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The nesting colony of green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) at Guanahacabibes Peninsula Biosphere Reserve and National Park is one of the largest in the Cuban archipelago; however, little information about its nesting ecology is available. Temporal and spatial variation in nesting and reproductive success as well as morphometric characteristics of gra...
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Sea turtle species in the genus Lepidochelys exhibit an unusual behavioural polymorphism, nesting in both aggregations and solitarily. Aggregated nesting events, termed ‘arribadas’, involve hundreds of thousands of females congregating at a single nesting beach over a few days to oviposit their eggs. Aggregate and solitary nesting behaviours are as...
Citations
... Rookery recovery, or at least population increases, could have played a role in changes observed in the genetic composition of the Bermuda foraging aggregation during 1970-2019, i.e., changes could be due to increasing output from rookeries that had provided minimal input before 1990 but that had recovered sufficiently during the 1990s to significantly change the genetic makeup of the Bermuda aggregation. Conservation efforts appear to have increased green turtle populations in East Central Florida, Tortuguero, western Bay of Campeche, Quintana Roo, Aves Island, French Guiana, and Guinea-Bissau (Zurita et al. 2003;Chaloupka et al. 2008;Catry et al. 2002;Azanza et al. 2013;Seminoff et al. 2015;Garcia-Cruz et al. 2015;Broderick and Patricio 2019;Valdivia et al. 2019;Guzmán-Hernández et al. 2022;Restrepo et al. 2023). The timing of nesting increases at rookeries that are likely to be contributing has varied. ...
This is one of three recent papers on Chelonia mydas in Bermuda. The version provided here includes corrections in the units of measure used to describe the rate of feminization. In the original, the rate was described in terms of percentage female (female/ females and males) when it should have been described in terms of sex ratio (females/males) to match Figure 4. The data point for 2013 for Figure 4b was reinstated after inadvertently being cropped out at graphing.
... Rookery recovery, or at least population increases, could have played a role in changes observed in the genetic composition of the Bermuda foraging aggregation during 1970-2019, i.e., changes could be due to increasing output from rookeries that had provided minimal input before 1990 but that had recovered sufficiently during the 1990s to significantly change the genetic makeup of the Bermuda aggregation. Conservation efforts appear to have increased green turtle populations in East Central Florida, Tortuguero, western Bay of Campeche, Quintana Roo, Aves Island, French Guiana, and Guinea-Bissau (Zurita et al. 2003;Chaloupka et al. 2008;Catry et al. 2002;Azanza et al. 2013;Seminoff et al. 2015;Garcia-Cruz et al. 2015;Broderick and Patricio 2019;Valdivia et al. 2019;Guzmán-Hernández et al. 2022;Restrepo et al. 2023). The timing of nesting increases at rookeries that are likely to be contributing has varied. ...
Marine turtles exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), and there is widespread concern that global warming is raising nest incubation temperatures, resulting in increasingly female-skewed sex ratios in “feminized” populations. We assessed the sex ratio of a mixed-stock aggregation of immature green turtles (Chelonia mydas) at a midocean developmental foraging ground in the Northwest Atlantic from 1975 to 2018. We used plasma testosterone concentrations, measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) and calibrated by laparoscopy, to determine the sex of 2,724 green turtles captured 3,940 times in Bermuda (32°18′ N, 64°46′ W) waters. A logistic regression model correctly predicted the sex of 99.5% of turtles (189/190) with associated testosterone concentrations whose sex had been verified via laparoscopy. Empirical evaluation of the trend in sex ratio using four related data sets showed a significant increase (2.8–4.0% yr⁻¹) in the percent females, ranging from 62.7 to 68.1% during the most recent years of evaluation. Using growth rates to predict the year of arrival of turtles in Bermuda, we estimated the sex ratio of recruiting cohorts over 4 decades. Mixed-stock analysis of mtDNA sequences of 602 turtles that recruited to Bermuda between 1970 and 2018 suggested that multiple, geographically dispersed rookeries contributed to the Bermuda aggregation making it regionally representative. Changes in rookery contributions and strong population increases at certain rookeries may partly explain the increasing trend in the percent female. But the steady rate of increase over decades and the increasing female percentage of arriving cohorts are consistent with impacts of global warming at source rookeries.
