JUVENILE GREEN TURTLE STRANDED AT THIKKODI BEACH, KERALA, INDIA

RAMYA ABHIJITH^1,#, SHILTA M.T¹, BINDU SULOCHANAN² & VINOD K³

¹ICAR–Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Calicut Regional Station, Calicut, Kerala, India

²ICAR–Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Mangalore Regional Centre, Mangaluru, Karnataka, India

³ICAR–Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Mandapam Regional Centre, Mandapam Camp, Tamil Nadu, India

^#ramyakovilody@gmail.com

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In the coastal regions of Kerala, India, olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) nest at low densities along the sandy shores while olive ridley, green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) turtles forage in the state’s waters. Sea turtles in Kerala face significant threats, including habitat loss, pollution, climate change and accidental capture in fishing gear (Bhupathy, 2007).

A dead juvenile green turtle (Figure 1 and 2) was found stranded on Thikkodi beach, Kolavipalam, Calicut, Kerala, on 11^th December 2023. The stranding location was ~10km from the known nesting beach of olive ridley turtles at Kolavipalam Beach, Kerala. The stranded turtle was in a relatively fresh condition when found, and weighed 32kg (Delta Digital Scales, max 200kg capacity).

Figure 1. Dorsal View of the Stranded Juvenile Green Turtle. (Photo credit: Ramya Abhijith)Figure 2. Ventral View of the Stranded Juvenile Green Turtle. (Photo credit: Ramya Abhijith)

The northern Indian Ocean subpopulation of green turtles was recently assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (Mancini et al., 2019). In India, all species of sea turtle are included in Schedule-I part (2) of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. There is one other stranding of a green turtle from the same beach (Abhijith et al., 2020) but no regular survey for stranded turtles or in-water surveys to understand threats and abundance of sea turtles in the area.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are very grateful to The Director, ICAR‐ Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India, for providing all support and never ending encouragement for carrying out this study.

Literature cited:

Abhijith, R., P. Kaladharan, P.K. Asokan, K. Vinod, M.T. Shilta, V. Mahesh & K. Anirudh. 2020. Note on green turtle found on Thikkody beach. Marine Fisheries Information Service, Technical and Extension Series 245: 33.

Bhupathy, S. 2007. Monitoring of marine turtles along the Kerala and Tamil Nadu coasts. Indian Ocean Turtle Newsletter 5: 1-9.

Mancini, A., A.D. Phillott & A.F. Rees. 2019. Chelonia mydas (North Indian Ocean subpopulation) (errata version published in 2019). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T142121108A154845002.