[Coral-List] Turtle imprinting.

Britt Rigelwood brittmarie24 at gmail.com
Fri Jul 25 14:08:11 EDT 2014


I work with a group that rescues some of the stragglers. We release them at
age one in the area where we know they are (from tracking records) during
their older stages of life. The turtles use magnetic fields to find their
way back to the beaches they were born in, so as long as they are not moved
away from the same area (we have a facility only a few steps from the
beach) it theoretically shouldn't effect where they are "magnetically
oriented". We've seen several females that were rescued come back to shore
(we know through microchipping).

On Thursday, July 24, 2014, Helen the Reef <helenthereef at gmail.com> wrote:

> I live in Fiji. They are making it up on the spot...
>
>
> On 25-Jul-14 9:19 AM, Melbourne Briscoe wrote:
> > I visited an island in Fiji that is doing the capturing, raising,
> releasing. I asked this very question. They claimed the imprinting occurred
> when the turtles entered the water, not at birth.  They did not explain how
> they knew this, and I do not know if they were making it up on the spot.
> >
> > - Mel
> >
> > On July 24, 2014 4:39:57 PM EDT, John Ware <jware at erols.com
> <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >> Dear List:
> >>
> >> Not really a coral reef topic, but related:
> >>
> >> Over the past few years we have seen several resorts in tropical areas
> >> that stand guard over sea-turtle egge clutches.  Then, when hatching
> >> occurs, the young turtles are put in pens and raised until they are ~6
> >> m
> >> to 1 y old and then released.
> >>
> >> I know that female turtles return to their natal place to lay their
> >> eggs.  The question is: When do they imprint on that natal place?  If
> >> the imprinting must occur soon after hatching, then the well meaning
> >> people at the resorts are actually doing a disservice.
> >>
> >> Anybody with real knowledge out there that can comment on the practice?
> >>
> >> John
> >>
> >> --
> >>     *************************************************************
> >>     *                                                           *
> >>     *                      John R. Ware, PhD                    *
> >>     *                         President                         *
> >>     *                      SeaServices, LLC                     *
> >>     *                     302 N. Mule Deer Pt.                  *
> >>     *                    Payson, AZ 85541, USA                  *
> >>     *                       928 478-6358                        *
> >>     *                      jware at erols.com <javascript:;>
>          *
> >> *                 http://www.seaservices.org                *
> >>
> >>     *                                                           *
> >>     *                   Member of the Council:                  *
> >>     *            International Society for Reef Studies         *
> >>     *                                          _                *
> >>     *                                         |                 *
> >>     *   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *
> >>     *                                        _|_                *
> >>     *                                       | _ |               *
> >>     *        _______________________________|   |________       *
> >>     *     |\/__       Untainted by Technology            \      *
> >>     *     |/\____________________________________________/      *
> >>     *************************************************************
> >>
> >> If you are a coral-reef scientist and you are not a member
> >> of the International Society for Reef Studies, then
> >> shame on you.
> >> Become a member of the International Society for Reef Studies
> >> http://www.coralreefs.org
> >>
> >>
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