https://doi.org/10.82144/7f4d0f73 https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1000 https://www.gbif.org/dataset/c855ce7c-6186-43d8-9dde-a5a10398a733 https://obis.org/dataset/bd535f4e-eb77-4e3f-b46c-7d5453f2381a Rachel Brittain AKAZUL – Community, Conservation, and Ecology Primary contact rachbrittain@yahoo.co.uk OBIS-SEAMAP Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University

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seamap-contact@duke.edu https://seamap.env.duke.edu distributor Rachel Brittain AKAZUL – Community, Conservation, and Ecology Primary contact rachbrittain@yahoo.co.uk owner 2025-07-31 eng Original provider: Akazul Dataset credits: Akazul Abstract: Akazul: Community, Conservation & Ecology has been operating its sea turtle conservation project since 2011 at La Barrona, one of Guatemala’s key nesting sites, utilized primarily by olive ridley (<i>Lepidochelys olivacea</i>) and infrequently by eastern Pacific green (<i>Chelonia mydas</i>) and leatherback (<i>Dermochelys coriacea</i>) sea turtles. From 1st July 2013 to 31st December 2013, Akazul conducted daily beach patrols across a 7.5 km study area and encountered a total of 67 dead sea turtles. Of these, 55 were <i>L. olivacea</i>, 11 were <i>C. mydas</i> and 1 was unknown. A peak of 35 dead turtles occurred in July where 28 olive ridley and 7 black sea turtles were recorded. A second peak was observed in October (N = 16), consisting of 12 olive ridley, 3 black and 1 unknown species of sea turtle. When possible, curved carapace length (CCL) and curved carapace width (CCW) measurements were collected and recorded in centimeters. Mean CCL and CCW for: 32 olive ridleys was 63.1 cm (range: 57-69.5 cm; SD = 3.1) and 68.0 cm (range: 61-73 cm; SD = 3.3), respectively; and 10 eastern Pacific green turtles was 68.2 cm (range: 54-81 cm; SD = 9.1) and 68.9 cm (range: 58-76 cm; SD = 6.2), respectively. Condition of stranded turtles was noted by the observer using the following classification scheme: alive without injuries, alive with injuries, fresh dead, moderately decomposed, dried carcass, skeleton (bones only). 44 turtles were recorded as fresh dead, 9 were moderately decomposed, 3 were severely decomposed and 2 were dried carcases. Cause of death was difficult to determine in virtually all turtles recorded and it is difficult to ascertain whether observed external injuries were obtained post-mortem. It is highly recommended that a regionally coordinated strandings program is implemented in the future as well as standardized sampling procedures to enable thorough analysis to effectively determine sources of mortality. Occurrence GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type.xml Observation GBIF Dataset Subtype Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_subtype.xml Marine Biology Visual sighting Land-based Strandings Sea turtles N/A This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License. https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1000 Oceans,Pacific Ocean -90.19668 -90.13625 13.77315 13.74654 2013-07-09 2013-12-28 Scientific names are based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). species Chelonia mydas Green sea turtle species Lepidochelys olivacea Olive ridley order Testudines Turtles Key to Akazul’s long-term goal is conducting monitoring activities on the turtle nesting beach at La Barrona in order to further our understanding of Guatemala’s sea turtle populations. There are undoubtedly additional sea turtle strandings along unmonitored areas of Guatemala’s Pacific coast and the opportunity exists to collect substantial data on annual sea turtle mortalities. Such data provides valuable insights into the biology of and threats impacting populations of sea turtles present in Guatemalan waters (e.g. sources of mortality, locations of negative interactions between humans and sea turtles and spatial and temporal species distribution). asNeeded Rachel Brittain AKAZUL – Community, Conservation, and Ecology Primary contact rachbrittain@yahoo.co.uk NA NA NA Rachel Brittain owner NA zd_1000 2025-07-31T16:06:05-04:00 dataset Brittain, R. 2020. Akazul sea turtle strandings at La Barrona, Guatemala 2013. Version 1.6.0. Dataset published in OBIS-SEAMAP. https://doi.org/10.82144/7f4d0f73. OBIS-SEAMAP Dataset Page UTF-8 Interactive map https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1000 FGDC Metadata UTF-8 XML https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1000/fgdc EML Metadata UTF-8 XML https://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/1000/eml OBIS-SEAMAP zd_1000 zd_1000