., T. SHIMIZU, O. ABE, K. YOSEDA & N. ARAI. 2010. Wild versus head-started hawksbill turtles Eretmochelys imbricata: post-release behavior and feeding adaptations. Endangered Species Research 10: 181-190. SAITOU, N. & M. NEI. 1987. The neighbour-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Molecular Biology and Evolution 4: 406-425. TAMURA, K., J. Dudley, M. NEI & S. KUMAR. 2007. MEGA4: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) software version 4.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution 24: 1596-1599. TAMURA, K. & M. NEI. 1993. Estimation of the number of nucleotide substitutions in the control region of mitochondrial DNA in humans and chimpanzees. Molecular Biology and Evolution 10: 512-526.

Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 2

Description of mtDNA Markers of Loggerhead Marine Turtles from Caribbean Colombia Carolina Franco-Espinosa & Javier Hernández-Fernández

Facultad de Ciencias Naturales Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano. Programa de Biología Marina, “GENBIMOL” Genética, Biología Molecular y Bioinformática, Carrera 4 No. 22-61, Bogotá, Colombia (E-mail: [email protected])

The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) occurs throughout tropical, subtropical and temperate waters (Bolten & Witherington 2003). Once considered to be a nesting population of ~500 females, currently the loggerhead rookery along the Caribbean coast of Colombia is reported to be greatly reduced in size (Amorocho 2003). This population in Northern Colombia is considered to be part of the Northwestern Atlantic regional population (Conant et al. 2009), although detailed population structure data, based on molecular markers, are lacking from loggerheads that occur here. As a first step toward elucidating the relationship between loggerheads from Colombia and those from throughout the Wider Caribbean, we conducted preliminary assessments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes of nesting and foraging loggerhead turtles sampled in Colombia, using direct sequencing and phylogenetic inference. During 2008 and 2009, we collected blood samples from the dorsal cervical sinus from eight loggerhead turtles of the Colombian Caribbean: five nesting females from Don Diego beach (11°16’N, 73°45’W) and three juvenile turtles captured while they were foraging around San Martin de Pajarales Island (10°11’N, 75°47’W). Genomic DNA was extracted from each blood sample using a commercial kit (UltraClean™ Tissues & Cells, MO BIO Laboratories, Inc, California, USA). The mtDNA control region was PCR-amplified using primers TCR-5 and TCR-6 (Norman et al. 1994). PCR products of control region (mtDNA) with a product size of ~398 bp were obtained. Subsequently these products were purified and directly sequenced at Macrogen Inc. (Seoul, South Korea). A basic local alignment search (BLAST-GenBank) was performed to identify the haplotypes in Colombian aggregations. To perform the phylogenetic inference, the sequences were assembled and aligned (Hall 1999), and phylogenetic analysis was performed using maximum parsimony or MP (PAUP 3.0, Swofford 1991) and maximum-likelihood or ML criteria (Rax-ML, Cipress 2.0, Stamatakis et al. 2005). To provide statistical support for the phylogenetic trees, we developed a bootstrap analysis (Felsenstein 1985).

Sampling location Don Diego Beach

Life stage Adult Female

Haplotypes CC-A1 (n = 2) CC-A2 (n = 1) CC-SM1 (n = 1)

San Martín de Pajarales Island

Juvenile

CC-A1 (n = 1) CC-A2 (n = 2)

Table 1. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes identified in loggerhead turtles from the Colombian Caribbean..

