Origin of green turtle (Chelonia mydas) feeding aggregations around Argentine coast

PROSDOCIMI LAURA; REMISMARIA ISABEL

Baja California

Congreso; XXVIII Symposium International of Specialists in Sea turtle; 2008

The green turtle, Chelonia mydas, like other species of marine turtles, show great migratory displacements from the reproduction areas towards the zones of feeding. Since  2003, the Program Regional de Investigation and Conservation of Sea Turtle of Argentina (PRICTMA), analyze the situation of these reptiles in our coasts  providing evidences about they use the habitat.  use the habitat. In the present work we determine the genetic composition of green sea turtle  in feeding and development areas of Argentina inferring the probable natal origins in relation to the different nesting beaches from the Atlantic Ocean by means of the analysis of 490pb of the control region of the mitocondrial DNA. The sequences were edited, aligned and compared with the described haplotipos for 12 sites of nesting (Naro- Maciel et al. 2007). Sixteen out of 31 analyzed juvenile individuals (33 - 48.8 cm curved carapace length) exhibited CM8 haplotype, 10 individuals showed the CM5, 2 individuals had CM42 whereas the CM9, CM6 and CM32 haplotypes were present in one individual. Haplotipo CM42 has not been described in nesting beaches and had been detected in the feeding zones of the Bahía de Corisco (Gabon), the Gulf of Guinea (Formia 2002), and Almofala- Brazil (Naro-Maciel et al. 2007). This result demonstrates the necessity of more exhaustive studies in the nested beaches with the intention of obtaining a better characterization of them. The haplotipic (0. 643 +/- 0,06) and nucleotidic diversities (0,0083 +/- 0,0047) in the analyzed mixed stock were similar to others stocks in Brazil and higher to that analyzed stock in the Uruguayan coast (Caraccio et al. 2005).              The analysis of the mixed Stock, through a Bayesian approach, suggests that the green turtles in the feeding area of Argentina  would come in greater proportion of the nesting beaches of Trinidad (33%), Island of birds (19%), Surinam (16%) and Atol das Rocas (13%). Our results suggest that different nesting colonies are contributing to the Argentine foraging areas, and, unlike previously detected in Uruguayan studies (Caraccio et al. 2005), Trinidad would be the nesting beaches that makes the greater contribution. The genetic analysis of both nesting and foraging areas constitute a very helpful information to determine possible migratory routes, and to implement measures of mitigations and plans of conservation, not only in the areas of reproduction, but also in the areas of development for these species seriously threatened