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Connie Kot (Duke University) began with a presentation on the “Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean” initiative, highlighting work with Sarah Poulin, Sarah DeLand, Daniel Dunn, Corrie Curtice, Eleanor Heywood, Autumn-Lynn Harrison, Guillermo Ortuño Crespo, Ei Fujioka, Benjamin Donnelly, Jesse Cleary, and Patrick Halpin. The concept and importance of migratory connectivity in the ocean and the need to effectively incorporate information into management and policy frameworks, especially for currently declining populations of highly migratory marine species, was introduced. Knowledge on global sea turtle migratory routes and connected areas is critical for informing conservation efforts, particularly in areas beyond national jurisdiction where the amount of data is relatively low and the need for marine spatial planning and policy is high. Many individual efforts could contribute data to fill major knowledge gaps on connectivity among “nodes” (aggregations of areas used for a particular activity such as feeding or nesting) and “corridors” (aggregations of routes animals use between nodes). Results of various research methods (e.g., telemetry, mark-recapture, genetic analyses, stable isotope analysis) can be collated to generate actionable knowledge that would facilitate ongoing planning efforts at various geographic scales. Further details were presented on the approaches that the MiCO initiative have been taking to bring together information on migratory connectivity, such as a formal literature review, collating data provided by researchers, and exploring different methods for standardizing and summarizing the various types of data to be delivered within a publicly accessible online tool. The MiCO initiative involves many collaborators and stakeholders and focuses on all sea turtle species as well as marine mammals, seabirds, and fish.

Following this introduction, George Shillinger (Upwell and MigraMar) discussed his involvement in a variety of related initiatives within the Eastern Pacific to gather animal movement and observation data to inform policy (Shillinger et al. 2010). Ongoing efforts by Upwell (entitled “Eastern Pacific Leatherback Case Study: Using Satellite Tracking Data to Inform Transboundary Management and Conservation”) and MigraMar (entitled “Science for the Conservation of Migratory Marine Species in the Eastern Pacific”) support gathering different types of data on migratory marine sharks, sea turtles, marine mammals, and other pelagic animals to reduce sampling bias, update habitat models, and improve dynamic ocean management. Upwell’s research to address declining Pacific leatherback Dermochelys coriacea populations has involved the use of data from fisheries independent surveys, sea turtle movements (satellite telemetry tags), habitat and oceanographic characteristics, and trends (Shillinger et al. 2008, 2011). One outcome of MigraMar has included the development of transboundary “MigraVias,” migratory corridors or “swimways” that exist among separate marine protected areas and habitat. MigraVias are based mainly on the telemetry tracking data compiled within the MigraBase database through a collaborative research community to help facilitate conservation management policies within the region. Upwell and MigraMar projects are highly dependent on regional and international collaboration, transparency, outreach, and early stakeholder engagement.

Armando Santos and Bruno Giffoni (Fundação Pró-Tamar) gave a presentation on “Sharing Information to Understand the Migratory Connectivity Among Sea Turtles” and their current research efforts in Brazil. Numerous studies on five sea turtle species (green Chelonia mydas, leatherback, loggerhead Caretta caretta, olive ridley Lepidochelys olivacea, and hawksbill Eretmochelys imbricata) have been published using mark-recapture, satellite telemetry tracking, and genetic data to analyze connections among Brazil and habitats outside of Brazilian waters. Brazil hosts foraging grounds for greens, nesting beaches for leatherbacks, and nesting and foraging habitats for hawksbills and loggerheads. Individual sea turtles found in Brazil have been linked to distant sites, such as the Ascension Islands, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana, Gabon, Namibia, and Equatorial Guinea. These and ongoing Projeto Tamar studies showed that effective conservation actions for these species need to include multiple countries.

Natalie Wildermann (Florida State University) discussed her work with Mariana Fuentes on “Building Connections Between Sea Turtles and Humans: A Short Tale of Three Case Studies.” Green, Kemp’s ridley Lepidochelys kempii, and loggerhead sea turtle distribution and movement patterns from survey and satellite telemetry tag data collected within the Gulf of Mexico, USA were useful for informing state officials on how the overlapping recreational fishing occurring in the area may affect these protected species (Wildermann et al. In press). Expert opinion, green sea turtle captures, and acoustic telemetry data collected around the Bahamas were useful in characterizing sea turtle habitat for future marine protected area planning (Fuentes et al. 2018). Finally, mark-recapture flipper tag and photo-ID data on five sea turtle species within the Gulf of Venezuela showed many connections with neighboring (and not so neighboring) countries and will help inform the policies of the Venezuelan Ministry of the Environment (Barrios-Garrido 2018). The variety of data types used within the three case studies emphasized strong partnerships for greater outcomes.