Two previously reported haplotypes were identified in the Colombian samples. Haplotype CC-A1, which is present in nesting colonies of North and South Carolina, Georgia and NE Florida with very high frequencies (>80%)(USA) was found in four of our samples. Haplotype CC-A2, found in three of our samples, was previously reported as the dominant haplotype for Quintana Roo (Mexico) and South Florida rookeries (SE and SW combined), as well as being the most frequent haplotype among analyzed Cuban turtles (Ruiz-Urquiola et al. 2010). Prior studies have reported a cline of these main haplotypes, with decreasing frequencies of haplotype CC-A1 and increasing frequencies of CC-A2 from north to south (Encalada et al. 1998; Bowen et al. 2005 and Shamblin et al. 2011). A new sequence, labeled as CC-SM1 was also found in one individual (Table 1) sampled at the Don Diego nesting beach. This haplotype is similar to CC-A1 (90%), but has a total of seven polymorphic sites consisting of insertion/deletions (indels). Phylogenetic analysis (MP and ML) revealed a relationship between the nesting and feeding aggregations of Colombia with major populations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The nesting aggregation in Colombia is related to nesting colonies in South Florida (USA) and Mexico. Loggerhead turtles from the foraging area around San Martin de Pajarales are grouped with other aggregations of feeding populations from the North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea (Spain and Italy) and to sequences frequently reported from nesting populations in the North Atlantic and Mexico. This pattern suggests that individuals that use the Colombian Caribbean for feeding and reproductive activities are part of an Atlantic meta-population, where sequences CC-A1 and CC-A2 are the most frequent haplotypes. The Southeastern USA and Mexico loggerhead populations may be the sources of the nesting aggregation in Colombia by means of recent colonization events (Bowen & Karl 2007), assisted by the strong migratory behavior of loggerhead turtles and marine currents such as the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Gyre, but inputs from other small rookeries in the Caribbean cannot be discounted. The new loggerhead haplotype discovered in the Colombian Caribbean may be endemic to this rookery, and thus may suggest that Colombian loggerheads display natal homing. Maximum likelihood mixed stock analysis has been used for identifying proportions of immature loggerhead turtles in developmental habitats. It has been demonstrated that their distribution is not random, but rather influenced by nearby nesting populations (source rookeries). The juveniles from the San Martin de Pajarales feeding ground (Colombian Caribbean), with haplotypes CC-A1 and CC-A2, represent the main haplotypes found in nesting rookeries throughout the Atlantic-Mediterranean system, but there is also a possibility that there are contributions from rookeries in Cuba, from the Cape Verde Islands (Monzón-Arguello et al. 2009), and from the coast of Africa (Carreras et al. 2006). The closest study

Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 3

location (to Colombia) for loggerhead juveniles was at Chiriquí Lagoon (Panama Caribbean), where approximately 65–70% of loggerheads were shown to have originated from South Florida and Mexico nesting beaches. However, there were still unknown haplotypes in the feeding ground that were not linked to any source rookery, suggesting that there are small and un-surveyed beaches that remain to be assessed and included in these evaluations. These data represent a first step toward elucidating the population genetic structure and phylogeography of both nesting and foraging loggerhead turtles in Colombia within the Wider Caribbean region. We plan to collect more samples over a wider geographic area for future analyses, so that we may better understand the genetic structure of these populations in the region. Further studies of loggerhead population structure is required, and we suggest a larger sample of individuals on nesting and feeding grounds, along with longer haplotypes sequences (880 bp) using primers LCM15382 and H950g that might increase the resolution of the analysis (AbreuGrobois et al. 2006). The current, widely used mtDNA D-loop PCR primers generate segments of about 380 to 510 bp and, although effective in distinguishing major rookeries in earlier genetic surveys, they may have become limited in the level of resolution between rookeries as the number of candidate source rookeries has increased and the amount of haplotype frequency overlap has become more widespread. Acknowledgements: We want to thank all the team from El Rodadero Aquarium Museum for logistical help in the sampling of the turtles from Don Diego Beach, and Rafael Vieira, the director of CEINER Research Center and Sea Aquarium (Corales del Rosario and San Bernardo National Park). Samples were collected under the Genetic Resources Permit granted by the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Territoral (4120-E1-45179 del 13/04/11 COR 1593-11 / RGE 0095). We also thank two anonymous reviewers for help in editing the manuscript. ABREU-GROBOIS F.A., J.A. HORROCKS, A. FORMIA, P.H. DUTTON, R.A. LEROUX, X. VELEZ-ZUAZO, L. SOARES, P. MEYLAN & D. BROWNE. 2006. New mtDNA D-loop primers which work for a variety of marine turtle species may increase the resolution of mixed stock analysis. In: M. Frick, A. Panagopoulous, A.F. Rees & K. Williams (Comps.) Proceedings of the 26th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. International Sea Turtle Society, Athens, Greece. Available from: http://www.iucn-mtsg.org/genetics/meth/ primers/abreu_grobois_etal_new_dloop_primers.pdf. AMOROCHO, D. 2003. Monitoring nesting loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) on the central Caribbean coast of Colombia. Marine Turtle Newsletter 101: 8-13. BOLTEN, A.B. & B.E. WITHERINGTON. 2003. Loggerhead Sea Turtles. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 320 pp. BOWEN, W.B., A. BASS, L. SOARES & R.J. TOONEN. 2005. Conservation implications for complex population structure: Lessons from the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta). Molecular Ecology 14: 2389-2402. BOWEN, B.W. & S.A KARL. 2007. Population genetics and phylogeography of sea turtles. Molecular Ecology 16: 4886–4907.

