VANUATU SEA TURTLE RESEARCH PROJECT (2023)

11/29/2022

Our home base on Moso Island... Tranquility Resort.

After a two years absence, the HPA Sea Turtle Research Program will renew its satellite tagging project on Moso Island, Republic of Vanuatu.  We have 4 students who will join Laura Jim and Marc Rice to travel to Vanuatu to deploy 3 Sea Trk iridium satellite tags on post-nesting hawksbill turtles.  We will be on Moso Island from January 5, 2023 to January 14, 2023.

Slide show giving introduction to our co-investigators and Moso Island.

 Project Purpose

There are several nesting beaches in Vanuatu and the population of nesting turtles has been declining for many years.  The purpose of this project is to identify the internesting habitats, the post-nesting migratory paths and the foraging habitats of hawksbill turtles through satellite tagging of the post-nesting hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) to track their migration to their forage grounds.  This knowledge will address population declines that result from human interactions in foreign foraging areas as well as during the nesting season in Vanuatu.

We arrive in Port Vila at 1505 h on 1/5/2923.  We are scheduled to be picked up by the resort van and transported ~25 Km to Havannah Harbor where we will catch the 1700 boat to Tranquility Resort... at least that is the plan at this time!!!

Project Partners

We work directly with local liaison, Francis Hickey, Coordinator, Traditional Resource Management Program at Vanuatu Cultural Centre, Tranquility Resort, and village chiefs and their families including Evan and Nolan.

Research Location
Moso Island is an island off the northwest coast of Efate in Vanuatu. There are two villages on Moso Island, Sunae and Tassirki with a total population of approximately 250 people. Most of our work is completed on the northern coast of the island.

Previously Tagged Turtles
Seven post-nesting hawksbill turtles have been satellite tagged with three of them traveling to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, three of them traveling to New Caledonia and one of them traveling to Anietyum Island, Republic of Vanuatu.  

Figure a illustrates the tracks taken by the three satellite tagged post-nesting hawksbill turtles that traveled to the Great Barrier Reef, Austraila and figure b shows the tracks taken by the the three satellite tagged post-nesting hawksbill turtles that traveled to New Caledonia and the one that traveled to Aneityum Island.


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