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Marine Turtle Newsletter 47:15, © 1989
C. Robert Shoop1 and Carol A. Ruckdeschel2
1Department of Zoology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island 02881 USA
2Cumberland Island Museum, P.O. Box 796, St. Marys, Georgia 31558 USA
Long-distance movements of juvenile sea turtles are rarely recorded and movements of sea turtles in New England waters are essentially unknown, although sea turtles are frequently observed north of Chesapeake Bay (Shoop, 1987). For several years researchers at the University of Rhode Island have tagged sea turtles caught in local fish traps. This note records the movement of one of these turtles from Rhode Island to Georgia waters.
On 11 August 1981, John Keinath measured and tagged a juvenile loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) captured in a fish trap off Newport, Rhode Island, and released the animal in Newport harbor. On 8 July 1984 the animal was found dead on the beach of Cumberland Island, Georgia, by a visitor who removed the tag. The tag was sent to the University of Florida in February 1985. Coincidentally, we had surveyed the Cumberland Island beach on the same date in 1984, and had examined four stranded loggerheads. We were unaware of the tag removal. Upon notification of the tag return, we interviewed the finder and from the description of the condition of the carcass and its location, determined that only one carcass matched.
The animal stranded approximately 1571 km from the point of release. The carcass was dried with all carapace bones intact and measured 51 cm curved carapace length, 5 cm less than the length recorded at capture in Rhode Island. The discrepancy in size from the time of tagging may be due to shrinkage of the dried carcass or different measurement techniques. This record is the first for a loggerhead from New England waters and shows that movements from the more northern areas of the range to southern waters are likely, as suggested by Lazell (1976).
The late Archie Carr, his associates, and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation provided tags, maintained the database, and notified us of the tag return. The Tallman and Mack Fish and Trap Company cooperated in many ways to aid in the tagging of this and numerous other turtles.
LAZELL, J. D., JR. 1976. This Broken Archipelago: Cape Cod and the Islands, Amphibians and Reptiles. Demeter Press, Quadrangle/N. Y. Times Book Company. 260p.
SHOOP, C. R. 1987. Sea Turtles, p.357-358. In: R. H. Bachus and H. H. Bourne (eds), Georges Bank. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.