Sea Turtles Have Favorite Ocea...( -- an endangered species -- have focuse...)

-- an endangered species -- have focused on their nesting areas and, hence, nesting females. Morreale said scientists have very little information on the males or the young of the species, or on where the females go after they nest. Tracking their movements by satellite could be one step that leads investigators to the rest of the leatherback population.

"We've put most of our energy into protecting their nesting beaches, but there is little we can do elsewhere unless we know where they are," Morreale said. "They are not highly visible at sea."

The corridor in the case of these particular turtles turns out to be at most a few hundred miles wide. It extends from Central America in the direction of the Galapagos Islands, and the researchers managed to track some of the turtles well beyond the Galapagos before the transmitters expired.

Even though the turtles have vast areas of ocean in which to thrive, humanity may be threatening the turtles' survival. International commercial fishing fleets venture well into the turtles' corridor. It is important to consider not only this species' nesting places and feeding grounds, but perhaps the interconnecting corridors as well.

"People might say, 'Oh, at least they have the whole ocean to live in.' With the discovery that turtles are concentrated within narrow corridors, what we're finding is that this may not be true," Morreale said.

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Contact: Blaine Friedlander
bpf2@cornell.edu
607-255-3290
Cornell University News Service
27-Nov-1996

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