Tracking sea turtles in American Samoa

Five marine turtles from Tutuila Island have been tagged between February and June 2006. In addition to the adult hawksbill mapped below, three subadult hawksbill and one subadult green turtles were also tagged. All four subadult turtles have not moved any substantial distance from Tutuila.

The Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources of American Samoa has satellite-tagged five turtles since February 2006 in an effort to determine both local and regional movements primarily from the island of Tutuila. The tagged turtles include one post-nesting adult hawkskbill, three subadult hawksbills, and one subadult green turtle.

To date, all subadult individuals have not moved far from the island of Tutuila. The adult nesting female (a.k.a. Ms Malota)], whose movements are shown on the map, likewise, spent about five months post-tagging in waters surrounding the island. Beginning in August 2006, this adult female has shown larger-scale movements, initially southeastwards towards waters close to Manu‘a before tracking back westwards; it was last positioned due south of the main Samoa islands of Upolu and Savai‘i. It will be interesting to find out where Ms Malota is headed for now that it is nesting season in this region once again.

All five deployed tags are still transmitting signals. Additional turtles will be tagged, and we hope that additional adult females will be fitted with transmitters with the onset of the nesting season. Based on the preliminary data generated from the five tagged turtles, some very interesting and biologically valuable information on movement patterns in this region is forthcoming.

Related links and information

• YOST turtles Lady Vini and Miss Lina
• Seaturtle.org Satellite tracking
• Tags
• SPREP Turtle tags database

Contact: Lui Bell, Marine Species Officer, SPREP: LuiB@sprep.org