In a bid to further study the behavior of the endangered green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), a research team monitoring the species on Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) off Pingtung County yesterday installed more satellite signal transmitters on the turtles to track their movements.
The team’s previous research has showed about 100 green sea turtles live in the island’s waters.
Liouciou Township Office last year commissioned the team, spearheaded by National Taiwan Ocean University professor Cheng Yi-chun (程一駿), to embark on a green sea turtle placement project, during which researchers installed transmitters on two female turtles, enabling the team to trace the turtles’ locations in the ocean after they laid eggs.
Photo: Chen Yen-ting, Taipei Times
The office this year obtained two more transmitters with subsidies from the Council of Agriculture.
The transmitters were installed on two turtles yesterday.
The information gathered from the project is to be used by central and local animal protection agencies for future policymaking.
Photo: Tsai Wen-tsai, Taipei Times
Turtles inhabit the island’s waters because of nearby coral reefs and during the egg-laying season, the females swim up to the shore, the office said.
This sets the island apart from other sea turtle habitats, making it an ideal ecosphere for the green turtle to raise their young.
Liouciou Township Mayor Tsai Tien-yu (蔡天裕) said that the green sea turtles lay their eggs every year between May and October. He said that statistics produced between 2011 and this year indicated that 12 females laid 60 nests of eggs along the island’s shore, each containing between 100 and 130 eggs.
The statistics showed that the female turtles laid as many as 6,000 eggs during this period, out of which about 4,800 made their way back to the ocean, with about 100 opting to make the island’s coastal waters their home.
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