• Five out of the seven marine turtle species around the world are listed as Endangered.
  • A female turtle can lay up to 120 eggs in one nest and can nest up to 3-4 times in one season.
  • This project is currently tracking 75 female Hawksbill turtles from UAE, Oman, Qatar and Iran.
  • Fishermen can now use turtle excluder devices to prevent accidental capture of marine turtles.

TRACK AN INDIVIDUAL TURTLE:

2010 regional highlights of the findings

UAE: The UAE turtles have been the most ‘domestic’ of the project so far. They have not left UAE waters, and have taken up residence not far from their original nesting site. It is clear from the movements that the waters off the coast of Abu Dhabi include critical habitat for hawksbills, but similarly is the region off the mainland coast of Sharjah, where Ms. EMEG and the turtle from Oman both reside.

Oman: One of the turtles migrated into the Gulf, a move which was previously unknown for this species. Being substantially larger than their inner-Gulf cousins, it was questionable whether they would enter and potentially interact with inner-Gulf hawksbills.

Qatar: Two of Qatar’s turtles moved around substantially; one resides off the north coast of Bahrain and the other down in the extreme southwest corner of the Gulf. Two others have remained closer to home, off the north coast and the east coast respectively.

Iran: These turtles have the most ‘international’ range, having taken up residence off Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE. It is likely they have selected a small reef or an area covering several coral reefs or hard substrate as foraging grounds, to which they remain quite faithful. Find out more about each turtle we tracked and monitored in 2010