Estimation of age at maturation and growth of Atlantic green turtles (Chelonia mydas) using skeletochronology |
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Authors: | Lisa R Goshe Larisa Avens Frederick S Scharf Amanda L Southwood |
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Institution: | (1) NOAA Fisheries, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, Beaufort Laboratory, 101 Pivers Island Road, Beaufort, NC 28516, USA;(2) Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA |
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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 (
`(\textX)] \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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