Shelby - Cayman Islands 2003: Loggerhead & Green Turtles

A project of Marine Turtle Research Group.

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Did you know that SEATURTLE.ORG has a Satellite Tracking Forum? Let us know if you have a question! Now that Shelby has finished her open-ocean migration & settled down in a shallow bay, her diving patterns have changed and she is spending very little time at the surface. We haven't received many signals from Shelby's transmitter recently (and many of the signals that we do receive are inaccurate). However, by spending their time on the bottom grazing on seagrass beds, green turtles like Shelby play a vital ecological role! See Q:Why are Sea Turtles So Important? for more information on the role of all sea turtle species. Also check out Shelby, the Latest Online Super-Star and a recent feature from the Netherlands. Photos of Shelby were taken by Courtney Platt, a photographer for National Geographic and numerous other publications, businesses, and organisations.

Background

"Shelby," sponsored and named by the students at St. Ignatius High School, is the first adult female green turtle to have a satellite transmitter attached in the Cayman Islands. To purchase the transmitter and associated satellite time, St. Ignatius students organised a beach clean-up at Barkers National Park and held a successful bake sale, in addition to seeking and receiving generous sponsorship from Tortuga Rum Company, Rotary, Bank of Butterfield, and the Final Touch. As a result of the students' efforts, Shelby was tagged with a KiwiSat 101 satellite transmitter when she was encountered on Seven Mile Beach on the night of July 27 2003. Proud students watched as their adopted turtle was released early on the morning of July 28th 2003.
Shelby remained in the vicinity of Seven Mile Beach to lay a total of six clutches. Just before beginning her migration, She was sighted in the water near George Town Harbour, Grand Cayman. The Department of Environment was able to confirm that her transmitter was in perfect condition before she outdistanced snorkelers, swimming effortlessly with her streamlined PTT.
Shelby has traveled over 850 kilometers from Seven Mile Beach since she began her migration on August 29th. She has now entered Bahia de Amatique (Amatique Bay), Guatemala, where she may be feeding on the extensive seagrass beds in the estuary near Puerto Barrios.

• The presentation of data here does not constitute publication. All data remain copyright of the project partners. Maps or data on this website may not be used or referenced without the explicit written consent of the data owners.
• For more information please visit the project website.
• This map connects positions generated by the ARGOS system designated as location codes (lc) '3', '2', '1', '0', 'A'.
• The static maps also shows locations of class 'A' as small black circles which are not connected by a route line.
• Bathymetry layers are derived from the GEBCO Digital Atlas published by the British Oceanographic Data Centre on behalf of the IOC and IHO, 2003, and the ETOPO2 Global 2' Elevations published by NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center.
• Sea surface temperature is derived from NOAA's GOES Daily Sea Surface Temperature data.

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