NOTE Renaud et al.: Activities of juvenile Chelonia mydas 



587 



three algal species (Ulva fasciata, Podina 

 vickersiae, and Bryocladia thysigera), were the 

 most abundant organisms associated with jetty 

 structure. 1 The near-jetty habitat encompassed 

 areas of barren bottom and scattered boulders 

 on both the Gulf and pass side of the jetty. Chan- 

 nel habitat, the dredged portion of the 

 Brownsville Ship Channel between the jetties, 

 extended seaward from Barracuda and Dolphin 

 Coves to the tip of the jetties. It was character- 

 ized by a scoured bottom, nearly void of vegeta- 

 tion. Water depths ranged from 10 to 15.2 m 

 and averaged 12.5 m. Channel width was about 

 90 m for most of its length. East of the coves, 

 the distance from the jetty to the channel edge 

 ranged from 115 to 152 m. Barren rippled sand, 

 water depths up to 7.5 m, and few organisms 

 were noted within the cove habitat. 



Capture of sea turtles 



Turtles were obtained from Texas A&M Univer- 

 sity (TAMU) Institute of Marine Life Science 

 personnel, who were conducting a netting and 

 habitat characterization study at Brazos- 

 Santiago Pass. 3 Turtles were captured either 

 through use of entanglement nets (45.7-91.5 m 

 long, 3.7—7.3 m deep, 12.7 cm bar mesh) set at 

 the Gulf side of the South Jetty, or by encir- 

 cling a targeted turtle in the shallow coves with 

 the entanglement net. For turtles exhibiting 

 strong site fidelity, 1-m diameter cast nets were 

 used for some captures along the jetties. 



Tagging activities 



Following capture, turtles were transported 1- 

 2 km to a holding facility where they were kept 

 for 24-48 hours. We recorded turtle weights, 

 straight. and curved carapace lengths and 

 widths, and applied radio and sonic transmit- 

 ters. Telonics radio transmitters ( 180 g) with 40- 

 cm antennas were fitted with fiberglass to the 

 second neural scute of nine turtles, and 

 Sonotronics sonic transmitters (36 g) were 

 bolted to the posterior marginal scutes. Turtles 

 were designated Tl through T9. The weight of 

 the backpack-type transmitters never exceeded 



3 Landry, A., Jr., D. Costa, M. Coyne, K. St. John, and B. 

 Williams. 1993. Sea turtle capture and habitat charac- 

 terization: South Padre Island and Sabine Pass, TX en- 

 virons. Final Rep. submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of 

 Engineers, Galveston District, 2000 Fort Point Blvd., 

 Galveston, TX 77553, 109 p. 



3I3SCZE3: l< : ' : l '•'' 



T9 



1 ''' I^^T-^ 



Range Core Hours 



T7 2274 198 134 



T4 6926 130 718 



T9 6578 1748 10 8 



South Padre Island 



Gull 



ol 



Mexico 



Dolphin 

 Point 



.L,„ ... ...w ^ crrf g-t.ii- J-x^ 



T6 NSMJ 3752 195 



NSSJ 3303 46 



SSSJ 195 



T5 2323 1748 



17.6 

 108 

 2.7 

 570 



Figure 1 



Range (m 2 ), core area (m 2 ), and total hours tracked for individual 

 green turtles, Chelonia mydas, T1-T9, duringAugust-September 1992. 

 Core area is displayed in solid black and range is enclosed by a solid 

 line for all turtles except T2. T2 has a shaded area representing its core 

 area and a dashed line surrounding its range. For T6, NSNJ = north 

 side of north jetty, NSSJ = north side of south jetty, and SSSJ = south 

 side of south jetty. An inset of the state of Texas with an arrow 

 showing our area of study is located in the upper third of the figure. 



