Project synopsis: collecting sea turtle genetic samples to contribute to conservation and management planning and improve stock assessments and status reviews sea turtles are important components of…

The Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $127,017 Project Grant under the Broad Agency Announcement (CFDA 11.015) to The Ocean Foundation to collect sea turtle genetic samples. This will contribute to conservation and management planning efforts, and improve stock assessments and status reviews for sea turtle populations. The project will run from Sep 1, 2023 to Aug 31, 2024. Sea turtles are important components of healthy ocean and coral reef ecosystems, serving as predators, prey, and ecosystem engineers. Understanding stock structure, delineating stock boundaries, and assessing population-specific threats such as bycatch is critical to effectively assessing global or regional sea turtle status. Genetic analysis provides insights into population dynamics that cannot be gained through other means, supporting updated recovery plans and IUCN Red List designations.

Project synopsis: collecting sea turtle genetic samples to contribute to conservation and management planning and improve stock assessments and status reviews sea turtles are important components of healthy ocean and coral reef ecosystems as predators, prey, and as ecosystem engineers, distributing nutrients across reefs and beaches. To effectively assess the global or regional status of sea turtles, IT is important to understand stock structure, delineate stock boundaries and to assess population-specific threats such as bycatch that may affect populations. The best way to accomplish this is to use genetic techniques, as they offer insights into the population that cannot be gained in any other way. Genetic analysis of sea turtle populations has allowed researchers to delineate stocks globally, leading to updated recovery plans specific to particular countries and to inform designations by the international union for conservation of nature (iucn) so they can update red list specie