Eckert, Scott A., Karen L. Eckert and James I. Richardson 



Tagginq Sea Turtles 



Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative Program, Research and Education 

 Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia 

 Athens, Georgia 3 0602 USA 



Most tags currently being used for sea turtles were designed 

 for livestock. Consequently problems with corrosion, retention, 

 and quality control are inherent. Limiting the effect of these 

 problems has long been the focus of sea turtle biologists. Three 

 important lessons have been learned over the last 2 0+ years of 

 tagging experience: 1) one tag style does not work for all 

 species in all areas; consequently, you should experiment until 

 you find a satisfactory combination; 2) quality control is not 

 always consistent in all batches of tags, particularly 

 considering the extraordinary stress placed on these tags when 

 used on sea turtles; consequently, you should monitor tag 

 retention closely and take remedial action, if needed; 3) always 

 double tag your turtles with a tag of known retention qualities; 

 not only does this increase the chance of the turtle remaining 

 marked, it gives the means to monitor (or calculate) tag 

 retention. 



Tagging is not a magical solution to all management/research 

 goals and should never be carried out without clear purpose. It 

 is only useful for population analysis when combined with 

 rigorous beach patrols to mark all the turtles in a nesting 

 population. Otherwise its prime function is to elucidate 

 portions of the migratory pathways and geographical range of the 

 turtles. Without the monetary and personnel commitment to 

 rigorous beach patrols, more efficient methods are available for 

 monitoring population status such as daily crawl counts. 



Finally, sea turtle biologists and managers need to keep 

 each other informed of advances in marking technology. Places 

 where such information is available are publications such as the 

 Marine Turtle Newsletter and Nicholas Mrosovsky's book Conserving 

 Sea Turtles. 



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