Where do all the sea turtles live?

Baby green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchling in Guyana (photo credit: Roderic B Mast )

If you ever wondered where the green sea turtles lived a new award winning online map will give you the answers. The State of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWOT) map of 1167 nesting sites has just won the International Conservation Mapping Competition 2011.

The sea turtle map is based on Google maps and allows you to take a close view of locations around the world that is home to the various species of sea turtles. You can also download the relevant kml file from the map to enable you to view the sites in Google Earth.

Sea turtle map a collaboration of over 200 people.

The map is the result of the collaboration of over 200 scientists, researchers and volunteers. The project to map the nesting sites of sea turtles was co-ordinated by Andrew DiMatteo, cartographer and the project database manager. He is also an Associate in Research at Duke University. The award was for the work in mapping nesting sites and habitats of the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas).

“Where once they were primarily valued as a resource to be exploited, they are now earning their due respect as ecosystem engineers, and indicators of ocean health and processes.”

Award winning conservation map.

The International Conservation Mapping Competition is an annual award for use of graphical information systems (GIS) in conservation management and is sponsored by software developer Esri, the Society for Conservation GIS and Conservation Magazine.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for our work and it’s my hope that this achievement will be able to draw more attention to the needs of sea turtle conservation,” DiMatteo said.

“The map is a shining example of what can be accomplished when trust and strong data sharing protocols are combined to create a useful, informative, and effective product,” said Charles Convis, the Esri Conservation Program Coordinator. “The SWOT Worldwide Green Turtle Nesting Sites map allows scientists from around the world to contribute findings and collaborate for a solution.“

Green sea turtle map is last part of nest sites map project.

The mapping of the green sea turtle was the last part of the projects aims to map the nesting sites of all the sea turtle species. The green turtle was a particular challenge as it is the most widespread of the sea turtles. Eventually data was gained from over 100 countries and hundreds of volunteers who mapped nesting sites around the world. The publication of the map was the culmination of 7 years of work.

The new map offers a valuable tools for a wide range of organisations including schools and conservation groups.

“Visualizing knowledge on green turtle nesting grounds around the world has increased international cooperation and exchange of knowledge about this endangered species,” said Maggie Muurmans, director of the local non-profit Yayasan Pulau Banyak in Aceh, Indonesia and data contributor to SWOT. “This allows information from hundreds of conservation projects to be readily available to individual sea turtle conservationists around the world.“

“We are finally observing a change in human attitudes towards these incredible animals” said Dr. Bryan Wallace, Scientific Director of CI’s Marine Flagship Species Program. “Where once they were primarily valued as a resource to be exploited, they are now earning their due respect as ecosystem engineers, and indicators of ocean health and processes.”

Green turtle is an endangered and protected species.

The green sea turtle is classed as endangered by the IUCN Red list and has a protected status in many countries across the world as well as being protected by CITES regulations. Understanding where their nesting sites and feeding grounds are is very important in tackling the threats to the green sea turtle.

The greatest threat for a turtle at sea is getting entangled in fishing nets and becoming part of by-catch. Threats to the turtles on land and at breeding sites is dominated by coastal developments encroaching on the nesting grounds. To a lesser extent they are also at risk from some local communities who continue to use turtles and eggs as a source of food.

The green turtle is a long lived species with individuals in the wild being able to live to 80 and beyond. the common name of green turtle refers to the layer of green fat that lies beneath it’s shell.