Finally, Félix Moncada (Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras) presented his work with Jorge Brenner, Cynthia Lagueux, Julia Azanza, Yanet Forneiro, and Anyell Caderno on the “Update on the Connectivity Studies of Sea Turtles Between the Cuban Shelf and Other Areas of the Central-Western Region,” with translation assistance from Natalie Wildermann. The distribution and habitat of green, loggerhead, and hawksbill sea turtles transiting, foraging, and nesting around the Cuban shelf have been studied with the use of satellite telemetry tracking, in-water studies, and mark-recapture methods (Moncada et al. 2006, 2010, 2012; Brenner et al. 2016). Individual sea turtles found in Cuba connected to at least 18 different countries, confirming that Cuban waters contain several important high use areas with a migratory corridor utilized by multiple species within the north coast of Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico.

The second half of the workshop started with a live demonstration of the online MiCO system (<http://www.mico.eco/system>), by Sarah DeLand (Duke University). At the time of the workshop, the online MiCO system was still under development, with a planned public release at the end of March 2019. The preview of initial tools and data products during the workshop was for three species: loggerhead and green sea turtles, and Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris borealis). A quick tour of the overview webpage showed general progress of the MiCO initiative in terms of papers reviewed, animal tracks analyzed/synthesized, and data contributors. Options for exploring connectivity in the ocean by species or countries/maritime boundaries were shown, along with the geographic and temporal details of the data available in the system by animal usage. This overview page served as a jumping off point for users to delve more deeply into the data, linking to tools within a separate mapping interface for the selected data of interest. Users that want to look at the individual high use areas can toggle layers on/off by specific attributes, such as species, population, sex, age class, area use, etc. A sample report and other spatial data products were mentioned as planned files available for download when the system was made public.

Sarah Poulin (Duke University) followed with a brief discussion on the methods that were currently being used to develop the MiCO initiative data products, synthesized from original sea turtle satellite telemetry data and displayed within the online MiCO tool. Satellite tracking data and associated metadata contributed with permission to the MiCO initiative, either directly or through downloads from major database archives, were all standardized using a speed, distance, angle (SDA) filter (R package argosfilter; Freitas et al. 2008; Freitas et al. 2012) and interpolated with state-space modelling (SSM; R package ssmTMB; Jonsen & Wotherspoon 2018). The tracking data were also segmented by the behavior of the animal, determined by using supporting literature and visual examination. Finally, kernel density estimates (KDE; R package ks; Duong 2018) were used to delineate high use areas (e.g., ranging or migrating areas), with the 90th and 25th contour levels for each area viewable and downloadable within the MiCO system as the “distribution” and “core area,” respectively.

A brief discussion initiated to allow for feedback from the attendees specifically on the MiCO system and the current methods used to develop the MiCO data products. Many helpful suggestions for the online interface were mentioned, such as different options to display selected data, including other types of information to overlay, future plans for a smoother data contribution process, and improvements to communicating caveats and data limitations to users. There was much interest in contributing data and analyses methods to develop MiCO data products to inform marine policy makers, exploring the tool, and using the publicly available MiCO data products for other applications.

The discussion segued into general questions on migratory connectivity in the ocean and how the workshop was intended to foster communication among various MiCO initiative partners and stakeholders, expand interest and involvement to others, and allow everyone to learn more about similar approaches and initiatives. Throughout the presentations, multiple data types and collaboration among many stakeholders were needed for compiling information for more effective policies. One of the key questions for workshop participants to address was how the MiCO initiative can best provide information to contributors on the impact of their data on policy and management decisions. Feedback and discussions of the ongoing work being done in the current MiCO pilot projects allowed workshop participants to engage in the process of determining best methods for identifying and visualizing global sea turtle nodes and corridors. Because the MiCO initiative also involves gathering information for other marine taxa (e.g., seabirds, marine mammals, and fish), any lessons learned from research outside of sea turtles and area-based management were welcomed. In closing, participants were encouraged to stay engaged after the workshop, with (at a minimum) updates available on the MiCO initiative website.

Figure 1. Migratory connections (orange dotted line) among a subset of registered participant locations before the workshop (blue dots) and the workshop location in Charleston, SC (yellow star). Base layer: US National Park Service; country borders: Global Administrative Areas 3.6.

Acknowledgements. Thank you to the International Sea Turtle Symposium committee members for helping to organize and fund the symposium, workshop, and travel. Much appreciation goes to all of the presenters and participants for their interest, insights, and support during the workshop. Finally, we want to recognize the Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab at Duke University, many steering committee members, partners, and data contributors that are involved in the MiCO initiative. Funding for the MiCO initiative has been provided by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) International Climate Initiative (IKI), Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI).

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DUONG, T. 2018. ks: kernel smoothing. R package version 1.11.3. <http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ks>

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