Satellite telemetry data used to characterize daily, seasonal, and long-distance movements of immature green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Bermuda

• Main Authors: Robert Hardy, Anne Meylan, Jennifer Gray, Peter Meylan
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity 2023
• Subjects: habitat use; Chelonia mydas; green turtle; Bermuda; Fastloc-GPS; home range; developmental habitat; developmental migration; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/urn:uuid:b9519fd7-cd3e-4233-8ad1-94a32db7503e

We deployed satellite transmitters on 16 juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) captured from 2011–2018 within benthic developmental habitats on the Bermuda Platform in order to characterize their movements and habitat use. Transmitters were Wildlife Computers SPLASH10-F tags capable of providing Argos and Fastloc-GPS positional data. All units were programmed to transmit data via the Argos system following a 4 h on/2 h off duty cycle beginning at 0 h GMT. Fastloc-GPS data were collected at 2h intervals throughout the day, during even hours (GMT). We evaluated the plausibility of GPS positions using customized data-processing routines written in R (R Development Core Team 2019) that assessed travel path metrics and the quality of GPS position solutions. A GPS position solution was considered potentially errant if 1) the number of satellites used in the position solution was fewer than 6 and 2) the residual error associated with the solution exceeded 30. Two of the transmitters (PTTs 163691 and 163692) were opportunistically recovered allowing data from their internal memory to be used in lieu of transmitted data as they provided a larger dataset and increased resolution.