In late June, the three spent an entire night monitoring the coastline at Andersen, to try to find an adult female turtle and attach the device. According to Knutson, the objective of the satellite-tracking device is to help better understand the migration patterns of the turtle, where it feeds, how long it stays underwater and its other behavior. The device gives the turtle s location, as well as information about when the turtle surfaces and when its below the water. It will help us manage the species better and increase the population. Increasing the population of the green sea turtle is very important because it is in a worldwide struggle to survive.
Global development destroys the turtles nesting locations on a daily basis.
Instinctively, female green sea turtles return to the same beach where they were born to lay their own eggs. One problem with that homing instinct is it takes 20 years for a female to reach reproductive age. By then, developers have encroached on many of the areas where the turtles once laid their eggs. Another problem for the green sea turtle is that some people around the world, including here on Guam, are still poaching the eggs, according to Knutson. The eggs used to be an important part of the aboriginal diet.