Ecology of east Florida sea turtles: Proceedings of theudCape Canaveral, Florida Sea Turtle Workshop Miami, FloridaudFebruary 26-27, 1985

摘要

The Cape Canaveral, Florida, marine ecosystem is unique. There are complex current and temperature regimes that form a faunal transition zone between Atlantic tropical and subtropical waters. This zone is rich faunistically andudsupports large commercial fISheries for fish, scallops, and shrimp. Canaveral is also unique because it has large numbers of sea turtles year-round, this turtle aggregation exhibiting patterned seasonal changes in numbers, size frequency, and sex ratio. Additionally, a significant portion of this turtle aggregation hibernates in the Canaveral ship channel, a phenomenon rare in marine turtle populations. ududThe Cape Canaveral area has the largest year-round concentration of sea turtles in the United States. However,udthe ship channel is periodically dredged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in order to keep Port Canaveral openudto U.S. Navy vessels, and preliminary surveys showed that many sea turtles were incidentally killed during dredgingudoperations. In order for the Corps of Engineers to fulfill its defense dredging responsibilities, and comply with theudEndangered Species Act of 1973, an interagency Sea Turtle Task Force was formed to investigate methods of reducingudturtle mortalities. This Task Force promptly implemented a sea turtle research plan to determine seasonal abundance, movement patterns, sex ratios, size frequencies, and other biological parameters necessary to help mitigate dredging conflicts in the channel. The Cape Canaveral Sea Turtle Workshop is a cooperative effort to comprehensively present research results of these important studies.ududI gratefully acknowledge the support of everyone involved in this Workshop, particularly the anonymous team of referees who painstakingly reviewed the manuscripts. The cover illustration was drawn by Jack C. Javech. (PDF file contains 86 pages.)