"This study has been a massive effort to learn some very critical basic information: how many boys and girls are out there," said Jeanette Wyneken, a FAU assistant professor of biological sciences who is an expert on sea turtle anatomy and turtle conservation.
Wyneken, the project's principal investigator, is supervising the turtle rearing at both Florida institutions. Crowder, the co-principal investigator, heads Duke's effort. The loggerheads are all being grown to the size needed for them to safely undergo minor surgical procedures known as laparoscopies to determine their genders. This involves a small incision to briefly insert a tiny scope and examine the babies' gonads.
"These turtles have very small gonads at this age and are difficult to identify," said Wyneken, who performed the surgeries. "By relying on several different criteria we were able to get the information." Following a two-week recovery period, the turtles are then ferried out from shore to begin their lives at sea in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Wyneken and Crowder both noted that safely releasing the animals as winter approaches is almost as much of a challenge as the study itself.
Crowder said this work is part of his 20-year effort to help loggerheads recover from years of human exploitation. Not only have the animals been caught for food, but the air-breathing reptiles also have been trapped and drowned inadvertently in fishermen's nets. Additionally, beach development has deprived the turtles of nesting sites.
In response to research by Crowder and other scientists, the National Marine Fisheries Service now requires commercial fishermen to install turtle excluder devices (TEDs) on their nets. These TEDs appear to have significantly reduced mortalities of juvenile and young adult loggerheads, Crowder said.
The excluders and other conservation measures also appear to have helped revers
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Contact: Scottee Cantrell
scottee@duke.edu
919-613-8074
Duke University
17-Dec-2002