Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to announce the publication of the following article which identifies a common migration corridor shared by sea turtles, fish and marine mammals:
Pendoley KL, Schofield G, Whittock PA, Ierodiaconou D, Hays GC (2014).
Protected species use of a coastal marine migratory corridor connecting marine protected areas.
Marine Biology. DOI 10.1007/s00227-014-2433-7
The establishment of protected corridors linking the breeding and foraging grounds of many migratory species remains deficient, particularly in the world’s oceans. For example, Australia has recently established a network
of Commonwealth Marine Reserves, supplementing existing State reserves, to protect a wide range of resident and migratory marine species; however, the routes used by mobile species to access these sites are often unknown. The flatback marine turtle (Natator
depressus) is endemic to the continental shelf of Australia, yet information is not available about how this species uses the marine area. We used a geospatial approach to delineate a coastal corridor from 73 adult female flatback postnesting migratory
tracks from four rookeries along the north-west coast of Australia. A core corridor of 1,150 km length and 30,800 km2 area was defined, of which 52 % fell within 11 reserves, leaving 48 % (of equivalent size to several Commonwealth Reserves) of
the corridor outside of the reserve network. Despite limited data being available for other marine wildlife in this region, humpback whale migratory tracks overlapped with 96 % of the core corridor, while the tracks of three other species overlapped by 5–10 %
(blue whales, olive ridley turtles, whale sharks). The overlap in the distribution ranges of at least 20 other marine vertebrates (dugong, cetaceans, marine turtles, sea snakes, crocodiles, sharks) with the corridor also imply potential use. In conclusion,
this study provides valuable information towards proposing new locations requiring protection, as well as identifying high-priority network linkages between existing marine protected areas.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-014-2433-7
If you are interested but cannot access this article online please email me for a pdf.
Cheers, Graeme
Professor Graeme Hays
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University
Warrnambool Campus, PO Box 423, Warrnambool, VIC 3280 (+61 3 55633311)
http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=7rc3SmAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Recent highlights:
Hays GC, Christensen A, Fossette S, Schofield G, Talbot J, Mariani P. (2014). Route optimisation and solving Zermelo’s navigation problem during long distance
migration in cross flows. Ecology Letters 17, 137-143. doi: 10.1111/ele/12219
Hinder SL, Gravenor MB, Edwards M, Ostle C, Bodger OG, Lee PLM, Walne AW, Hays GC (2014). Multi-decadal range changes vs thermal adaptation for north east Atlantic
oceanic copepods in the face of climate change. Global Change Biology 20, 140-146. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12387