Case report: tracking data from foraging hawksbill turtles in the northern Red Sea

Abstract Background Hawksbill turtles ( Eretmochelys imbricata ) are Critically Endangered throughout their global range, and concerningly little is known about this species in the Red Sea. With large-scale coastal development projects underway northern Sea, it critical to understand movement habitat use patterns of hawksbill environmentally unique region, so that effective conservation strategies can be implemented. We satellite tagged three turtles, one 63 cm curved carapace length adult male captured near Wahlei Island, 55 turtle Gulf Aqaba, 56 suffering from a floating syndrome which was at Waqqadi rehabilitated, released Island. Turtles were tracked for 156, 199, 372 days between October 2020 November 2021. Results calculated home ranges core areas using kernel-density estimations found each showed high fidelity foraging sites. Home with GPS-derived locations ranged 13.6 2.86 km 2, whereas Argos-derived 38.98 286.45 2 . also revealed higher proportion time spent coral rock habitats compared Argos, based on location overlap Allen Coral Reef Atlas. making shallow dives, usually remaining 0 5 m. Conclusions While number study small, represents an important contribution current understanding spatial ecology among globally, provides first-ever reported tracking data Our results suggest protecting reef implementing boating speed limits reefs could measures face rapid development.