... Los patrones de anidación bienal de estas poblaciones se han mantenido estables a lo largo del tiempo, similar al reportado anteriormente por Azanza et al., (28) pero este patrón no se ha descrito para las caguamas en poblaciones de anidación más grandes (29,30,31) en Florida o cualquier otro lugar de Cuba, excepto en las últimas 4 temporadas de anidación. (26) Está apareciendo un patrón interesante en algunas áreas de anidación de tortugas marinas, donde el pico de la temporada ocurre más temprano. ...
Introducción:
El presente estudio pretende determinar la vulnerabilidad de las áreas de anidación de tortugas marinas del occidente del archipiélago cubano ante el cambio climático y otras amenazas. Los objetivos del presente trabajo fueron estimar la proporción sexual por temporada a partir de la temperatura y el período de incubación para las playas analizadas, evaluar la influencia de la presencia de la vegetación en la distribución de los nidos y el desarrollo embrionario, relacionar los cambios geomorfológicos ocurridos por el paso de tormentas tropicales en la Península de Guanahacabibes con el éxito reproductivo de las tortugas marinas y documentar los impactos que generan las acumulaciones masivas de sargazo sobre la conducta y el éxito reproductivo de tortugas marinas.
Métodos:
Para ello se analizaron 21 temporadas de anidación de tortugas marinas en la Península de Guanahacabibes.
Resultados:
Se observó una variación anual en el número de emergencias y nidos por hembra con un ciclo bienal bien definido. Se registró una reducción en el tamaño de la nidada, el período de incubación y la talla de las crías. Asimismo, se estimó una mayor producción de hembras, como consecuencia de las elevadas temperaturas de incubación. Además, se realizó un seguimiento de la dinámica de las playas en las que se encontraron cambios importantes en la distribución y características de la vegetación costera a partir del paso de eventos meteorológicos. Se determinaron las áreas vulnerables a inundaciones costeras y al impacto de las arribazones masivas de sargazo. Como conclusiones, las evidencias recopiladas constituyen una alerta para que los administradores de áreas protegidas tomen medidas de manejo dirigidas a mitigar los efectos de las elevadas temperaturas, de los impactos de eventos meteorológicos y de otros fenómenos naturales, como las arribazones de sargazo, en el éxito reproductivo de tortugas marinas en el archipiélago cubano. Asimismo, constituyen experiencias para otras áreas de anidación en la región del Gran Caribe donde se encuentran expuestas a similares amenazas.
... A marked reduction in the abundance of nesting green turtles in the Dominican Republic has also been reported, declining from 260 individuals nesting per year in the 1980s to near extirpation (Car-reras et al. 2013). Nesting activity has been reported in Cuba (Azanza- Ricardo et al. 2013) and Mexico (Shaver et al. 2020), but insufficient data has been published to assess nesting trends over time. ...
Trends in abundance of different life stages present important opportunities to manage the conservation of threatened species. For marine turtles, most trend assessments are based on long-term monitoring of nesting aggregations, which provides critical information on rookery dynamics across years. Tortuguero, Costa Rica, is the largest nesting colony of the green turtle Chelonia mydas in the Atlantic. Here we present an updated trend in annual clutch abundance spanning over 50 yr of monitoring at Tortuguero. We conducted weekly censuses recording clutch
counts and used a generalized additive model (GAM) fitted for each monitored nesting season separately to predict daily tallies. We estimated annual clutch count as the sum of these. We modelled the long-term trend in annual clutch numbers with a Bayesian GAM with a cubic regression spline basis, fit to estimated annual clutch counts for 1971−2021. Finally, we examined spatiotemporal patterns in clutch counts along the beach by fitting a GAM with a 2-dimensional spline. Clutch estimates varied across years (78 695 ± 6727 [mean ± SE], range: 7004−186 640 clutches per year), but increased steadily over the first 37 yr. However, growth slowed gradually from 2000 to 2008, when the curve began to trend downwards. Tortuguero remains the largest aggregation of nesting green turtles within the Caribbean. Phenomena occurring across the population’s range and at several life history stages influence Tortuguero’s nesting trend. Thus, a decreasing trend at Tortuguero may be a warning sign for the Greater Caribbean green turtle metapopulation.
... Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) are a circumglobal species with complex life histories. They nest approximately every 2-5 years (Azanza Ricardo et al., 2013;Broderick et al. 2003, van Buskirk and Crowder, 1994) and typically migrate from foraging grounds to their natal beach (Limpus et al., 1992), where they nest several times over 3-5 months and then migrate back to their foraging grounds, which can be several hundred to thousands of kilometres away. The physical mechanisms of navigation are thought to be based on a crud internal geomagnetic map and possibly olfactory (e.g. ...
... Verticalmente, el 89% de la anidación se concentró en la zona C (dunas y postdunas) seguido de la zona B (bermas) (10%) y zona A (inundación) (1%) cuya distribución ha sido similar en poblaciones de Veracruz (Zavaleta Lizárraga, 2013;Morales-Mávil et al., 2016;Rojas-Baños et al., 2022), Yucatán (Cuevas et al., 2021); Cuba (Ferrer Sánchez et al., 2007;Azanza, 2009;Azanza et al., 2013), Panamá (Garcés et al., 2020) y África Occidental (Cunha, 2022). La mayor concentración de nidos en zona C se registró en cada uno de los tramos (uno a seis) variando de 56 a 99% de anidación, teniendo el mayor porcentaje el tramo cuatro (99%) seguido del tramo seis (94%). ...
... Los altos porcentajes de anidación reportados en zonas de dunas y postdunas la cual se caracteriza por la presencia de vegetación son el resultado de una conducta específica en selección del sitio de anidación (Ferrer Sánchez et al., 2007) la cual suele tener un efecto significativo en el éxito de eclosión (Ficetola, 2007); sin embargo, Karavas y colaboradores (2005) mostraron que no existe una diferencia significativa en el éxito de eclosión de nidos colocados en zona C en comparación con los nidos colocados fuera de ella. Existen registros que sugieren que en la zona C, se reduce la erosión (Mortimer, 1995;Azanza et al., 2013), se produce una proporción de sexos equilibrada (Horrocks y Scott, 1991;Kamel y Mrosovsky, 2005;Ficetola, 2007) y se protege la nidada ante inundaciones prolongadas como sucede en otros sitios (Ferrer Sánchez et al., 2007). Si bien, los sistemas de raíces existentes en esta zona permiten la ventilación del nido (Mortimer, 1995;Azanza et al., 2013), el exceso de vegetación y/o crecimiento de raíces, ocasiona daño a los huevos dentro de la cámara de incubación (Rojas-Baños et al., 2022), cuya construcción además se dificulta por la cantidad de raíces (Maldonado, 2015). ...
... Existen registros que sugieren que en la zona C, se reduce la erosión (Mortimer, 1995;Azanza et al., 2013), se produce una proporción de sexos equilibrada (Horrocks y Scott, 1991;Kamel y Mrosovsky, 2005;Ficetola, 2007) y se protege la nidada ante inundaciones prolongadas como sucede en otros sitios (Ferrer Sánchez et al., 2007). Si bien, los sistemas de raíces existentes en esta zona permiten la ventilación del nido (Mortimer, 1995;Azanza et al., 2013), el exceso de vegetación y/o crecimiento de raíces, ocasiona daño a los huevos dentro de la cámara de incubación (Rojas-Baños et al., 2022), cuya construcción además se dificulta por la cantidad de raíces (Maldonado, 2015). Al ser la zona más lejana a la pleamar, el recorrido de los neonatos hacia el mar es más largo lo que aumenta el peligro de depredación, además de que la vegetación puede dificultar la orientación de los neonatos hacia el mar que está dado por la mayor cantidad de luz (Maldonado, 2015). ...