CARRERAS, C., S. PONT, F. MAFFUCCI, M. PASCUAL, A. BARCELÓ, F. BENTIVEGNA, L. CARDONA, F. ALEGRE, M. SANFÉLIX, G. FERNANDEZ & A. AGUILAR. 2006. Genetic structuring of immature loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the Mediterranean Sea reflects water circulation patterns. Marine Biology 149: 1269–1279. CONANT, T.A., P.H. DUTTON, T. EGUCHI, S.P. EPPERLY, C.C. FAHY, M.H. GODFREY, S.L. MACPHERSON, E.E. POSSARDT, B.A. SCHROEDER, J.A. SEMINOFF, M.L. SNOVER, C.M. UPITE & B.E. WITHERINGTON. 2009. Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) 2009 status review under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Report of the Loggerhead Biological Review Team to the US National Marine Fisheries Service. 222 pp. FELSENSTEIN, J. 1985. Confidence limits in phylogenies: An approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39: 783-791. HALL, T.A. 1999. BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series 41: 95–98. MONZÓN-ARGÜELLO, C., C. RICO, C. CARRERAS, P. CALABUIG, A. MARCO, & L. LÓPEZ-JURADO. 2009. Variation in spatial distribution of juvenile loggerhead turtles in the eastern Atlantic and western Mediterranean Sea. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 373: 79–86. NORMAN, J.A., C. MORITZ & C.J. LIMPUS. 1994. Mitochondrial DNA control region polymorphisms: genetic markers for ecological studies of marine turtles. Molecular Ecology 3: 363374. RUIZ-URQUIOLA, A.,M. VEGA-POLANCO, F. RIVERONGIRO, A. ABREU-GROBOIS, J. SOLANO-ABADíA, E. PÉREZ-BERMUDEZ, R.FRÍAS-SOLER, J. AZANZARICARDO, R. DÍAZ-FERNANDEZ, M. IBARRA MARTÍN & G. ESPINOSA-LÓPEZ. 2010. Genetic structure of loggerhead populations in the greater Caribbean and Atlantic western shore based on mitochondrial DNA sequences, with an emphasis on the rookeries from southwestern Cuba. In: K. Dean, & M. LopezCastro (Comps.). Proceedings of the 28th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. NOAA Technical Memorandum. NOAA NMFS-SEFSC-602. pp. 153-154. SHAMBLIN, B.M., M.G. DODD, D.A. BAGLEY, L.M. EHRHART, A.D. TUCKER, C. JOHNSON, R.R. CARTHY, R.A. SCARPINO, E. MCMICHAEL, D.S. ADDISON, K.L WILLIAMS, M.G. FRICK, S. OUELLETTE, A.B. MEYLAN, M.H. GODFREY, S.R. MURPHY & C.J. NAIRN. 2011. Genetic structure of the southeastern United States loggerhead turtle nesting aggregation: evidence of additional structure within the peninsular Florida recovery unit. Marine Biology 158: 571–587. STAMATAKIS, A., M. OTT & T. LUDWIG. 2005. RAxMLOMP: An efficient program for phylogenetic inference on SMPs. In: Proceedings of 8th International Conference on Parallel Computing Technologies (PaCT2005), Lecture Notes in Computer Sciences 3506: 288-302. Springer Berlin/Heidelberg. SWOFFORD, D.L. 1991. PAUP: Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony, Version 3.1 Computer program distributed by the Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, Illinois.

Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 4

Recent Records of the Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, from the Iranian Coastline of the Gulf of Oman Mohsen Rezaie-Atagholipour1& Mohammad Barmoodeh2

Department of Marine Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Hormozgan, P.O. Box: 3995, Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan, Iran (E-mail: [email protected]); 2Office of Environment, Bandar Jask, Hormozgan, Iran.

1

Five of the seven sea turtle species have been recorded from the southern coastal waters of Iran (Saeed-Pour 2004), but the abundance of these species varies in the area. The hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, is the most abundant species in the Iranian coastal area of the Persian Gulf and the green turtle, Chelonia mydas, is the most abundant species in the Iranian coastal area of the Gulf of Oman. Numerous reports also exist for the loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta, and the olive ridley turtle, Lepidochelys olivacea, in the area (Mobaraki 2003). However, reports for the leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, from the southern coastal waters of Iran are infrequent, which seems appropriate because the species is considered rare in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea (Gasperetti et al. 1993). The leatherback turtle is globally listed as Critically Endangered by IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2011); therefore, monitoring different parts of the species’ geographical range is important and necessary because such information may be helpful for updating data on the species’ geographic distribution and for designing high-quality conservation programs. Between April 2010 and April 2011, two dead leatherback turtles were found along the Iranian coastline of the Gulf of Oman (Fig. 1). On 23 April 2010, the carcass of a large female leatherback turtle (162 cm curved carapace length and 83 cm curved carapace width, see cover photo) was found on a sandy beach located 20 km east of Bandar Jask along the eastern coastline of Hormozgan Province (Fig. 1). The carcass was discovered many days after death, thus it was not possible to determine if the specimen washed ashore dead or came to the beach when it was alive. On 28 April 2011, the carcass of another female leatherback turtle (116 cm curved carapace length and 80 cm curved carapace width, Fig. 2) was found on a sandy

