LOGGERHEAD ACOUSTIC STUDY
We are excited to announce gifting from The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation for funding provided to support our research “Determining the foraging and movement behavior of subadult loggerhead turtles using artificial reefs in east central Florida waters”. This is the first study of its kind and we fully appreciate the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation’s shared interest in our research and opportunity to promote the conservation of this protected species.
East Coast Biologists loggerhead acoustic study focuses on how loggerheads interact with artificial (mitigation) reefs off the east coast of central Florida. These artificial reefs were installed to mitigate potential habitat loss of nearshore reefs which has provided not only juvenile green turtles with an alternative place to forage and shelter, but created a habitat for many other species such as eels, lobster, nurse sharks, and possibly subadult loggerheads.
Each loggerhead ECB captures will be fitted with an acoustic transmitter that emits a series of sounds to underwater receivers. This allows ECB to track their movements and how they interact with the artificial reefs, whether they are resident or transient turtle just passing through.
Meet the Loggerheads
Acoustic-tagged turtles
Sharktooth is a sub-adult loggerhead who appeared to have had an encounter with a shark, indicated to us by the healed teeth scrape and bite mark injuries to it's carapace. Sharktooth was captured and released over the artificial reef.
A sub-adult loggerhead captured and released over the artificial reef.
A sub-adult loggerhead captured and released on the artificial reef, named by one of our amazing dive crew members.
Sub-adult loggerhead captured and released on the artificial reef, named by one of our amazing volunteers!
Winnie is the smallest loggerhead of our acoustic study, coming in at around half the size of the average sub-adult loggerheads in our acoustic study.
This subadult Loggerhead was captured and released on the artificial reef.
Named for it's fiery personality and weighing in at 130lbs, this beautiful subadult loggerhead was first hand captured and released on the southernmost artificial reef site in December 2021 and later recaptured in May 2022 on another site further north.
Goldie is a subadult loggerhead hand captured and released on the artificial reef. Loggerheads are known for their golden color but Goldie is letting it shine!
Jawsome Jade is a subadult loggerhead and shark attack survivor. Sharks are a natural predator of sea turtles and it is not uncommon to find turtles with bite marks in their shell or missing flippers. Jade was hand captured and released on the mitigation reef and despite it's shark encounter, survived it's wounds and is turtley jawsome!