MTN 103:14-15 The Bermuda Turtle Project's International Course on the Biology and Conservation of Sea Turtles, 2003

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The Bermuda Turtle Project's International Course on the Biology and Conservation of Sea Turtles, 2003

P. Meylan¹, A. Meylan² & J. Gray³
¹ Natural Sciences, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL 33711, USA(E-mail: meylanpa@eckerd.edu)
² Florida Marine Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 100 8th Ave., SE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, USA (E-mail:anne.meylan@fwc.state.fl.us)
³ Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo, P.O. Box FL 145 FLBX, Flatts, Bermuda ( E-mail: jgray.bamz@ibl.bm)

The Bermuda Turtle Project (BTP) offered its International Course on the Biology and Conservation of Sea Turtles for the eighth time August 4-15, 2003. The two-week course consisted of lectures, class discussions of assigned readings, a necropsy session, and 10 days of field work aboard the RV Calamus. Fieldwork involved capturing immature green turtles (Chelonia mydas) as part of sampling efforts for a long-term (35-year) study of sea turtles in Bermuda waters. The BTP is a collaborative research project of the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (BAMZ) and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC). The course was taught by Drs. Peter and Anne Meylan, principal investigators for BTP, and Jennifer Gray, project coordinator. Guest lectures were given on sea turtle anatomy and disease by Dr. Robert George of (Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Virginia Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Program) and on cultural and socioeconomic issues regarding sea turtles by Peter Richardson (Marine Conservation Society and the Turtles in the Caribbean Overseas Territories (TCOT) Project). This year's nine participants were drawn from Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Turks & Caicos Islands, Grenada, St. Lucia, and the United States. Five were conservation officers from the Caribbean involved with the TCOT Project; the other four included a government natural resource manager from St. Lucia, a high-school teacher from the U.S.A., an intern from BAMZ, and the director of an NGO involved in field projects with sea turtles in Grenada. Most participants had some prior experience with marine turtles, and several are currently initiating or conducting field studies of turtles in their own countries.

The course provided an introduction to the biology of marine turtles with an emphasis on topics that are relevant to marine turtle conservation on an international scale. Each stage of the life cycle was reviewed, and iterspecific comparisons were made. Examining the effects that humans have on turtles in each life stage allowed for in-depth discussions of conservation issues in a biological context. Participants were expected to lead some discussions, and they had the opportunity to discuss issues and methods of particular relevance to their home country. One of the goals of the course was to acquaint participants with research techniques useful for in-water studies, such as capture methods, tagging, measuring, collection of blood and tissue samples for determination of sex and genetic identity, and application of satellite transmitters. Course materials provided to each of the participants included the BTP Procedures Manual, the IUCN MTSG Research and Management Techniques Manual, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission video on nest survey methodology, Sea Turtle Necropsy Manual for Biologists in Remote Refuges, The Anatomy of Sea Turtles (CD-ROM), 17 assigned papers and other educational materials.

A total of 65 green turtles were captured using a 610m entrapment net during ten days of sampling at various seagrass beds around the Bermuda Platform. Participants each swam an estimated 37 km while patrolling the net and retrieving entangled turtles. The field team devoted some time to snorkelling on coral reefs to try to capture hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), which rarely get taken in the net. Participants also helped attach a satellite transmitter to a 72cm green turtle. The turtle (given the name Vixen, after a well-known wreck in Bermuda) was first tagged at Bermuda in 1997, and her sex was determined by a testosterone assay. She was approaching the size at which green turtles depart Bermuda and migrate to feeding grounds in the Caribbean. As of November, Vixen had not left Bermuda. Her movements will continue to be monitored and posted at the CCC's website <http://www.cccturtle.org/bermuda/> or can be found through the BAMZ website at <http://www.bamz.org/>.

Dr. George led the half-day necropsy session, during which students dissected 13 green turtles and hawksbills that had been recovered by the Bermuda Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network during the previous year. In addition to providing an opportunity to learn basic anatomy of sea turtles, the necropsy session enabled participants to learn first-hand about some of the mortality factors for sea turtles, such as entanglement in monofilament line, ingestion of hooks, boat collisions, and disease.

The 2003 course included a social at the Bermuda Aquarium, as well as a dinner and awards ceremony at Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve. Course certificates and awards were presented this year by The Honourable Neletha Butterfield (JP, MP) Bermuda's Minister of the Environment, who also enthusiastically participated in the fieldwork one day.

Over the eight years this course has been offered, it has served 79 students from countries bordering the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean. In addition to the countries of origin listed for this year's participants, other countries of origin of past participants
have included Belize, Bermuda, Bonaire, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, India, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the U.K. and Venezuela.

Acknowledgments. The course is sponsored by the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation and is provided free of charge. We thank BAMZ staff, especially Marine Operations, and Captain D. Exell, for logistical support for the field work. Funding for the 2003 participants came from the U.K. Foreign Commonwealth Office's Environment Fund in a grant to the Marine Conservation Society managed by Peter Richardson, Chevron Texaco International, and the Friends of the Bermuda Aquarium (FOBA). We thank the following: the additional members of the TCOT team (A.Broderick, B. Godley and S. Ranger) for their roles in coordinating the funding application to the U.K. government; Dr. K, Eckert (WIDECAST) for coordinating the selection of two participants; Bermuda Zoological Society for hosting the social; J. and L. Madeiros for the logistics that made the dinner and ceremony on Nonsuch Island possible; Minister Butterfield for joining us in the field and taking part in the awards ceremony.