1. INWATER RESEARCH GROUP
Historical and Seasonal Trends in Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) Captured at South Hutchinson Island, Florida, USA
Jeffrey Guertin
INWATER RESEARCH GROUP

2. St. Lucie
Power Plant

3. St. Lucie Power Plant
Indian River Lagoon
Intake Canal
Nesting Beach
Nearshore Reef
Intake Structures
Atlantic Ocean

4. Percentage of Green Turtle Captures since 1976
1995: 658 captures, 10.61% of all green captures
Anomaly in 2010 = cold stun

5. Percentage of Green Turtle Captures by Month
MAX = 12.05%
6200 total C. mydas captures
MIN = 5.84%
Jan = March account for almost 35% of all green turtle captures

6. Size Distribution of New Recruits (SCL-max) from 1988-2012
MIN = 18.7 cm MAX = cm
MEAN = cm STDEV = cm

7. Size Distribution of New Recruits (SCL-max) by Month
MIN AVERAGE = cm
MAX AVERAGE = cm

8. Percentage of Green Turtles Recaptured
OVERALL MEAN = 33.34%
SINCE 1992 = 35.24%
HIGH (2006) = 65.28%
COLD STUN
No recaps until 1992
Anomaly in 2010 = cold stun

9. Percentage of Green Turtles Recaptured by Month
MAX = 54.13%
MIN = 38.34%

10. Recapture Data 600 unique individuals captured 2,682 times
Range 2-43 captures
Range 1-4,434 days
804 days (mean) between first and last captures

11. Recapture Data Average growth over time (>300 days at large)
2.34cm/yr
1.93kg/yr
Lower than growth rates for Indian River Lagoon (Kubis et al. 2009)

12. Percentage of Green Turtles With Fibropapilloma

13. Percentage of Green Turtles with Fibropapilloma
MEAN = 5.35%
Only 7 green turtles in 1980, one had paps

14. Percentage of Green Turtles With Fibropapilloma by Month
MAX = 10.84%
MIN = 1.07%

15. Conclusions Future Research
Recaptures indicate high site fidelity for some turtles
Data suggests some movement between IRL and oceanic waters
Seasonal patterns in new recruits, recapture rates, size distribution, presence of fibropapilloma
Future Research
Acoustic tagging to determine movement patterns of new recruits and recaptured individuals
Tag return data…13 of 84 c mydas in nicaragua
10 Went to IRL…7 to jennings cove
Overall average for jennings cove greens (n=226) = 51.43cm and 20.81kg…145 pap (64.16%)…for 204 NR 51.63cm and 21.1kg
25 recaps = 11% recapture rate

16. Thank You Inwater Research Group, Inc.
Michael Bresette, Jonathan Gorham, Carrie Keske, Dean Bagley, Blair Witherington, Steve Traxler, Llewellyn Ehrhart, Steve Weege, Dave Clark, Jeff Guertin, Cody Mott, and Ryan Welsh
FPL
Vince Munne and Dave Niebch

17. Questions?