Abstract
The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) and the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) have suffered from both anthropogenic direct and indirect stressors, which has made Ca. caretta a vulnerable species, and Ch. mydas an endangered species. In response to declining population numbers, the United States implemented federal and state laws to prohibit illicit actions against the species. Some states, such as Florida, established and continually support marine turtle monitoring efforts during the annual nesting season. One area that merits significant marine turtle monitoring is Loggerhead Key in the Dry Tortugas National Park (DRTO) because the island is a critical nesting habitat for both species. DRTO does not always have the personnel and resources to fully support annual marine turtle nest monitoring at the park, particularly the intensive monitoring at the index nesting site on Loggerhead Key. Consequently, the National Park Service (NPS) hosts an annual marine turtle nest monitoring internship to support and supplement capacity for its marine turtle monitoring program. This project presents preliminary improvements for the DRTO marine turtle monitoring program, including standard operational procedures field manual, an introductory document and checklist for future interns, and an r-script that will facilitate annual reporting. These materials will benefit the DRTO marine turtle monitoring, improve accurate data collection, and prepare future interns for a successful experience. Finally, marine turtle data with spatial coordinates were analyzed with ArcGIS Pro to identify core nest and false crawl areas on Loggerhead Key. The KDE analysis revealed Ca. caretta and Ch. mydas nests and false crawls from 2009 to 2015 are frequently dense around the southern end of Loggerhead Key with core densities of 25% and 50%. All this preliminary work provided a basis to improve some aspects of the DRTO marine turtle monitoring program and identified areas on Loggerhead Key that merits further study.