Dubai: The movement of 20 Hawksbill turtles in the big blue sea tracked by satellite has revealed their preference for swimming rather than resting in the Arabian Gulf, staying close to the shores of the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
"It is interesting to see that none of the turtles took up residence on the east side of the Gulf," said Dr Nicolas Pilcher, Marine Turtle Specialist and technical adviser for the project.
"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."
The Emirates Wildlife Society-WWF's Marine Turtle Tracking Programme in partnership with the Marine Research Foundation aims to track the migration pattern of over 75 Hawksbill turtles in the course of three years.
Mapping software
Through satellite mapping software, the movements of 20 turtles tagged in Iran, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have been recorded.
"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," said Pilcher.
The five turtles in Iran were tagged in April and data shows that all of them have moved west and southwest towards Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Two have currently inhabited 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 50km 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 Saudi.
Research findings from Oman show that turtles nesting in the sultanate spent less time as residents and more time travelling, some as much as 1,500km.
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.
