Key West National Wildlife Refuge

General Information

Project Type(s):sighting, capture

Site Name:Key West National Wildlife Refuge

Site Reference Number:15

Region(s):Southeast

Counties:Monroe

Approximate Latitude: 24.56 Approximate Longitude: -82

View ArcGIS map of study area

Principal Investigator(s):Bagley, Dean; Bresette, Michael; Gorham, Jonathan; Herren, Richard; Witherington, Blair E

Point(s) of Contact:Bresette, Michael - Phone Number: (772) 467-7726, Email: mbresette@inwater.org

Organizations Involved:Inwater Research Group, Inc.

Organization Type(s):non-profit

Project Status: Active

Start Date: 5/2002

End Date: n/a

Equipment and Methods

General Method(s) Used:boat survey, rodeo, set net

Sampling and Effort

	Visual	Capture
Sampling regime:	annually	annually
Measure of effort:	unknown	cap/area

Bottom Type(s):channel, coral, hardbottom, livebottom, other, sand, seagrass

Water Type Zone: neritic Water Type Environment: marine

Min. Depth (m): 0 Max. Depth (m): 40

Mean Depth (m): 8.13

Captures and Sightings Information

Species	No. of Captures	No. of Sightings	Min Size* (cm)	Max Size* (cm)	Mean Size* (cm)	FP Observed	Life Stages**
Green Turtle (Cm)	215	2312	23.1	108.5	53.6	No	n/r
Loggerhead (Cc)	420	1000	36.4	102.6	74.3	No	n/r
Kemp's Ridley (Lk)	1	0	54.2	0.0	54.2	No	n/r
Hawksbill (Ei)	78	99	21.4	69.0	44.3	No	n/r
Leatherback (Dc)	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	n/a	n/a
Unidentified	n/a	21	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

*All size measurements are SSCL unless otherwise indicated
** For Cm, Cc, Lk, & Ei: O - Oceanic-stage juvenile; N - Neritic-stage juvenile; S - Subadult; A - Adult. For Dc: I - Immature; A - Adult. n/a = not applicable; n/r = not reported.

This report adheres to the following size ranges for life stage classification for these species:

	Green turtle	Loggerhead	Kemp's ridley	Hawksbill
Oceanic-stage juvenile	< 25 cm SCL	< 30 cm SCL	< 25 cm SCL	< 25 cm SCL
Neritic-stage juvenile	25-69 cm SCL	30-69 cm SCL	25-39 cm SCL	25-64 cm SCL
Subadult	70-84 cm SCL	70-79 cm SCL	40-59 cm SCL	65-74 cm SCL
Adult	≥ 85 cm SCL	≥ 80 cm SCL	≥ 60 cm SCL	≥ 75 cm SCL

	Leatherback
Immature	< 135 cm OCL
Adult	≥ 135 cm OCL

Other Information Collected

diet

Project Summary

In 1986, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and University of Central Florida (UCF) personnel surveyed the area near the Marquesas Keys for the possible presence of sea turtles, they determined that this area was potential developmental habitat for marine turtles and warranted further investigation. In 2002, Inwater Research Group (IRG) began systematic surveys in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and observed many turtles in the vicinity. Soon after capture efforts began, green, loggerhead, and hawksbill turtles were captured. This was the first project in the continental U.S. to sight and capture hawksbill sea turtles on a regular basis. IRG has observed low levels of fibropapillomatosis (FP) in loggerheads and green turtles in the area. GPS-coordinate data are available for turtle-sighting and -capture locations. In 2004, IRG identified an area just west of the Marquesas Keys that appeared to support green turtles of size classes rarely seen in Florida waters: subadults and adults (> 70 cm SCL). This habitat differs from that of other areas worked in the refuge. It contains large Syringodium seagrass beds interspersed with stretches of sand and sponge habitat in 4-6 m of water; the rest of the study area consists of shallow (1-3 m) seagrass beds dotted with patchy sponge/hardbottom habitat and deep-water channels. Small green turtles are conspicuously absent from the western area, yet they are found in significant numbers only 4 km away in the shallow lagoons of the Marquesas. It is possible that smaller green turtles use the ‘dead-end’ channels found within the Marquesas complex as a refuge from falling water levels and large predators. These small green turtles are also found throughout the rest of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge (KWNWR) in shallow basins and seagrass beds. This study may provide the first evidence of resource-partitioning by green turtles in the refuge.

Documents

No documents uploaded.

Literature/Reports Produced

Bresette, M., and R. Herren. 2002. Demographic composition of marine turtles in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge, 2002. Annual report submitted to USFWS, Key West NWR, Contract 1448-4018102-G-044, 31 pp.

Inwater Research Group, Inc. 2003. Demographic composition of marine turtles in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge, 2003. Annual report submitted to NMFS, 27 pp.

Inwater Research Group, Inc. 2004. Sea turtle sampling in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Interim report to FWC/FMRI, August 2004, 18 pp.

Inwater Research Group, Inc. 2005. Final report on sea turtle sampling in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Report submitted to FWC/FWRI, 24 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2006. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #2. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 19 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2006. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #3. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 13 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2006. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #4. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 11 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2007. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #5. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 9 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2007. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #6. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 12 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2007. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #7. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 13 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2007. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #8. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2008. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #9. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 9 pp

Inwater Research Group. 2008. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #10. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 13 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2008. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #11. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 12 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2008. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Final report. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 37 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2009. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #1. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 8 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2009. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #2. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 13 pp

Inwater Research Group. 2009. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #3. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 17 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2009. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #4. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 17 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2010. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #5. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 12 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2010. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Status report, sampling event #8. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 15 pp.

Inwater Research Group. 2010. Sea turtle distribution and abundance in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge and waters of the Marquesas Keys. Final report. Report submitted to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 37 pp.