UA News

Sea turtle researcher and UA graduate Wallace J. Nichols says one of the adult female loggerheads that he has been tracking via satellite telemetry is now 1,500km west of the Baja California shoreline and has been moving steadily west for the past six weeks.
"Her name is 'Yamilet,'" says Nichols, who says the turtle is named after the daughter of the fisherman who caught her. Coincidentally, the girl will be mentioned in the November issue of National Geographic World, which is designed for children.

Yamilet is the first wild adult loggerhead that Nichols has tracked. Her movements to date are very similar to those of Adelita, a loggerhead raised in captivity and released in 1996. Adelita was the first turtle tracked back to Japan. Nichols says he finds the similarities particularly interesting as Adelita's track has been interpreted with caution since she was raised for 10 years in captivity.

"We'll continue to track Yamilet as long as her transmitter holds out, and hopefully she'll make it all the way 'home.'

Nichols has shared much of his research information on the Internet ,including Yamilet's westward track, which is constantly updated. There is also a new Baja Turtle web page: http://www.baja-tortugas.org, which is supported by Baja Life Magazine.

Nichols adds "This summer during a trip to Japan, I visited with a group of children on Yakushima Island -- where one-third of Japan's loggerheads nest -- who have been tracking the Baja turtles and helping to protect loggerhead nesting sites. That had to be one of the most rewarding experiences ever."

"However, this summer we also documented high levels of loggerhead mortality along Baja's Pacific Coast, where the turtles feed on red crabs amid nets and hooks. I'm concerned that the combination of the incidental catch of turtles in the eastern and western Pacific and development on their nesting beach development means bad news for loggerheads. In fact, according to Japanese biologist Naoki Kamezaki, the nesting population in Japan has decreased by 50 percent in the past 10 years. I'm dedicated to telling the amazing story of these turtles' migration and hope that it inspires more protection. Fishermen respond favorably when we talk about turtle trans-Pacific migration, most had no idea that the turtles swam so far and they are noticeably impressed, full of questions and full of turtle stories. Maybe that fascination will translate into a few more live turtles."

You can contact J. Nichols via e-mail at jnichols@ag.arizona.edu