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Estimation of age at maturation and growth of Atlantic green turtles (Chelonia mydas) using skeletochronology

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Abstract

Despite the vast amount of research on threatened and endangered green turtle populations, some uncertainty regarding stage durations, growth rates, and age at maturation remains. We used skeletochronology to address this gap in knowledge for green turtle populations in the North Atlantic Ocean that use coastal waters along the southeastern U.S. as developmental habitat. Oceanic stage duration was estimated at 1–7 years (\( \overline{\text{X}} \) = 3 years). Several growth models, including von Bertalanffy, logistic, Gompertz, and power functions were evaluated for describing sex-specific length-at-age data. Ages at maturation estimated using mean size at nesting for females from each genetic sub-population contributing juveniles to this neritic foraging area were 44 years (Florida), 42.5 years (Costa Rica), and 42 years (Mexico), which were higher than previously reported ages. This implies that nesting populations comprising primarily individuals utilizing foraging grounds in the southeastern U.S. may take longer to recover than previously estimated.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network for collecting the humeri that made this research possible, especially B. Ahern, L. Belskis, Biscayne National Park, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cape Lookout National Seashore, E. Hanrahan, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, W. Teas, and the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Center. L. Belskis, W. Cluse, and W. Teas provided stranding data, J. Wyneken, M. Bogardus, and Cape Lookout National Seashore collected the hatchlings, and M. Bresette, D. Bagley, K. Durham, and P. Eliazar provided tagging histories and measurements of the tagged turtles. Special thanks to M. Snover for granting us permission to use the known-age tagged turtle in this study. We are grateful to A. Chester, A. Hohn, P. Marraro, J. McNeill, and three anonymous reviewers for providing comments that improved this manuscript and to T. Lankford for providing valuable feedback during this project. Research was conducted under NMFS Scientific Research Permit # 1260 and USFWS Permit # TE-676379-2 issued to the NMFS SERO. Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by the authors or their institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NOAA Fisheries, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Beaufort Laboratory, 101 Pivers Island Road, Beaufort, NC, 28516, USA

    Lisa R. Goshe & Larisa Avens

  2. Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC, 28403, USA

    Frederick S. Scharf & Amanda L. Southwood

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  1. Lisa R. Goshe
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  2. Larisa Avens
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Correspondence to Lisa R. Goshe.

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Communicated by R. Lewison.

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Goshe, L.R., Avens, L., Scharf, F.S. et al. Estimation of age at maturation and growth of Atlantic green turtles (Chelonia mydas) using skeletochronology. Mar Biol 157, 1725–1740 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-010-1446-0

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