At Lhaviyani Turtle Festival 2018 Atoll Marine Centre released Skye, a juvenile green sea turtle with a satellite tag attached to her carapace in the hope to follow her journey. This blog gives you an update of where she has been for the last three months.
Skye first came to our centre on the 13th July 2016 at approximately 30 days old as a tiny hatchling having previously been kept as a pet by a local person. After 717 days growing stronger and preparing for her release, Skye walked to see on the 30th June 2018 in front of a huge crowd during our annual Turtle Festival.
One night before Skye’s release a small satellite tag was attached to her carapace. Each time a satellite passes over Skye, at the same time that she has surfaced to breathe and the sensors on her tag are out of the water, the satellite will collect messages transmitted from the tag and accurately measure the frequency of the received signals. Measured frequencies are then relayed to the Argos (Wildlife Computers) processing centre. The centre then calculates the location of Skye using the Doppler curve, an equation that determines latitude and longitude. This can be accurate to within 150 metres.
We know from Holly’s previous blog, ‘The Lost Years’ that little is known about what turtles do in between walking to sea and returning to that beach to lay their eggs. For this reason, the data we can collect from Skye is really important for Atoll Marine Centre as it will give us an indication of where our rehabilitated juvenile turtles go, if they do what is expected of turtles of similar age and how captivity at the beginning of their life can impact them going forward.
Some research suggests turtles head straight to open ocean to avoid predators and stay at the surface to absorb sunlight and develop their lung capacity. A few years later they come back to nearshore waters to feed and grow.
As Skye spent her first two years in captivity, she may have skipped the open ocean, surface-living stage and found a spot nearshore with an abundance of food whilst she grows. And that is, for the most part, what we have seen. She seems to have found a spot near Olhuvelifushi (in the south east of Lhaviyani atoll) and has spent much of her time there.
In Skye’s first few days of freedom she did not venture too far from Naifaru. She then headed down to Kanifushi before making her way south east towards Olhuvelifushi and surrounding islands.
In August, she didn’t travel too far away from the Olhuvelifushi area. This may be because this area has abundant food sources. There may be rich sea grass meadows and we imagine she would be munching away having the greatest time. She occasionally washes out to open ocean but always comes back. Maybe she is not ready for open ocean just yet.
In September she had her biggest journey yet. Skye travelled beyond Baa atoll. She travelled straight through Baa into Open Ocean on the other side of the Maldives before deciding that it’s not for her. She turns around and comes all the way back to Naifaru, to the same spot she has spent the last two months in. This could show her brilliant mapping skills considering she found her way back to the south east corner of Lhaviyani Atoll however, it could be a glitch with the tag.
We are very excited to find out where Skye goes next and will keep you updated on her journey.
