Turtles turn their back on Iran

HEADING OFF: Turtles can travel many hundreds of kilometres

Early results from tagging programme shows Hawksbills head for Qatar

July 2010: Initial data from a Emirates Wildlife Society-WWF turtle-tagging project in the Middle East has thrown up some surprises for conservationists. The programme, which is being run in partnership with the Marine Research Foundation, is attempting to follow more than 75 Hawksbill turtles in the area over the course of three years in the hope of gaining an insight into their migration patterns and the findings already disprove one long-held scientific theory about turtle movements in the area.

Through satellite mapping software, the movements of 20 turtles tagged in Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Qatar have already been recorded and initial findings have uncovered interesting results.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Nicolas Pilcher, a marine turtle specialist and technical adviser for the project said: 'The southern shores off Iran boast some of the most abundant soft corals and reef formations. This is something that would normally attract Hawksbill turtles but it is interesting to note that they have all swum away towards other countries.'

The five turtles in Iran were tagged in April and data shows that all of them have moved west and southwest towards Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Two now live off islands to the north of Abu Dhabi. Another two have swum towards the northern tip of Qatar; with one of those taking up residence in feeding grounds about 50 km off Doha and the other settling off Qatar's north coast by Ras Riken. The fifth Iran-tagged turtle swam past Qatar and Bahrain and now appears to have settled off the shores of KSA.

Findings disprove long-held scientific theory
Research findings from Oman show that turtles nesting in the Sultanate spent less time as residents and more time travelling, many of them as much as 1,500 km. Three of the turtles headed south towards Masirah Island. Turtle number 53003 seems to be a little more curious than the others and is the first Hawksbill turtle recorded to swim up into the Gulf from Oman.

Lisa Perry, EWS-WWF programme director said: ‘It has been believed by many scientists that the smaller size of the Gulf turtles compared to the larger Omani turtles and genetic isolation meant that there was no movement between populations. However, through this project these turtles are disproving scientific theories that have existed for years.'

Dr Pilcher added: ‘It is interesting to see that none of the turtles took up residence on the east side of the Gulf. All of them went west or south. These findings show us how important the Gulf is as a Hawksbill feeding habitat and as the project develops, we will be able to delineate the important areas that turtles frequent and work towards the further conservation of these habitats.'