Diet of oceanic loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the central North Pacific
Average rating
Cast your vote
You can rate an item by clicking the amount of stars they wish to award to this item.
When enough users have cast their vote on this item, the average rating will also be shown.
Star rating
Your vote was cast
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Date
2005
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Diet analysis of 52 loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta)collected as bycatch from 1990 to 1992 in the high-seas driftnet fishery operating between lat. 29.5°N and 43°Nand between long. 150°E and 154°W demonstrated that these turtles fed predominately at the surface; few deeper water prey items were present in their stomachs. The turtlesranged in size from 13.5 to 74.0 cm curved carapace length. Whole turtles (n =10) and excised stomachs (n= 42) were frozen and transported to a laboratory for analysis of majorfaunal components. Neustonic species accounted for four of the five most common prey taxa. The most common prey items were Janthina spp. (Gastropoda); Carinaria cithara Benson1835 (Heteropoda); a chondrophore, Velella velella (Hydrodia); Lepas spp. (Cirripedia), Planes spp. (Decapoda:Grapsidae), and pyrosomas (Pyrosoma spp.).Journal
Fishery BulletinVolume
103Issue/Article Nr
1Page Range
142-152Resource/Dataset Location
http://fishbull.noaa.gov/1031/park.pdfCollections