Developing a Gulf-wide Comprehensive Plan for In-water Sea Turtle Data Collection
Implementing Organization
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; US Department of the Interior
Overview
DWH Project Funding
$655,000
Known Leveraged Funding
$0
Funding Organization
Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees (NRDA)
Funding Program
Natural Resource Damage Assessment NRDA
Details
Project Category
Environmental
Project Actions
Species Restoration
Targeted Resources
Sea Turtles
Project Description
This project will develop a strategic plan for coordinated in-water data collection efforts across the Gulf of Mexico and establish standardized monitoring protocols. This effort will provide important context for project and resource-level monitoring, and will allow comparisons across multiple sea turtle restoration projects. Project outcomes will be used to guide the formation of a coordinated sea turtle in-water monitoring network to fill critical data gaps. This project supports all the Trustees’ restoration goals for sea turtles. In particular, the project supports the Trustees’ goal to implement an integrated portfolio of restoration approaches to address all injured life stages (hatchling, juvenile, and adult) and species of sea turtles. The comprehensive in-water survey plan will include standardized methods for data collection and a survey design to improve the understanding of population trends and important population parameters. The project will also identify critical information gaps which will help inform restoration planning. The final comprehensive plan will provide guidance for Gulf of Mexico sea turtle abundance and demographic data collection and compilation to enhance restoration planning and monitoring. The final plan will also describe potential partners, field data collection methods, database structure, and data management.
Contact
Christina Fellas(727) 551-5714
christina.fellas@noaa.gov
Project Website
None
For official trustee information regarding the Deepwater Horizon NRDA, including information regarding the NRDA process and the status of projects, see https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/