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This project provides the unique opportunity to follow immature green turtles as they depart a developmental habitat. Over 2,000 immature green turtles have been captured on the seagrass flats with nets and tagged in Bermuda since the project began in 1968. Green turtles in Bermuda range in size from approximately 25 to 75 centimeters in shell length, with no recent records of adult turtles. Long-distance tag returns indicate travel south to feeding grounds in the Caribbean Sea. The Bermuda Turtle Project is a collaborative effort of the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation. Anne Meylan (Florida Marine Research Institute - Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission) and Peter Meylan (Eckerd College) serve as the project's Scientific Directors, Jennifer Gray (Bermuda Aquarium) is Project Coordinator.
Click on the turtle's name to see a map of its movements.
2006:
BERMEYLAN - Bermeylan, a 28.5-inch immature green turtle, was captured with an entanglement net and satellite-tagged by the Bermuda Turtle Project on July 24, 2006, at Ferry Reach in Castle Harbor, Bermuda. The turtle had originally been tagged at this same site nearly a year prior, on August 5, 2005. Although the turtle is the approximate size at which green turtles typically depart from Bermuda and travel to feeding grounds in the Caribbean, the exact timing of the turtle's eventual departure is unknown. The turtle may remain in Bermuda for months or even years, likely at the same site where the two captures took place. It is hoped, however, that Bermeylan will make a departure while the batteries for the satellite transmitter are still working, so that we can observe the route of travel and final destination. A previously tracked Bermuda turtle, "Bermudiana", traveled from Bermuda to the eastern end of Cuba where she was captured (see Bermudiana track). Bermeylan was named by the participants of the International In-water Course on the Biology and Conservation of Marine Turtles which took place in Bermuda from 17 to 28 July 2006.
2003:
VIXEN - Vixen is a female green turtle 71.8 cm in straight carapace length. She was first captured in Bermuda on grass beds off the west end of the island on June 13, 1997 when she was 56.4 cm in length. Her second capture was on  August 7, 2003 when she was caught at a site called The Vixen, just east of her original site. The site is named after a shipwrecked vessel whose bow is still visible above the water's surface. The turtle's sex was determined by the hormone content of a blood sample. A genetic sample taken in 2003 will help to determine the nesting beach where she was born. Vixen is at the upper end of the size range of green turtles found in Bermuda, and it is hoped that the satellite transmitter (#11677) will document her migration to a feeding ground elsewhere in the Caribbean. The majority of recaptures of turtles tagged in Bermuda have been made off the eastern coast of Nicaragua.
Vixen was satellite-tagged during a regular sampling session of the Bermuda Turtle Project. Drs. Peter and Anne Meylan, scientific directors for the project, and Jennifer Gray, project coordinator, were assisted in attaching the transmitter by students participating in the 5th International Course on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. The nine students taking the course this year are from Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Grenada, St. Lucia, the Turks & Caicos Islands and the United States.
NOTE: No points are posted on Vixen's map for nearly the first month after the release of Vixen because of a transmitter malfunction. During this period, no dive data were received, and the locations were erratic. Fortunately, the unit started to transmit normally on September 5, 2003.
1998:
BERMUDIANA - Bermudiana , a 31-inch immature green turtle, was captured with a net and satellite-tagged by the Bermuda Turtle Project on August 5, 1998 on the seagrass beds off the northwestern end of Bermuda. She was the second-largest green turtle that has been handled by the project since it began in 1968, and thus, it was expected that she would soon be departing the Bermuda platform. About two weeks later, she did, in fact, depart and embarked on a south/southwestward course that took her to the north coast of the Dominican Republic – a journey of approximately 1500 km – in a little less than a month! She then took a westward course along the northern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and was in this area when Hurricane Georges passed by. There were no observable effects of the hurricane. Several days later, however, satellite transmissions were disrupted, and when they resumed, sensors indicated that the turtle was no longer diving. At that time, the turtle was located right off the eastern tip of Cuba. Several location signals were then received slightly inland, near the town of Baracoa, and we suspect that the turtle was captured.
For more information on the Bermuda Turtle Project, check out the Bermuda Turtle Project section of CCC's website.
For general information on sea turtles and coastal habitats, check out the Sea Turtle Information section of CCC's website.
Support for this satellite tracking research was provided by the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo, the Bermuda Zoological Society, the Bermuda Division of Fisheries, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and Eckerd College. Thanks are due to the staff and volunteers of the Bermuda Aquarium for assistance in the field. Kerri Powell, Andrea Mosier, and Dan Evans kindly assisted with mapping the data.
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