Schmid: Marine turtle populations of the east-central coast of Florida 



145 





A TLANTIC 

 OCEAN 



Figure 4 



Long-distance recaptures and recoveries of tagged 

 loggerhead turtles. Note: Arrows are not intended 

 to indicate routes traveled by tagged turtles; they 

 are a visual aid to differentiate tagging and recap- 

 ture sites. 0=tagging location; X=recapture location. 



of initial tagging after 615 days at large, all Kemp's 

 ridley turtles were recaptured within a year. 



Twelve (63%) Kemp's ridley turtles were initially 

 captured in the Cape Canaveral area and subsequently 

 recaptured within this area. Of this total, four turtles 

 were captured and recaptured in the Port Canaveral 

 ship channel. Two Kemp's ridley turtles had multiple 

 recaptures within the Cape Canaveral area, one tagged 

 in November 1986 was caught once in December 1986 

 and again in May 1987. Another turtle tagged in May 

 1990 was recaptured twice that September. 



Six Kemp's ridley turtles exhibited long-distance 

 movements to and from the Cape Canaveral area 

 (Fig. 6). Two of the recaptures were NMFS Galveston 

 Laboratory headstart turtles released offshore of 

 Padre Island, Texas, in May and captured on the 

 Atlantic coast of Florida in February and March, 0.73 

 and 1.88 years after release. 8 Two Kemp's ridley 



8 Caillouet, C, Jr. National Marine Fisheries Service, Galveston 

 Laboratory, 4700 Avenue U, Galveston, TX, 77551. Personal 

 commun., 1991. 



turtles displayed seasonal movements northward. 

 The turtles were originally tagged in the Cape 

 Canaveral area in December and February and sub- 

 sequently recovered in Georgia and South Carolina 

 in July. Another Kemp's ridley turtle exhibited a 

 southerly migration along the Atlantic coast, from 

 Virginia Beach to Port Canaveral. 9 



There was a strong correlation between carapace 

 width and carapace length (r=0.9953; n = 105) for 

 Kemp's ridley turtles. Regression of carapace width 

 on length resulted in the equation 



CW = -2.7157 + 1.0288 (SSCL). 



A straight-line equation was applied to the length- 

 weight data; however, graphical analysis of the re- 

 siduals indicated a curvilinear relationship between 

 the two variables. Power regression was performed 

 through the log-log transformation of weight and 

 length measurements. A strong correlation (r=0.9756; 

 n=88) was calculated for the transformed weight 

 ( WT) to length relationship, regression of these vari- 

 ables resulted in the equation 



log WT = -8.2837 + 2.8444 (log SSCL). 



Twelve yearly growth rates were computed for ten 

 Kemp's ridley turtles. A mean growth rate of 8.28 ± 

 9.81 cm/yr (range: 0.00 to 29.16 cm/yr) was calcu- 

 lated for all Kemp's ridley turtle recaptures. Analy- 

 sis of the Kemp's ridley turtles tagged and recap- 

 tured by the contract personnel indicated a mean 

 growth rate of 6.92 ± 9.36 cm/yr (range: 0.00 to 29.16 

 cm/yr). A mean growth rate of 8.79 ± 10.32 cm/yr 

 (range: 0.00 to 29.16 cm/yr) was calculated for re- 

 captures greater than 90 days at large and 5.94 ± 

 1.80 cm/yr (range: 4.26 to 7.84 cm/yr) for recaptures 

 greater than 180 days at large. 



The von Bertalanffy growth interval equation was 

 fitted to each of these data treatments. Estimates of 

 asymptotic length ranged from 60.66 cm to 77.85 cm 

 and estimates of intrinsic growth rate ranged from 

 0.0577 to 0.6037 (Table 5). Asymptotic lengths were 

 probably underestimated because of the lack of adult- 

 sized Kemp's ridley turtles in the database. 



Green turtle, Chelonia mydas — Forty-one green 

 turtles, ranging in size from 24.0 to 55.4 cm SSCL (Fig. 

 7), were taken from Florida waters. Eighty-one per- 

 cent (n=33) of the green turtles captured off the east 

 coast of Florida were early subadults less than 40 

 cm SSCL. No adult green turtles were encountered. 



9 Keinath, J. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of Wil- 

 liam and Mary, Gloucester Point, VA, 23062. Personal commun., 

 1993. 