beach located 10 km east of Bandar Jask (Fig. 1), close to where the first specimen was discovered. This second specimen washed ashore freshly dead. This turtle was dissected in the field to check for plastic ingestion and its stomach was found to be empty. To the best of our knowledge, no live leatherback turtle has previously been reported from the southern coastal waters of Iran (northern part of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman), and the only report of this species was a dead specimen found on the beach near Bandar Jask during winter 2002 (Firouz 2005), where the two specimens of the present study were discovered. Fishing interactions have been proposed as one the five significant threats to sea turtle populations on a global scale (Mast et al. 2005). Unfortunately, both illegal and legal fishing is common in the southern coastal waters of Iran (FAO 2005); this may further imperil endangered species including sea turtles. In recent years, education programs have elevated public awareness of the importance of marine mammals in the southern coastal waters of Iran; however, marine reptiles, including sea turtles, have been neglected by education programs in the area. We believe that such education programs could have positive impacts on sea turtles conservation in the southern coastal waters of Iran. FIROUZ, E. 2005. The Complete Fauna of Iran. I. B. Tauris and Co. Ltd., London. 322 pp. FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO). 2005. FAO fishery country profile: Islamic Republic of Iran. FAO, Rome. GASPERETTI, J., F. ASTIMSON, J.D. MILLER, J.P. ROSS & P.R. GASPERETTI. 1993. Turtles of Arabia. In: Fauna of Saudi Arabia 13. Basle and Jeddah. pp. 170–367.

26°

25°

24°

57°

63°

Figure 1. Map of the locations of stranded leatherback turtles along the Iranian coastline of the Oman Sea. (A) Bandar Jask, (B) location of the second specimen, (C) location of the first specimen.

Figure 2. The freshly dead carcass of an average size female leatherback turtle found on the beach along the eastern coastline of Hormozgan Province in April 2011. Note that the photo was derived from a video recorded by M. Barmoodeh.

Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 5

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF NUATURE (IUCN). 2011. Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011. www.iucnredlist.org (11 November 2011). MAST, R.B., B.J. HUTCHINSON, E. HOWGATE & N.J. PILCHER. 2005. MTSG update: IUCN/ SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group hosts the second Burning Issues Assessment Workshop. Marine Turtle Newsletter 110: 13–15.

MOBARAKI, A. 2003. The status of sea turtles in Iran. In: N.J. Pilcher (Comp.). Proceedings of the Twenty-third Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation, NOAATechnical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC-536. p. 154 SAEED-POUR, B. 2004. Investigation into the sea turtles distribution in north of Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman. Pajouhesh and Sazandegi 63: 41–46. [Abstract in English and text in Persian]

Capture of Green Sea Turtles, Chelonia mydas, in Fish Weirs off the Coast of Piauí, Northeastern Brazil Ana C.G. Mai1, Thiago F. A. Silva2, Jefferson F. A. Legat3 & Daniel Loebmann4

Programa de Pós-graduação em Oceanografia Biológica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande. Av. Itália km 8, Rio Grande, RS, 96203-900 Brazil (E-mail: [email protected]); 2Universidade Federal do Piauí. Departamento de Ciências do Mar. Lab. Recursos Aquáticos do Delta. Av. São Sebastião. Parnaíba, PI, 64200-970 Brazil (E-mail: [email protected]); 3 Embrapa Meio-Norte. Núcleo de Pesquisa em Pesca e Aquicultura. Br 343, km 35, CP 341. Parnaíba, PI, 64200-970 Brazil (E-mail: [email protected]); 4Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia Aquática Continental. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Depto. de Ciências Morfobiológicas, Lab. de Vertebrados terrestres. Av. Itália, km 8, Vila Carreiros, Rio Grande-RS, 96203-900 Brazil (E-mail: [email protected]) 1

