Here’s the latest news on our released turtles that have satellite transmitters and seaturtle.org updates you may have subscribed to….

DYLAN & JOEY: On seaturtle.org Dylan and Joey are listed under the same project: Georgia Sea Turtle Center and Georgia Aquarium Monitoring of Released Turtles. If you subscribed to receive updates on Dylan, you have probably noticed that you are now receiving updates on Joey too. Well, when you subscribed for updates, you actully subscribed to receive updates on ALL turtles listed under that Project. Joey was a turtle raised in captivity–similar to Dylan, just not kept as long. His most recent home was at the Georgia Aquarium. They decided it was time to release Joey, which they did on Sept 11, 2008. For more information on Joey, please visit the Georgia Aquarium’s website (http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/) and seaturtle.org. Now, why are you no longer receiving updates on Dylan but are getting them for Joey? Joey is sending very good high-quality signals that relay accurate locations (and therefore plottable with confidence in accuracy). Dylan on the other hand, has not transmitted a high-quality plottable signal since 9/7, although she has been giving us a number of very low-quality signals all along, as recently as 9/16. These signals are just that, signals. They do not actually give us a location (in terms of GPS coordinates), they just tell us she is still there. Are you still with me? So after a certain period of time, if a turtle has not transmitted a high-quality signal, the mapping system inactivates that turtle & subsequent updates. It will become active again should the turtle start transmitting high-quality signals again. We’ve seen this happen in other turtles (i.e. Bevelyn), so it may still happen with Dylan! Please see previous BLOGS regarding more in-depth explanations about signals and how they can relate to behaviour.

BEVELYN, SPITFIRE & VIDA:
Bevelyn is back in the Gulf of Mexico. She has been transmitting very good signals for a while now! On her map, there is a point that appears to be inland Florida, please ignore this point, it is inaccurate–occasionally that type of error can occur.

Spitfire’s last plottable point was on 9/10. She is still there, just transmitting very low-quality signals, as recently as 9/17. She is another example of a turtle who stopped transmitting good signals for a while, but has popped back up!

Vida is doing well and continues to transmit very good signals. She is just of the coast of NE Florida, acting like a typically juvenile loggerhead of her size!

Thanks again for your support! If you are interested in adopting one of our eligible turtles (In-house or Released), please visit our website: www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org

Sincerely,
Stefanie Ouellette
Marine Field Programs Coordinator