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Artificial light on water attracts turtle hatchlings duringtheir nearshore transit, Western Australia

Created 24/06/2017

Updated 11/08/2023

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Examined the effect of artificial light on the nearshore trajectories of turtle hatchlings dispersing from natal beaches. Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchlings were tagged with miniature acoustic transmitters and their movements tracked within an underwater array of 36 acoustic receivers placed in the nearshore zone. A total of 40 hatchlings were tracked, 20 of which were subjected to artificial light during their transit of the array. At the same time, we measured current speed and direction which were highly variable within and between experimental nights and treatments. Artificial lighting affected hatchling behaviour, with 88% of individual trajectories oriented towards the light and spending, on average, 23% more time in the 2.25ha tracking array (19.5 ± 5 mins) than under ambient light conditions (15.8 ± 5 mins). Current speed had little to no effect on the bearing (angular direction) of the hatchling tracks when artificial light was present, but under ambient conditions, it influenced the bearing of the tracks when current direction was offshore and above speeds of ~32.5 cm s-1.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Artificial light on water attracts turtle hatchlings duringtheir nearshore transit, Western Australia
Language English
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/d463d77d-133d-406e-a214-b577ff62afdd
Contact Point
Australian Institute of Marine Science
adc@aims.gov.au
Reference Period 24/06/2017
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Data.gov.au