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Chiriquí Beach Hawksbill Tracking

In 2003, the Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) launched a cooperative project to protect hawksbill sea turtle nesting population at Chiriquí Beach in the Bocas del Toro Province of Panama. Through STC’s Sea Turtle Migration-Tracking Education Program, the public is invited to watch along as we learn more about these amazing animals.

While the primary focus is the initiation of a long-term hawksbill monitoring and protection program at Chiriquí Beach, the project also included the satellite tracking of post-nesting females hawksbill sea turtles.Chiriquí Beach is a remote beach on Panama’s Caribbean shore was once described by Dr. Archie Carr as the most important nesting beach in the Caribbean for the “critically endangered” hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). However, by the 1980s and 1990s, sporadic aerial and ground surveys suggested that nesting had declined as much as 98% from previous levels (Meylan and Donnelly, 1999). The decline was attributed to the extensive harvest of nesting hawksbills to support the international trade in tortoiseshell.

Although today’s nesting population is only a fraction of what it once was, there is increased optimism that depleted hawksbill populations can respond positively to long-term protection. This optimism is based on increased hawksbill nesting activity in recent years on well-protected beaches in Mexico, Barbados and Puerto Rico.

This project is a cooperative effort under the direction of STC, with support and/or funding provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife Conservation Society, the Panamanian wildlife authority (ANAM), the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish & Wildlife Research Institution, Eckerd College, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the University of Panama, APRORENAMB (a local conservation group in Panama), the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Between 2003 and 2006, six hawksbills were tracked from Chiriquí Beach, Panama. This work expanded the project began in 1989 by Dr. Anne Meylan and Dr. Peter Meylan studying the ecology and migrations of marine turtles of the Zapatilla Cays, Panama. The Zapatilla Cays are within the Bocas del Toro Region of Panama, which has a particularly rich sea turtle fauna with four species and several life history stages represented. Investigations have focused on population structure, genetic identity, reproductive biology and migrations. Turtles are captured in traditional tangle nets, flipper-tagged, and in some cases, tracked via satellite to determine the migratory routes. Both hawksbill and green sea turtles have been attached with satellite transmitters. For the hawksbill turtle, it is important to determine resident feeding grounds, i.e., where they live when not reproducing. For the green turtles, the goal is to capture migration as they leave developmental habitat for other feeding grounds.