作者
Kara Dodge
发表日期
2013
简介
The endangered leatherback turtle is a highly migratory predator that feeds exclusively on gelatinous zooplankton. Leatherbacks spend most of their lives submerged or offshore, and their at-sea biology (particularly that of males and sub-adults) is poorly understood throughout much of their range. I used satellite telemetry to monitor movements and dive behavior of nine adult and eleven sub-adult leatherbacks captured off Massachusetts, USA, and tracked throughout the NW Atlantic. Leatherback movements and environmental associations varied by oceanographic region, with slow, sinuous, area-restricted search behavior and shorter, shallower dives occurring in cool, productive, shallow shelf habitat at temperate latitudes. Leatherbacks were highly aggregated in temperate shelf waters during summer, early fall, and late spring, and more widely dispersed in subtropical and tropical habitat from late fall through …