El presente trabajo analizó la distribución espacial y temporal de la actividad de anidación de la tortuga verde (Chelonia mydas) en 15.5 km de playa asignados al Centro Veracruzano de Investigación y Conservación de la Tortuga Marina, de la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente del estado de Veracruz. Durante la temporada 2021, en los meses de mayo a noviembre se realizaron recorridos nocturnos diarios para el registro sistemático de la actividad de anidación, la cual, de acuerdo con los distintos tipos de rastros, se clasificó en: nidos, arqueos, camas de anidación y cámaras de incubación. Un total de 5,825 nidos fueron registrados, así como 8,417 arqueos, 1,922 camas de anidación y 761 cámaras de incubación. La mayor actividad de anidación se presentó en la zona centro y sur del área de estudio, destacando el centro como el sitio de mayor número de arqueos y nidos. Por otra parte, la playa fue dividida de manera vertical en tres zonas, donde el 89% de los nidos fueron ovipositados en el área de dunas y postdunas seguida de la zona de bermas con el 10% y la zona de inundación con 1% del total. Dentro del análisis temporal, los meses de mayor actividad fueron julio y agosto acumulando el 64.57% de la anidación. Por último, se concluye que en el Centro Veracruzano de Investigación y Conservación de la Tortuga Marina el área centro y sur representan los sitios más importantes al igual que la zona de dunas y postdunas y que para esta zona, los meses de julio y agosto concentran la mayor cantidad de arqueos, camas de anidación, cámaras de incubación y nidos.
... Moncada-Gavilán (2014) reported nesting of leatherback turtle in JR at Cayo Caguama, and sightings around Caguama and Cachiboca cays and the western Golfo de Ana María. The importance of JR for green turtle nesting is also stressed by Azanza-Ricardo et al. (2013) and Moncada-Gavilán et al. (2006). ...
It is widely recognized the importance of scientific information to advance social and economic development. Although Jardines de la Reina (JR) archipelago and its surroundings are among the most critical regions for Cuba's fisheries and marine biodiversity, comprehensive information has been collected almost only within the last 20 years. This paper summarizes the main findings from the scientific literature published about JR archipelago and its surroundings. We review the scientific contributions to conservation and management and identify research gaps. Overall, we found a steep increase in scientific publications in the last ten years due to fruitful partnerships across diverse stakeholders. Public-private partnerships in responsible ecotourism and the support of Cuban and foreign environmental institutions and conservation organizations have been instrumental in advancing research and conservation in JR. A myriad of research, mainly focused on species/groups and the effects of marine protection, has safeguard and promote sustainable use of JR biodiversity. The high abundance and biomass of large and commercially important fish such as sharks, groupers, and snappers and other conservation outcomes, result from effective enforcement and positive incentives favouring conservation, while supporting local livelihoods. Finally, we provide recommendations to guide future research and advance conservation in JR archipelago. Resumen Actualmente se reconoce la importancia de la información científica para el desarrollo económico y social. Jardines de la Reina y sus alrededores, una de las regiones más im-portantes desde el punto de vista pesquero y de conservación de Cuba, permaneció muy poco conocido hasta hace alrededor de 20 años. Este trabajo pretende resumir los princi-pales resultados publicados en la literatura científica acerca de Jardines de la Reina y sus alrededores, o relacionada con ellos, su contribución a la gestión de los recursos naturales, los vacíos que existen y recomendar investigaciones científicas y medidas de gestión para avanzar aún más su conservación. Se observa un incremento de investigaciones científicas
... Reconsidering the integration of these species as one fishing resource, there weighs an additional factor in their harvest; that the nesting peak of the three species does not match in Cuba. In C. mydas and C. caretta, nesting peaks can be considered within the nesting season lasting from May to July (Lee-Gonzá lez, 2009;Azanza et al., 2013). Nevertheless, just under 80% of the reproductive effort of E. imbricata occurs in October and December 2010b). ...
