KRALENDIJK November 3, 2003 – Two adult female hawksbill turtles were equipped with satellite transmitters in little over a week by Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (STCB). The first turtle, named "Nautila" by sponsors Saskia and Ronald Gravensteijn, was fitted on Friday October 24th, then seen on the beach at Klein Bonaire the following Saturday night. After laying her last nest at No Name beach, she then moved steadily away from Bonaire, towards the north to end up on her apparent feeding grounds at the Navidad Bank just north of the Dominican Republic by December 12, some 900 km from Bonaire (check out Nautila's route on the map below). The second Hawksbill, 'Schillie' left Bonaire on December 18 and also swam north to end up at Mona Island between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic by January 5, 2004 (see second map below)
In July 2004 two more turtles were fitted with satellite transmitters by the STCB, this time a loggerhead turtle, "Extra" and a male Hawksbill named "Tom". To follow their travels go to the STCB website. The satellite tracking system provides the STCB with daily updates of the location of the turtles. Whenever the turtle surfaces to breathe, the transmitter sends a signal that can be picked up by satellite. The satellite system then sends the coordinates to STCB through the Internet. So far, the signals received have been very clear. This project has been made possible through private sponsoring, and is part of a larger STCB turtle monitoring project on Bonaire funded in part by MINA (the environmental department of the central Antillean government) from the cooperative financing provided by the Dutch government. Sea turtles have existed in their present form for over 20 million years and are now threatened with extinction worldwide. It is necessary to protect these species in all their habitats. This means both on the beaches where turtles come to lay their eggs AND those areas where they feed. These habitats can lie thousands of kilometers apart. Through this satellite transmitter study, STCB aims to learn where turtles that nest on Bonaire reside outside of the breeding season. Nowhere in the south-central Caribbean has such work been done on hawksbill turtles. For further information, please contact STCB Project Director Robert van Dam, tel. 790 0433 and 717 2225, or STCB@bonaireturtles.org
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Path
of Hawksbill turlte "Nautila, Oct. 28 - Dec. 12, 2003
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Path of Hawksbill turtle "Schillie", Dec. 18, 2003-Jan 5, 2004
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