Study on global migration of green turtles in the ASEAN waters

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The objectives were as follows.1. To clarify migratory paths of adult female green turtles in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, using satellite tracking system.2. Monitoring of sand temperature using temperature recording data loggers in the nesting ground to estimate sex ratio of new-hatched individuals.3. Genetic analyses of the local population structures of the sea turtle.4. Correlation between fishing effort of trawling and the number of sea turtle by-catch. 5. Development of a scientific strategy for the conservation.In the first step, the project emphasized on research of migratory paths both in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, Thailand using the Argos system. The sea turtle migratory paths were demonstrated in the Internet (http://bse.soc.i.kyoto-u.ac.jp/seastar2000/). Both in 2002 and 2003 we deployed 12 platform transmitter terminals (PTTs) to track female green turtles at the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea in Thailand and also at the south Gulf of Thailand in Malaysia. The results clarified migratory paths of adult female green turtles after their nesting ; in the Gulf of Thailand they migrated to various sea areas sometimes even beyond Thai waters including the South China Sea, and in the Andaman Sea almost all the turtles migrated to the Andaman Islands within Indian territorial waters via different routes. In addition to the tracking study, we analyzed DNA of green turtles to clarify the difference between the stock in the Gulf of Thailand and that in the Andaman Sea. The results indicated there was no difference between them.In order to discuss conservation of sea turtles in the ASEAN countries, we held the international workshop on SEASTAR2000 every year during the project in Thailand and published the proceedings.