The increase in fishing activity in recent decades is considered one of the greatest threats to the survival of sea turtles (Sales et al. 2008). However, other threats such as habitat destruction, pollution, global warming, egg collection, consumption of turtle meat, and an epizootic disease called cutaneous fibropapillomatosis (see Herbst 1994; Herbst & Klein 1995; Almeida et al. 2011) have affected populations of sea turtles worldwide. The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) is on the List of Brazilian species threatened with extinction (IN 2003 MMA, 27 May 2003) and is categorized as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List (IUCN 2004). Current threats that may play a role in green turtle population declines include incidental capture in fisheries and disease. Since this species is found in coastal habitats it is often incidentally caught in coastal fishing gear (Marquez 1990; Nagaoka et al. 2008). Fish weirs are fixed fish traps that are usually designed with wooden stakes stuck vertically into the substrate. They are built with an opening that faces the direction of the tidal currents. This type of artisanal fishery is predominantly used in North and Northeastern regions of the Brazilian coastal zone where tidal variation is 2+ m (Paiva & Nomura 1965; Almeida 1974; Fonteles-Filho & Espínola 2001). In the State of Piauí, the most common fish weirs are of the transverse type, which is composed of an entrance, two chambers, two smaller chambers and the corral, as described by Maneschy (1993) and Piorski et al. (2009). The entrance has a barrier that is built perpendicular to the tidal flow in such a way that fish are intercepted and directed to the trapping compartments. Harvesting fish from fish weirs is done using a seine net twice a day year-round during low tide and requires the participation of two fishermen. As the weir does not offer any artificial lure, the composition of species caught in it is influenced by its location, layout of the compartments and placement in relation to the tidal currents.

As a consequence of the non-selective and variable nature of the fish weirs, animals that are not targets for commercial markets are also captured in addition to the economically valuable target fish. In this context, sea turtles are among the species commonly caught accidentally by this gear type (Tavares et al. 2005). It is important to highlight that unlike other fishing gear such as longlines and gillnets that accidentally capture turtles, fish weirs do not lead to the death of the turtles from drowning. Because fish weirs are open at the top, turtles are able to breathe at the surface. On the other hand, if a sea turtle enters the fish weir it is unlikely to escape without help from a fisherman. Although fishermen do not intend to catch turtles and there are no deaths that result from drowning or being caught, many fishing communities may consume turtle meat if turtles are captured in their fish weirs (see Almeida et al. 2011a). Although the coastal zone of Piauí has been not considered a priority area for sea turtle conservation (see Almeida et al. 2011 a, b; Castilhos et al. 2011; Marcovaldi et al. 2011; Santos et al. 2011), the region has received special attention in recent years, since mating areas for Dermochelys coriacea (Loebmann et al. 2008), Eretmochelys imbricata and Lepidochelys olivacea (Santana et al. 2009) were recently documented there. There is no data available about mating for Caretta caretta or Chelonia mydas in Piauí; however, these species also occur in the region (Loebmann & Valdujo 2010). Therefore, it is important to monitor the fisheries in the region in order to detect and document potential threats for all marine turtle species. This study aimed to examine the incidental capture of green sea turtles by active fish weirs off the coast of Piauí, Northeastern Brazil, and to collect data on the biology of the species in the region. The three fish weirs in operation in Piauí were monitored between December 2008 and November 2009; all of them were located in the littoral zone near the coast (ca. 500 m from the beach). During

Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 6

the period of study these three fish weirs were the only ones being used along the coast of Piauí; they were located in the municipality of Cajueiro da Praia. Monitoring was conducted for six days each month during both diurnal and nocturnal harvest periods. A total of 83 harvesting days were monitored, and two researchers accompanied the fishermen. When any sea turtle was captured, the following data were recorded: species, date, moon phase, time, curved carapace length (CCL), curved carapace width (CCW), weight, sex (determined by observation of tail length) and apparent health. All turtles were subsequently released. We opted to sample only during new and full moons; however, fishermen harvest their fish weirs year-round. T-tests were performed to examine whether there were significant differences (p < 0.05) between the numbers of captures of green sea turtles during day and night periods and also between the full and new moon periods. We calculated the catch per unit effort as:

to estimate the number of turtles caught annually in each fish weir. Then we projected the total number of green sea turtles captured/ fish weir/year, based on the total harvest effort of each fish weir (2 harvest sessions per day x 365 days). Statistics were performed using software R for Windows (version 2.14.1). During the 83-day study period, there were 149 distinct sampling sessions (day or night, and full or new moon). Eight green sea turtles were captured: six probable females (weights ranged from 8.1 to 55 kg and CCLs ranged from 43 to 90 cm), one male (weight = 60 kg and CCL = 103 cm) and one juvenile (weight = 5.7 kg and CCL = 25 cm) (Table 1). Curvilinear carapace lengths (CCL) ranged from 25 to 103 cm (mean 58 ± 9.3 SE). The weight of individuals ranged from 5.65 to 60 kg (mean weight 46 ± 7.7 SE). There were no significant differences between the number of captures between day and night periods (t-test, df = 147, p = 0.26). A significant difference was detected in the capture of C. mydas during two moon phases, i.e., the bycatch of C. mydas was greater during the full moon periods (t-test, df = 67, p < 0.00). The CPUE of C. mydas was 0.054 ± 0.02 SE per harvest period, therefore, if we assume that each fish weir is

