Diet of oceanic loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the central North Pacific Item Type article Authors Parker, Denise M.; Cooke, William J.; Balazs, George H. Download date 29/09/2021 11:03:34 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/26255 ART & EQUATIONS ARE LINKED Preflight Good 142 Abstract — Diet analysis of 52 log- gerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) Diet of oceanic loggerhead sea turtles collected as bycatch from 1990 to 1992 (Caretta caretta) in the central North Pacific in the high-seas driftnet fishery oper- ating between lat. 29.5°N and 43°N and between long. 150°E and 154°W Denise M. Parker demonstrated that these turtles fed Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research predominately at the surface; few 8604 La Jolla Shores Drive deeper water prey items were pres- La Jolla, California 92037 ent in their stomachs. The turtles Present address: Northwest Fisheries Science Center ranged in size from 13.5 to 74.0 cm National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA curved carapace length. Whole tur- Newport, Oregon 97365-5275 tles (n=10) and excised stomachs E-mail address:
[email protected] (n=42) were frozen and transported to a laboratory for analysis of major faunal components. Neustonic species William J. Cooke accounted for four of the five most AECOS, Inc. common prey taxa. The most common 970 N. Kalaheo Avenue, Suite C311 prey items were Janthina spp. (Gas- Kailua, Hawaii 96734 tropoda); Carinaria cithara Benson 1835 (Heteropoda); a chondrophore, Velella velella (Hydrodia); Lepas spp. George H. Balazs (Cirripedia), Planes spp. (Decapoda: Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu Laboratory Grapsidae), and pyrosomas (Pyrosoma National Marine Fisheries Service spp.).