Sparky - Cayman Islands 2004: Loggerhead & Green Turtles

A project of Marine Turtle Research Group.

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Sparky has reached her feeding ground!! This means that the Brac Turtle Tracking Team (the Brakka Trakkas) have found out where Sparky lives when she is not nesting in the Cayman Islands. Sparky is about 70 miles from the coast of Honduras, feeding in 60-70 feet of water.

Background

Sparky, sponsored by the Brac District Committee of the National Trust for the Cayman Islands, is the first turtle to have a satellite transmitter attached in Cayman Brac. To help purchase the state-of-the-art transmitter and associated satellite time, students at Creek and Spot Bay Primary, West End Primary, and Cayman Brac High School organised fundraisers such as a read-a-thon and sale of homemade buttons and magnets with a sea creature theme. The efforts of the District Committee and schools were supported by a generous sponsorship from Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC). In recognition of this contribution, "Sparky" was named in honour of the CUC mascot, Sparky the Turtle. Several other Cayman Businesses made generous contributions towards the cost of the transmitter. These include: Almond Tree Café, Cayman Brac Leos Club, Cayman Brac Power & Light, Divi Tiara Beach Resort and Divi Dive and Photo Tiara, Dr. Waite’s Optical, Foster Group, Jacques Scott Group Ltd., and Walton’s Mango Manor.
Sparky was tagged with a KiwiSat 101 satellite transmitter when the Brac Turtle Trackers Team (known as the Brakka Trakkas!)of students and parents, in coordination with Department of Environment research and enforcement officers and veteran fisherman Lemuel Bodden, found the turtle when she nested on the night of 31 August 2004. To attach Sparky’s transmitter, researchers used a special kind of glue (called epoxy), which is very lightweight and harmless to turtles. After the epoxy dried, Sparky was released and proud students and community sponsors watched as their adopted turtle swam off into the ocean with her new satellite transmitter.
When Sparky comes to the surface to breath, her transmitter sends us information on her position and her diving behaviour. The dots on Sparky's map represent her location. Click to see a pre-launch photo of one of the satellites used to monitor Sparky's position and to find out how satellite tracking works, see our FAQ
Be sure to follow Sparky's journey on SEATURTLE.ORG to find out where she will go!

• The presentation of data here does not constitute publication. All data remain copyright of the project partners. Maps or data on this website may not be used or referenced without the explicit written consent of the data owners.
• For more information please visit the project website.
• This map connects positions generated by the ARGOS system designated as location class (lc) '3', '2', '1', 'A'. Locations that have been "filtered" are displayed as small red dots.
• This maps also shows locations of class '0', 'B' as small black dots which are not connected by a route line.
• Bathymetry layers are derived from the GEBCO One Minute Grid.
• Sea surface temperature and chlorophyll are derived from NASA's Ocean Color data.
• Ocean currents and sea surface heights are derived from AVISO's Ssalto/Duacs Gridded Absolute Dynamic Topography & absolute geostrophic velocities data.

SEATURTLE.ORG collaborates with Argos to help scientists and conservationists manage and analyse their valuable animal tracking data.