Satellite tracking data is coming in for the 3 hawksbill sea turtles that received Platform Terminal Transmitters just over a month ago on Long Island, Antigua. The transmitters have 2 “saltwater switches” that, when exposed to air as the turtle surfaces to breathe, trigger the transmission of its location and stored sensor data (temperature, depth). So far we have been tracking […]
Shortly after 2am on July 24th, the Jumby Bay Hawksbill Project in Antigua observed our first hawksbill sea turtle hatchlings of the season! Hawksbills typically lay around 150 eggs that will incubate in their sandy chambers for 50-60 days. After hatching, the turtles will rest for one to two days while […]
This month we are planning to deploy 3 satellite tracking devices onto 3 hawksbill females. These are known as Platform Terminal Transmitters (PTTs). They provide information on the offshore movements of sea turtles that are otherwise near impossible to study. Roughly 10 years ago, the Jumby Bay Hawksbill Project(JBHP) deployed 3 PTTs, so it will be interesting to revisit the research in […]
The start of July was the one month mark of our hawksbill monitoring season in Antigua. While over 29 years of monitoring (1987-2015) there has been a significant long-term increase in nesting numbers, June 2016 had a puzzlingly low amount of activity relative to previous Junes. We had 15 fewer nests than in June 2015 (24 vs. 39), as well as 8 […]