Movements and Diving Behavior of a Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea
Keinath JA and Musick JA. 1993. Movements and Diving Behavior of a Leatherback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea. Copeia. 1993(4):1010-1017
A leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting on St. Croix, Virgin Islands, was fitted with a satellite transmitter and released on 3 May 1989. During 18 days of tracking, the turtle traveled a minimum of 515.2 km at an overall mean speed of 1.2 km/h and nested twice more, first on Vieques Island and then on Culebra Island, where the transmitter was removed from the turtle. The turtle was abraded by the attachment harness, and the harness and transmitter had been bitten by a shark. Submergence data were obtained in continuous 12-h periods. Mean surface duration was 20.6 sec, and mean dive duration was 2.27 min per event; and in the 12-h periods, the turtle dove an average of 319 times. The mean submergence duration for 32 12-h periods was 625. 4 min (86.9%), whereas the mean surface duration was 94.6 min per 12-h period (13.1%).
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Keinath, J; Musick, J
- Units
- SFCN , VICR , VIIS
- Keywords
- Behavior, distance, habit, Swim, track