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Influence Of Surface Currents On Post-Nesting Migration Of Green Sea Turtles Nesting On Wan-An Island, Penghu Archipelago, Taiwan, I-Jiunn Cheng, Yu-Huai Wang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

The relationships between ambient flows and the migration corridors of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) nesting at Wan-an Island, Penghu Archipelago in Taiwan Strait were determined. Six turtles deployed with Argos-linked satellite tags from 1996 to 2004 were used. The ambient flows were derived from the combination of ship board measurements, a global tidal model, and the geostrophic flows derived from sea surface height anomalies. The results showed that there were, basically, three migrating patterns. Turtles that migrated northeastward rode the main surface currents, traveling 2000 km in a month. The swimming speeds along the track were less than 0.5 m …