Date (d/m/y) 14/12/08 22/02/09 7/3/2009 7/3/2009 24/03/09 7/5/2009 6/6/2009 4/9/2009

Moon Full New Full Full New Full Full Full

Time 22:30 7:40 6:40 19:40 8:45 20:30 20:00 10:15

CCL (cm) 43.5 25 90 103 45 51 47 43

CCW (cm) 40.5 20.5 n/a 62 n/a 42 n/a 39.5

harvested twice a day for 365 days, the potential capture of green sea turtles per fish weir per year will be 39.19 (C.I.95% = 12.47 – 65.92). In the neighboring state of Ceará the number of turtles caught per fish weir per year ranged from 14.4 to 26.7 during three years of fishery monitoring (1962-1964) (Almeida 1974; Paiva & Nomura 1965). It is important to highlight that during the 1960s, the market for turtle meat was officially permitted in Brazil. However, we did not have access to the database from these earlier studies, and so it was not possible to compare if values presented here (approximately 39 turtles/fish weir/year) are statistically higher than those found for the state of Ceará. In addition, the population size of C. mydas may have changed over the past 40 years. Therefore, a new comparative study is needed for both of these regions. In this sense, fish weirs present an excellent opportunity for monitoring sea turtle populations, as this gear is neither lethal nor harmful to the turtles (Nagaoka et al. 2008). This is the first study to evaluate bycatch of sea turtles in fish weirs in the State of Piauí. We believe that these results will contribute to what is known about sea turtles that inhabit the continental shelf of Northeastern Brazil and provide a baseline for population size for foraging and nesting turtles in the region. This may be an important baseline in the future as the coastal areas of Piauí are experiencing increasing anthropogenic impacts, such as disorderly occupation and uncontrolled use of motor vehicles on beaches. These impacts may be directly affecting nesting areas for sea turtles. Therefore, we expect that these data may be useful in future conservation and management plans for sea turtles in the state as well as in adjacent regions. Acknowledgments: We thank the environmental analysts from Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio - Parnaíba) for allowing us to monitor the fish weirs. We thank the researchers Alitiene L.M. Pereira, Cristina Arzabe and Daniele de Azevedo from Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa Meio-Norte) and Mônica G. Mai for their collaboration, help with manuscript preparation and logistical support. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions that improved the quality of the manuscript. We thank the fishermen Adécio, Antonio, Charles and Pedro for their help during field work. We appreciate Diniz, Davi and Davilson Soares,

Mass (kg) 11.3 5.65 55 60 8.1 23 11.2 10.5

Sex Female Juvenile Female Male Female Female Female Female

Body Condition Healthy Shark bite* FP Healthy Healthy Healthy Healthy Absence of a flipper**

Table 1. Capture data for Chelonia mydas individuals caught in fish weirs in the municipality of Cajueiro da Praia, State of Piauí, Brazil. CCL: curved carapace length; CCW: curved carapace width; FP: fibropapillomatosis tumors present; *turtle was missing part of rear right flipper and part of carapace; **turtle was missing the rear left flipper. Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 7

