Palmyra Marine Turtle Project

To gather population information in effort to better understand sea turtle ecology, life history, and stock structure (connectivity) of sea turtle populations occurring at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. After a six year in-water capture-mark-recapture program, nearly 600 turtles were captured and sampled. Of these turtles, 555 green turtles, 9 East Pacific black turtles, and 6 hawksbills have been tagged and sampled, satellite and acoustic tags have been deployed, and a number of publications and master studies have either been produced or are forthcoming. During the summer of 2013, the program tagged the first green turtle that was also observed nesting at Palmyra. While this project has been successful in gathering information from a previously unstudied population in the central Pacific, funding support ended in 2012 due to lack of federal funds and future PRD funding prospects are low given no immediate conservation and management needs.

To support conservation and recovery efforts and gather information from a previously unstudied population in the Central North Pacific of the PIR.

Multi-yr grant awarded to: Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History (FY05-FY12).

Implementation schedule: 2005 - 2013