DOI: 10.15468/gdmxqs
title: Gabon 2009-10: Pongara, Leatherback Turtles (aggregated per 1-degree cell)

description: Original provider:
Marine Turtle Research Group / Seaturtle.org

Dataset credits:
Data provider
Marine Turtle Research Group
Originating data center
&lt;a href='http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/' target='_blank'&gt;Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT)&lt;/a&gt;
Project partner
The partnerships' work in Gabon, which includes satellite telemetry of marine turtles (leatherback and &lt;a href=http://www.wildlifetracking.org/index.shtml?project_id=146&gt;olive ridley&lt;/a&gt; turtles), training and capacity building in the use of fisheries &lt;a href=http://www.fao.org/fishery/vms/1/en&gt;vessel monitoring systems&lt;/a&gt; and assessing the distribution and abundance of dolphins and whales is funded by the Darwin Initiative, which is financed by the &lt;a href=http://www.defra.gov.uk/&gt;Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs&lt;/a&gt; of the UK Government under the project &lt;a href=http://darwin.defra.gov.uk/project/17005/&gt;Darwin Marine Biodiversity Action Plan for Gabon&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Our work in Gabon is also supported by a range of additional funders, including the &lt;a href=http://www.nerc.ac.uk&gt;Natural Environment Research Council&lt;/a&gt; (UK; Award NER/S/A/2004/12980), the &lt;a href=http://www.largepelagics.unh.edu/&gt;Large Pelagics Research Center&lt;/a&gt;, funded through NOAA (US; Award NA04NMF4550391), the &lt;a href=http://www.eaza.net/Pages/European%20Association%20of%20Zoos%20and%20Aquaria.aspx&gt;European Association of Zoos and Aquaria&lt;/a&gt;, through the &lt;a href=http://www.biaza.org.uk/public/pages/campaignsNew/index.asp&gt;Shellshock&lt;/a&gt; campaign, and the &lt;a href=http://www.esf.gov.uk/&gt;European Social Fund&lt;/a&gt;. The Gabon Turtle Partnership receives funding from the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund (US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Department of the Interior).

Abstract:
Since 2005, a partnership of &lt;a href=http://www.seaturtle.org/mtrg/&gt;conservation biologists&lt;/a&gt; and Non-Governmental Organisations, lead by the &lt;a href=http://www.ex.ac.uk&gt;University of Exeter&lt;/a&gt; & &lt;a href=http://www.seaturtle.org&gt;Seaturtle.org&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=http://www.seaturtle.org/groups/gabon/home.html&gt;The Gabon Turtle Partnership&lt;/a&gt;, Parcs Gabon and the &lt;a href=http://www.wcs.org&gt;Wildlife Conservation Society&lt;/a&gt; have been fitting satellite transmitters to &lt;a href=http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/6494/0&gt;leatherback turtles&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;i&gt;Dermochelys coriacea&lt;/i&gt;) nesting in &lt;a href=http://www.wcs.org/where-we-work/africa/gabon.aspx&gt;Gabon&lt;/a&gt; (Atlantic Coast, Central Africa), whose beaches host the worlds largest nesting aggregation of leatherback turtles, see &lt;a href=http://www.wcs.org/new-and-noteworthy/turtle-trove-in-gabon.aspx&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;This year's fieldwork is taking place in Pongara National Park, northwest Gabon, where the parternship has fitted 2 leatherback turtles with &lt;a href=http://www.wildlifecomputers.com/&gt;satellite tracking&lt;/a&gt; devices. The two turtles have been named &lt;a href=http://www.seaturtle.org/cgi-bin/imagelib/index.pl?photo=4797&gt; Darwinia&lt;/a&gt;, after the projects funders (&lt;a href=http://darwin.defra.gov.uk/&gt;Darwin Initiative&lt;/a&gt;), and &lt;a href=http://www.seaturtle.org/cgi-bin/imagelib/index.pl?photo=4798&gt; Noelle&lt;/a&gt; after the Christmas period. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Threats faced by leatherback turtles on the nesting beaches, in the coastal zone and in the open-sea are numerous; satellite tracking enables us to build an understanding of their critical habitats, with the hope to inform plans to limit negative interactions with human activities.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;This years fieldwork follows the successes of last year, where females were tracked using Argos-linked GPS telemetry, see the &lt;a href=http://www.wildlifetracking.org/index.shtml?project_id=340&gt; project page&lt;/a&gt;. In previous nesting &lt;a href=http://www.wildlifetracking.org/index.shtml?project_id=104&gt;seasons&lt;/a&gt; we have attached satellite transmitters to leatherback turtles nesting in &lt;a href=http://mayumbanationalpark.com/welcome.htm&gt; Mayumba National Park&lt;/a&gt;, in the southwest of Gabon.
 This dataset is a summarized representation of the telemetry locations aggregated per species per 1-degree cell.