Gabriel, and Natelson for their help with this project. ACGM is supported by doctoral fellowship (Grant no. 140740/2010-4) from the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (CNPq). DL is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship (Grant no. 338632/2010) from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). ALMEIDA, H.T. 1974. Sobre a produção pesqueira de alguns currais-de-pesca do Ceará - dados de 1971-1973. Boletim da Estação de Biologia Marinha da Universidade do Ceará 26: 1-9. Almeida, A.P., A.J.B. Santos, J.C.A. Thomé, C. Belini, C. Baptistotte, M.Â. Marcovaldi, A.S. Santos & M. Lopez. 2011a. Avaliação do estado de conservação da tartaruga marinha Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758) no Brasil. Biodiversidade Brasileira I(1): 12-19. Almeida, A.P., C.A. Thomé, C. Baptistotte, M.Â. Marcovaldi, A.S. Santos & M. Lopez. 2011b. Avaliação do estado de conservação da tartaruga marinha Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761) no Brasil. Biodiversidade Brasileira I(1): 37-44. Castilhos, J.C., C.A. Coelho, J.F. Argolo, E.A.P. Santos, M.Â. Marcovaldi, A.S. Santos & M. Lopez. 2011. Avaliação do estado de conservação da tartaruga marinha Lepidochelys olivacea (Eschscholtz, 1829) no Brasil. Biodiversidade Brasileira I(1): 28-36. Fonteles-Filho, A.A. & M.F.A. Espínola. 2001. Produção de pescado e relações interespecíficas na biocenose capturada por currais-de-pesca, no estado do Ceará. Boletim Técnico Científico do CEPNOR 1: 117-130. Herbst, L.H. 1994. Fibropapillomatosis of marine turtles. Annual Review of Fish Diseases 4: 389-425. Herbst, L.H. & P.A. Klein. 1995. Green turtle fibropapillomatosis: Challenges to assessing the role of environmental cofactors. Environmental Health Perspectives 103: 27-30. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 2004. Red list of threatened animals. . Accessed on 12/01/2010. LOEBMANN, D., J.F.A. Legat, A. Puchnick-Legat, R.C.R. Camargo, S. Erthal, M. Severo & J.M. Góes. 2008. Dermochelys coriacea (Leatherback Sea Turtle) nesting. Herpetological Review 39(1): 81.

Loebmann, D. & P.H. Valdujo. 2010. Répteis. In: A.C.G. Mai & D. Loebmann (Eds.). Biodiversidade do litoral do Piauí. Paratodos Press, Sorocaba. pp. 212-231. Marcovaldi, M.Â., G.G. Lopez, L.S. Soares, A.J.B. Santos, D.S. Monteiro, B. Giffoni, A.P. Almeida, C. Bellini, A.s. Santos & M. Lopez. 2011. Avaliação do estado de conservação da tartaruga marinha Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766) no Brasil Biodiversidade Brasileira I(1): 20-27. Márquez, R.M. 1990. Sea turtles of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of sea turtle species known to date. FAO Fisheries Synopsis, Roma. 81 pp. Maneschy, M.C. 1993. Pescadores curralistas no litoral do estado do Pará: evolução e continuidade de uma pesca tradicional. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de História da Ciência 10: 53-74. Nagaoka, S.M., A.C. Bondioli & E.L.A. MonteiroFilho. 2008. Sea turtle bycatch by cerco-fixo in Cananéia lagoon estuarine complex, São Paulo, Brazil. Marine Turtle Newsletter 119: 4-6. Paiva, M.P. & H. Nomura. 1965. Sobre a produção pesqueira de alguns currais-de-pesca do Ceará – Dados de 1962 a 1964. Boletim da Estação de Biologia Marinha da Universidade do Ceará 5: 175-214. Piorski, N.M., S.S. Serpa & J.L.S. NUNES. 2009. Análise comparativa da pesca de curral na Ilha de São Luís, Estado do Maranhão, Brasil. Arquivos de Ciências do Mar 42: 65-71. SANTANA, W.M., R.R. SILVA-LEITE, K.P. SILVA & R.A. MACHADO. 2009. Primeiro registro de nidificação de tartarugas marinhas das espécies Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766) e Lepidochelys olivacea (Eschscholtz, 1829), na região da Área de Proteção Ambiental Delta do Parnaíba, Piauí, Brasil. PanAmerican Journal of Aquatic Sciences 4: 369-371. Santos, A.S., L.S. Soares, M.Â. Marcovaldi, D.S. Monteiro, B. Giffoni & A.P. Almeida. 2011. Avaliação do estado de conservação da tartaruga marinha Caretta caretta Linnaeus, 1758 no Brasil. Biodiversidade Brasileira I(1): 3-11. Tavares, M.C.S., I.F. Júnior, R.A.L. Souza & C.S.F. Brito. 2005. A pesca de curral no Estado do Pará. Boletim Técnico Científico do Cepnor 5: 115-139.

Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 8

Notes on the Spatial Distribution and Foraging Behavior of Green Turtles at the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Northeastern Brazil Humberto M. Gitirana1 & Allan T. Souza2,3

Laboratório de Genética Marinha, Departamento de Biologia Celular e Genética, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524 - PHLC - Sala 205, CEP 20.550-013, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil (E-mail: [email protected]); 2CIMAR/CIIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Rua dos Bragas 289, 4050-123, Porto, Portugal; 3ICBAS – Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Lg. Prof. Abel. Salazar, 2, 4099-003 Porto, Portugal (E-mail: [email protected]) 1

Five of the seven species of sea turtles can be found in Brazilian Particularly, we also recorded an unusual underwater sea turtle coastal and oceanic waters in both feeding areas and at nesting behavior where green turtles were found foraging in groups. Fernando de Noronha Archipelago is situated 380 km (215 beaches: Caretta caretta, (loggerhead turtle), Chelonia mydas (green turtle), Dermochelys coriacea (leatherback turtle), Eretmochelys nautical miles) from the Northeastern Brazilian coast (03°50’ S, imbricata (hawksbill turtle) and Lepidochelys olivacea (olive 32°24’ W). The archipelago includes one main island and twenty ridley turtle) (Marcovaldi & Marcovaldi 1985). All are currently small islands and islets, all of volcanic origin, comprising a total listed under different categories on the International Union for the area of 26 km². The islands are largely influenced by the South Conservation of Nature Red List (IUCN 2010) and the National List Equatorial Current, which carries warm and calm waters, creating of Endangered Species of Brazilian Fauna (MMA 2003). A recent an environment rich in coral, sponges, seaweeds and other organisms study showed that the global population of C. mydas has declined (Almeida 1958). Underwater observations were conducted systematically during between 48% and 67% over the last three generations (Seminoff 2004). In Brazil, the main green turtle rookeries are located on the the day (8h00 to 18h00) using snorkeling and constant swimming oceanic archipelagos, such as Rocas Atoll, Fernando de Noronha at eight sampling sites (Alagados, Atalaia, Golfinhos, Boldró, and Trindade e Martim Vaz, while most foraging and development Conceição, Porto, Sancho and Sueste) around the Fernando de areas in Brazil are distributed along the mainland coast (Marcovaldi Noronha Archipelago (Figure 1). At each sampling site, one et al. 1998). However, some areas have overlapping feeding and researcher randomly swam across the surface through the entire nesting habitats, with sea turtles from different life stages being shallow water area (maximum depth of 10 meters). Snorkeling found together in the same area (Marcovaldi & Marcovaldi 1999). observations were performed according to the standard direct Fernando de Noronha Archipelago is one area used by both foraging observation techniques described by O’Neal (2007). Snorkeling and nesting green turtles. Since the late 1980s, environmental duration (minutes), water depth, number of individual turtles preservation efforts conducted by the Instituto Brasileiro de Meio observed, approximate turtle length, and foraging behavior (if Ambiente e Recursos Renováveis (IBAMA) and Project TAMAR observed) were recorded on PVC slates. Underwater observations have contributed greatly to sea turtle conservation, both on local and global scales (Bellini & Sanches 1996; Sanches & Bellini 1999). Despite the significant conservation efforts developed in recent decades in Brazil, (e.g., Marcovaldi & Marcovaldi 1985, Marcovaldi et al. 1998, Marcovaldi & Marcovaldi 1999, Marcovaldi et al. 2002), there are only a few scientific publications involving sea turtles from Brazil. The majority of these studies focus on reproduction and nesting behaviors (D’Amato & Marczwski 1993; Marcovaldi & Laurent 1996; Godfrey et al. 1999; Maciel et al. 1999; Mascarenhas et al. 2004a), fisheries impacts (Kotas et al. 2004; Pinedo & Polacheck 2004; Gallo et al. 2006) and other anthropogenic impacts on sea turtles (Bugoni et al. 2001; Mascarenhas et al. 2004b). Actually, in-water ecological and/or behavioral studies in Brazil are scarce in the literature. The present study aimed to describe the spatial distribution of green turtles in the shallow Figure 1. A map of the eight sample sites around Fernando de Noronha waters of the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago. Archipelago, Northeastern Brazil. Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 132, 2012 - Page 9

on distribution and foraging behavior of turtles were performed from a minimum distance of 5 meters, in order to reduce the impacts on the turtles’ behavior caused by the observer. Individual green turtles were sorted into one of three life stages according to curved carapace length (CCL): (juvenile = CCL < 60 cm; sub-adult = CCL 60 to 90 cm; adult = CCL > 90 cm) (Bellini & Sanches 1996; Sanches & Bellini; 1999, Bugoni et al. 2001; Godley et al. 2003). The CCL measurements were visually estimated into three size classes at 30 cm intervals. To assess the extent of observer error, the lengths (largest spans) of detached macroalgal structures floating in the water served as models (Gust et al. 2001), and were visually estimated from a distance of 1–10 m and, subsequently measured with a ruler. The estimated and measured sizes were compared and an error of