Samia - Cayman Islands 2003: Loggerhead & Green Turtles

A project of Marine Turtle Research Group.

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This loggerhead turtle nested in the Cayman Islands in 2003 and has remained on a feeding ground in Southern Nicaragua since then. Most turtles stay on their feeding grounds for 2-3 years to build up energy for long migrations to nesting beaches. Samia may now be beginning her migration back to the Cayman Islands to nest (this long journey would take her over a month). Her movement is probably causing us to receive better locations from her transmitter. Check back to see if Samia returns to nest in Grand Cayman this summer.

Background

"Samia," named by sponsors Erika and Jacob Olde, is the first adult loggerhead turtle to have a satellite transmitter attached in the Cayman Islands. Samia was encountered on a nesting beach in North Side, Grand Cayman, and tagged with a KiwiSat 101 satellite transmitter on the night of July 27 2003. Erika and Jacob's adopted turtle was released early on the morning of July 28 2003.
Samia returned many times and "false crawled" (attempted to nest) on the beach near her release site, before nesting successfully early on the morning of August 8, 2003. She then began migrating to southwest across the Cayman Trench. This submarine canyon is the deepest part of the Caribbean Sea, with a maximum of depth of over 4 miles. Samia reached the coast of Honduras and then entered Nicaraguan waters, passing the Misquito Keys and continuing south.

• 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', 'B'.
• 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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