Monthly harvests of sea turtles fishing resource were characterized in the Cuban fishery zone D (Jardines del Rey), during fishing periods from 2004 to 2006. We recorded the variables: straight carapace length (SCL) divided into five classes, movement direction, tag presence, sex class, maturation status, and breeding condition in females. All of the meshed sea turtles moved in a northwest to southeast direction. Overall, few tagged individuals were captured. Of those tagged individuals captured, none had been tagged in Cuban waters. Captured Caretta caretta were frequent throughout all fishing periods with typical macrobenthos species in the stomach content, while Chelonia mydas and Eretmochelys imbricata were concentrated during August-October which implies a
seasonal capture for both species. Females and immature individuals prevailed in every month for all three species. However, breeding females were primiparous and most frequently in E. imbricata during August and September. Captures of E. imbricata
breeding females were coincident with the nesting peaks of some Caribbean source populations, but not with the main Cuban nesting population. Thus, Jardines del Rey is a migratory corridor for this species while for the other species it also constitutes a foraging ground. In E. imbricata the SCL class composition in the 2000s varied significantly in comparison with that of the 1990s, with a temporal decrease of the longest sizes. Consequently, it is probable that this species has been overfished. The use of the E. imbricata sexual maturity criteria assessed by the Cuban legal fishery to manage other sea turtle species was a mistake according to the literature data.
... Information about conservation effort in nesting areas was extracted from all available reports from the last 6 yrs ( Azanza-Ricardo et al. 2013, 2017, Forneiro Martín-Viaña et al. 2013, Moncada-Gavilán et al. 2014). Black market sales were investigated through field visits from October 2014 to January 2015, searching for the availability of sea turtle products (meat and hawksbill shell craft) in handicraft markets, and in stores and restaurants in five cities across Cuba (Havana, Trinidad, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, and Baracoa; Fig. 1). ...
Marine turtle populations have become
seriously depleted throughout the world as a result of
factors such as overharvesting and habitat degradation.
Conservation efforts in Cuba have led to important
achievements, with several species increasing in population.
However, illegal capture continues, the black-market trade
in marine turtle products is increasing, and new threats are
being identified. Here, we: identify and assess threats and
challenges to sea turtle conservation in Cuba; evaluate the
management, monitoring, and protection capacity to address
specific threats; and summarize achievements, drawbacks,
and challenges over the last 6 yrs. Fourteen threats to nesting
populations of marine turtles in Cuba were identified, with
illegal fishing and poaching in nesting areas being the most
critical. Management and enforcement in protected areas are
uneven, and as a result, some nesting areas have benefited
from marine turtle conservation, but others remain seriously
threatened.
... ). However, scarce information is available for the Cuban archipelago as a whole (Nodarse et al. 2010;Azanza et al. 2013), and nothing has been published about the species ecology in Guanahacabibes, the westernmost population and the only one with nocturnal monitoring (Azanza-Ricardo et al. 2015). To date research has focused on green turtles because they are the most abundant nesting species in Cuba , and hawksbills because they are the most endangered of the 3 species that nest in Cuba (Moncada-Gavilán et al. 2014). ...
... -The study was carried out at 10 beaches located on the southern coast of the Guanahacabibes Peninsula (from 22800 0 N, 84850 0 W to 21859 0 N, 84844 0 W). The selection of beaches followed the same criteria detailed in Azanza-Ricardo et al. (2013) regarding the relative abundance of marine turtles at each location: 5 beaches with more than 50 nests per season were patrolled every day during the night while another 5 beaches with lesser nesting activity (number of nests between 10 and 25) were patrolled during the day every 2 or 3 d). ...
Changing climate is affecting life all over the world. The loggerhead turtle (Caretta
caretta) is one of the most vulnerable turtle species to climate change, particularly with regard to
sex determination being affected by high temperatures in most nesting areas, such as the Cuban
archipelago. As yet, species information is scarce for the Cuban archipelago as a whole. This study
provides information about loggerheads in order to determine the possible effects of climate
change on this species, especially in Guanahacabibes. We monitored 10 beaches along the
southernmost coast of the Guanahacabibes Peninsula for 18 yrs (1998–2015), from May to
September of each year, to determine nesting activity and density. Females were measured and
tagged and the remigration interval was determined. Temporal variation was reflected in
apparent peaks in reproductive activity on a biennial cycle. We found intraseasonal variation with
the highest nesting activity in June, with a 15% increase in nesting activity in the second half of
that month. Reduction in clutch size, incubation period, and hatchling size, as well as a potential
feminization of hatchling production, indicates a possible effect of climate change in reproductive
success. Our results are a first attempt at characterizing Guanahacabibes populations and have
great value for establishing conservation priorities such as the protection of the nesting females
and control of incubation environment in the face of global climate change within the context of
national management plans.
