The following summary text is drawn from www. ioseaturtles.org, modified with permission.
The IOSEA website focused its September 2009 monthly profile on the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, following the Sixth WIOMSA Scientific Symposium in La Réunion, France. In compiling the profile, they drew on the national reports of the respective IOSEA Signatory States. Almost all of the country reports had been updated recently in preparation for the second meeting of the WIO- Marine Turtle Task Force. The profile (https://www. ioseaturtles.org/pom_detail.php?id=90) takes the reader on a tour of the WIO region beginning in South Africa and continuing northward along the mainland coast to Kenya, before heading east to take in a half dozen island States and territories.
About 50 projects (mostly from the Western Indian Ocean) have recently been added to the IOSEA Projects Database, see https://www.ioseaturtles.org/projectdb.php
A new IOSEA Bibliography Resource launched in November 2009 makes available to interested practitioners essential information about marine turtle conservation and research, with an initial focus on the Western Indian Ocean region. It has been developed especially to support the work of the Western Indian Ocean – Marine Turtle Task Force, a technical committee established under the CMS/IOSEA Marine Turtle MoU and the Nairobi Convention. The IOSEA Bibliography Resource aims to overcome the paucity of current and readily available information on marine turtles in the region by compiling the most comprehensive collection of reference material ever on marine turtles of the Western Indian Ocean.
The basic bibliography is available for general public viewing, querying and printing. However, the actual collection of documents that have been converted to electronic format (PDF) may be consulted only by colleagues associated with the WIO-MTTF and other concerned individuals who have been granted exclusive password access to the system. The strict conditions for non-commercial research and educational use of the IOSEA collection are described during the login process. Over time, it is envisaged that some of the documents in the collection will be made publicly available, to the extent that any applicable copyrights are respected. As a general rule, however, journal articles will not be made publicly available.
IOSEA launched its new Satellite Tracking Metadatabase (https://www.ioseaturtles.org/ satellite_tracking.php) in August 2009. The database aims to compile existing metadata relating to satellite tracking in order to facilitate a more coordinated approach to future work, and to maximise the usefulness of what is still a relatively expensive research tool. Having an overview of what tracking studies have already been done may help to pinpoint complementary data sources never before compiled in a single reference. Equally important, the database can be used to identify strengths and gaps in coverage in satellite tracking, in terms of geographic area, species, sex, age class, etc.
Altogether the IOSEA metadatabase contains information on nearly 550 satellite-tracked turtles from about 20 countries of the IOSEA region (as of November 2009). The database includes details of 50 IOSEA-region projects (concerning nearly 300 animals) that have published their results in the literature, as well as a similar number of projects described in seaturtle.org/tracking – which provide information on the movements of about 200 animals fitted with satellite transmitters. Adult female green turtles have been extensively tracked in the IOSEA region (well over 200 animals in more than 15 countries), whereas leatherback and olive ridley studies have been limited to just a handful of countries. While relatively few hawksbills have been tracked, many countries have been involved. Satellite tracking of male turtles and juveniles (of any species) is relatively uncommon. Historically, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Oman, South Africa and Thailand top the charts when it comes to satellite tracking studies in the IOSEA region.
The metadatabase aims to capture 95% or more of all satellite tracking studies ever conducted in the Indian Ocean – South East Asia region. Known gaps in coverage include France (Southwest Indian Ocean), India (deployments in 2002 and 2007) and Thailand (about 20 animals).
OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES