BEYOND THE CARIBBEAN: THE MIGRATION PATH OF JUVENILES FROM Caretta caretta

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.813372328075

• Palavras-chave: satellite remote sensing, migratory route.

• Keywords: satellite remote sensing, migratory route.

• Abstract:

  Sea turtles are larger vertebrates, with a complex life cycle in which they exploit different marine resources throughout their ontogeny, in this process they migrate and frequent environments ranging from spawning and hatching beaches, open pelagic and neritic environments.
  Due to its ecosystem importance in different environments and its high degree of threat, it is of vital importance to know the migratory dynamics through the different environments used.

  
  Satellite remote sensors have allowed the study of these processes in vertebrate populations globally, due to the information gap that exists around the migration of C. caretta in the Caribbean and its relationship with the marine ecosystems exploited in its ontogeny. satellite tags and coded plastic plates in order to determine the route of the loggerhead turtle in the Caribbean and its passage to the Gulf of Mexico.
  It was possible to follow two juveniles from the spawning beach to their final point of transmission, the first specimen lasted 9 days and traveled 500Km and the second a transmission of 38 days and traveled 1417Km with one transmission. end on the island of Cuba. Additionally, it was possible to report seven specimens with the help of the plastic tag, four in the Greater Antilles, one in the Gulf of Mexico and the furthest in the Florida Keys, a single individual chose rumba southwest and was seen 96 days later. from its introduction to 380 km in the San Bernardo Islands in the southern Caribbean.
  These results clearly show the course chosen by juveniles of C. caretta in the Caribbean, which start in a northerly direction towards the Greater Antilles, then towards the Strait of Yucatán and later on the Gulf of Mexico. This route corresponds to the migration of juveniles in their pelagic stage, taking into account that later the sub-adults and adults adopt neritic habits after their transatlantic migration. In this sense, the need to carry out conservation work involving the pertinent institutions in the migratory route of the loggerhead turtle is evident.