The HPA STRP traveled to Nagoya, Japan from June 14 to June 22 to attach satellite tags to the second cohort of juvenile loggerhead turtles as part of the STRETCH Project. Three students joined Laura Jim an Marc Rice to assist in the attachment of the 28 satellite tags.
Below are various posts about our activities during that trip.
Fermament Ace has left Yokohama, Japan is on its way to Balboa, Panama. Noah and Catherine are accompanying and caring for the 28 juvenile loggerhead turtles that were loaded on-board the Firmament Ace in Nagoya on June 26, 2024. The ship left Yokohama, Japan on 6/29 and, if you wish to follow its progress towards Balboa, please check in with VesselFinder.
Noah and Catherine in their STRETCH T shirts during "loading day" when they loaded the 28 satellite tagged juvenile loggerhead turtles on-board the Firmament Ace at the Port of Nagoya.
6/24/2024
STRETCH team members are now home after a productive week in Nagoya, Japan attaching satellite tags to 28 juvenile loggerhead turtles at the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium. We attached 7 tags/day for 4 days and now all 28 turtles are resting in their baskets at the aquarium. The turtles will be loaded on the MOL ship Firmament Ace on June 26th and will be accompanied on their voyage by Catherine and Noah (Noah accompanied and released Cohort 1 on July 11, 2023). The ship will, if all goes well, be at the suggested release point by July 9, 2024. If interested in seeing the release technique, Please watch the 2023 release video.
Above is a summary video of the process of attaching the satellite tags to the carapace of the juvenile loggerhead turtles.
Below are the numbers and names given to the 28 turtles
of the Cohort II
6/21/2024
Our trip to Koyo High School was very pleasant. Larry Crowder (STRETCH Co-PI) talked to about 40 students about his career path and experiences and then reviewed the STRETCH project results for Cohort I and talked about our plans for Cohort II. Below is a groups shot of the class and the STRETCH team.
The Koyo High School class, their teachers and the STRETCH team (Larry, Laura and Marc) after the STRETCH presentation.
We have completed the attachment of the tags and we will check on the turtles at the aquarium to make sure everything is fine with them. At 1355 h we will venture to Nagoya Koyo high school and Larry Crowder will give a presentation about the STRETCH project to a group of Japanese students.
Below is a little description about the Koyo High School:
Thank you for visiting the Koyo High School website.
Our school was established in 1948 when Nagoya Municipal Commercial High School and Nagoya Municipal Second High School were merged to become Nagoya Municipal Koyo High School.
In 2006, the school was designated a "Super Science High School" by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and has since been working on research aimed at improving science and mathematics education. Furthermore, in 2015, the "International Science Department" was established as the first science and mathematics department in Aichi Prefecture, with the goals of "nurturing global human resources who can compete on the world stage" and "advancing to top science and mathematics universities," and the school now plays a leading role in promoting science and mathematics education in the prefecture.
In recent years, the school has also been placing emphasis on inquiry-based learning, and every March students present the results of their research conducted during comprehensive inquiry time to an external audience.
Club activities are also very popular, with many participating in national and prefectural tournaments every year, making this a school that excels in both academics and sports.
Going forward, all of our teaching staff will continue to work together to encourage each and every student to have a warm and compassionate heart, an inquisitive mind that can discern the truth, and to grow up healthy and strong both physically and mentally. We will continue to provide educational activities that are even more satisfying than before, and strive to gain the support of many of you.
We appreciate your continued support.
Naotaka Akita, Principal of Nagoya Municipal Koyo High School
6/20/2024
We made our way to PNPA once again this morning (4th day) to attach 6 more tags. We were able to complete the attachments at 1300 hours for all 28 juvenile loggerheads in Cohort II. At the end of the day today the STRETCH team and all of the wonderful PNPA personnel gathered together to celebrate the end of the attachment process... BUT, this is just the beginning. These 28 juvenile turtles are destined to be released in the North eastern central Pacific ocean sometime around 7/9/2024. After their release, if all goes well, we will start getting location data for all of them and track their movements over the next 10-14 months.. Our hope is for the tags to last over one year!
The STRETCH team with 4 of the last 6 juvenile loggerheads that we completed today.
Juvenile loggerhead turtles that have been recently equipped with wildlife computer satellite tags are fed by aquarium staff. These juveniles are part of the 28 turtles that represent Cohort II of the STRETCH Project.
6/19/2024
Seven more satellite tags were attached to juvenile loggerheads today. We have 6 more to go tomorrow and we will have completed 28 turtles. Twenty five of the turtles are carrying Spot 6 tags which give location only and three of the turtles are carrying Splash10 297 tags which will transmit temperature and diving data which will help us to analyze the behavior of these three turtles that will help to explain/correlate their movement to their diving and feeding behavior.
The final group of 6 turtles will get their tags tomorrow!
6/18/2024
The STRETCH team has been working for the last two days at PNPA attaching satellite tags to 15 juvenile loggerhead turtles that are part of Cohort II. We have 13 more tags to attach and will complete that task over the next two days. Below is a short video of the process of attaching the tags onto the turtles that will be released into the northeast central Pacific ocean sometime around Jule 9, 2024. Please see the Loggerhead STRETCH web site for further information.
6/16/2024
We made it to Kanayama Nagoya at 1400 h and left our bags at the Crown Plaza Hotel before catching the metro to the aquarium to check in on the turtles. Masanori Mori met us and showed us the 28 stretch turtles he has been raising for 2 years. We were also able to see Cohort III turtles that are about 11 months old right now. The turtles all look very good and ready to start their next journey into the Pacific Ocean.
Below are some pictures of the turtles and some of the stretch team members.
Team members Jack, Laura and George join Mori-san in checking out Cohort II STRETCH turtles.
While we were with the turtles they were fed a delicious meal of fish and squid.
Laura Jim poses with some of Cohort III turtles (11 months old)
Head turtle curator, Masanori Mori.
Hungry Cohort III turtle
6/14/2024
We have begun our second trip to Nagoya to attach 25 Spot 6 satellite tags and 3 Splash10 tags to the juvenile loggerhead turtles that were hatched in Koichi, Japan and raised at PNPA. We will be starting the work on Monday, 6/17/24 at the aquarium. We are planning on attching 7 tags per day for 4 days. The turtles will then be kept in individual baskets in sea water to protect the sat tag antennas.
The MOL ship we are using to transport the turtles to the central north east Pacific is named the "Firmament Ace". You can follow the progress of the ship HERE . The ship will arrive in Nagoya Ko on 6/26 and the turtles will be loaded on the ship on 6/27. Subsequently the ship will go to Yokohama to complete cargo loading and then will depart for Panama. It is estimated that the ship will reach the release area on July 9th.
Because the turtles will not be release for several weeks after the tags are attached, we program the tags to be in standby mode of nearly three weeks before they begin transmitting locations (they use very little energy when in standby mode.
In addition, we are reducing the number of days the tags transmit locations to every other day in an effort to extend the battery life of the tags. IN THEORY, by reducing the frequency of transmission by 2, we should increase the number of days that the tag can transmit by 2... That is what we are hoping for!
