Five species of sea turtles occur in Chesapeake Bay and the coastal waters of Virginia with varying regularity. They include the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), Kemp’s ridley turtle (Lepidochelys kempii), green turtle (Chelonia mydas), leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), and hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) (Musick and Limpus 1997). Loggerhead and Kemp’s ridley turtles are the most abundant and regularly occurring species, and green turtle numbers have increased over the past two decades in Virginia (Barco et al. 2015, Swingle et al. 2014, 2015, 2016).

The goal of the project is to assess the occurrence, habitat use, and behavior of loggerhead, green, and Kemp's ridley turtles in the Hampton Roads region to better assess the impacts that U.S. Navy activities may have on these protected species.

The ultimate goal of this study is to provide the US NAVY with the necessary data to help identify seasonal areas where cheloniid sea turtles are likely to occur in order to inform DOD sea turtle protection efforts. This project focuses on the three cheloniid sea turtle species commonly seen in Virginia, which are the loggerhead sea turtle, Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, and green sea turtle (Hager 2014).

Kemp’s Ridley Tagging and Tracking in Chesapeake Bay and Costal Waters of Virginia: Final Report

The goal of this report is to provide the United States (U.S.) Department of the Navy (Navy) with the necessary data to help identify seasonal areas where Kemp’s ridley and green turtles are likely to occur in order to inform Navy environmental planning efforts.

In 2013, under an inter-agency agreement (IAA) between the United States Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NOAA began conducting in-water surveys to record and quantify observations of marine turtles around the Mariana Archipelago. When observed, attempts were made to hand-capture turtles and equipthem with satellite tags in an effort to better understand their spatial ecology.

The United States Navy developed monitoring questions for the Mariana Islands Training and Testing (MITT) study area under the Mariana Islands Range Complex Monitoring Plan (MIRCMP), including questions specifically related to marine turtles as required under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. To support the needs of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Environmental Readiness Office, the Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program (MTBAP) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been conducting research on marine turtle abundance and spatial-temporal ecology in the nearshore waters of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam since 2013, under a series of Interagency Agreements (IAA).

Understanding the spatio-temporal movements of animals is an integral component of wildlife conservation and management. Sea turtles are species of conservation concern and satellite telemetry is a primary research tool used to study their movements, providing high accuracy location data in near “real time,” thus facilitating rapid identification of movements and key habitats.

Understanding the spatio-temporal movements of animals is an integral component of wildlife conservation and management. Marine turtles are species of conservation concern and satellite telemetry is a primary research tool used to study their movements, providing high accuracy location data in near “real time”, thus facilitating rapid identification of movements and key habitats.

This report presents a geographic information system (GIS)-based overview of the sighting records obtained during marine species monitoring effort (a total of 12 U.S. Pacific Fleet-funded surveys) to date in the MIRC. Also included are incidental marine mammal and sea turtle sightings made since 1965 on non-dedicated surveys in the region.

A long-term goal of this research is the evaluation of the population status of each cetacean stock. This includes producing population abundance estimates using mark-recapture techniques. The first step in the process is the creation of species photo-identification catalogs, which began during the summer of 2012

The Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center’s (PIFSC) Cetacean Research Program (CRP) has been conducting visual surveys and long-term acoustic monitoring for cetaceans in the waters surrounding Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) as part of an ongoing effort to develop a record of cetacean occurrence in the region. Visual surveys have been conducted aboard small boats (7.6-12.2 m) since 2010 off the southernmost islands of the Mariana Archipelago (Guam, Rota, Saipan, Tinian, and Aguijan). These surveys include the collection of photographs for individual identification, tissue samples for genetic analysis of population structure, and the deployment of satellite tags for assessment of individual movements throughout the broader region

The U.S. Navy developed the Mariana Islands Range Complex (MIRC) Monitoring Plan to provide required monitoring of protected species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972) and the Endangered Species Act (1973). Of the 5 species of sea turtle associated with the MIRC this interim report provides preliminary data on the habitat and movements of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the nearshore waters of Saipan, Tinian, Guam – and the waters in between during migration.

This report summarizes field research activities conducted in November 2015 by the PIFSC Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program (MTBAP), in collaboration with local partners on Saipan and Guam

There are two questions from the FY13-15 Monitoring Plan that primarily guide this project. First, are there locations of greater cetacean and/or sea turtle concentration around Guam, Saipan and Tinian? Second, what is the occurrence and/or habitat use of sea turtles in areas that the Navy conducts underwater detonations?

Sea Turtle Tagging in MIRC (Progress Report) -2014 progress report

This report summarizes field research activities conducted between 23 October and 24 November 2016 by the PIFSC Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program (MTBAP), in collaboration with local partners on Saipan and Guam

The overall objective is to collect field data that will enable the Navy and the NMFS to better understand the distribution and habitat use of sea turtles in Guam and the CNMI.

The Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program (PIFSC, NOAA Fisheries), together with local partners, conducts marine turtle surveys and in-water captures of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata).

The objective of Mariana Islands Sea Turtle and Cetacean Survey (MISTCS) was to conduct the first systematic line-transect visual survey of the waters around Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands and generate density estimates for those species which had adequate data.

The goal of this initial phase is to process and compile available data from visual surveys performed by both contractor‐led efforts as well as Navy in‐house ones, such that: 1. A GIS‐based summation of all survey tracks could be visualized 2. A geo‐referenced database of sightings can be queried to visualize sightings by species or survey variables such as observer platform, sea state, or season