Two juvenile (curved carapace lengths: 28 and 30 cm) loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta with precocious male external characteristics were admitted to the ARCA del Mar rescue area at the Oceanogràfic Aquarium in Valencia, Spain, in 2009 and 2010. Routine internal laparoscopic examination and subsequent histopathology confirmed the presence of apparently healthy internal female gonads in bot...

Natal dispersal of sea turtles is an energetically demanding activity that is fuelled primarily by aerobic metabolism. However, during intense exercise reptiles can use anaerobic metabolism to supplement their energy requirements. We assessed anaerobic metabolism in dispersing hatchling loggerhead and flatback turtles by measuring the concentrations of blood lactate during crawling and at diffe...

Despite substantial knowledge on thermoregulation in reptiles, the mechanisms involved in heat exchange of sea turtles have not been investigated in detail. We studied blood flow in the front flippers of two green turtles, Chelonia mydas, and four loggerhead turtles, Caretta caretta, using Doppler ultrasound to assess the importance of regional blood flow in temperature regulation. Mean blood f...

We detected concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCs) in the liver, muscle, and fat of 11 loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta from the central and southern Adriatic Sea. All samples contained PCBs at various concentrations, with Congener 138 (28%), 153 (27%), and 180 (32%) dominating the congener composition of the tissues. The dioxin-like congene...

Like many sea turtles worldwide (Figure 1), loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) populations are declining by approximately three percent annually and the species is currently provided federally threatened status. Two potentially beneficial strategies could boost loggerhead populations. First, conservation groups have successfully limited access to beaches during the time when females lay th...

Effective conservation requires reliable data on the abundance and distribution of animals in space and time. During ship-based or aerial surveys for diving marine vertebrates such as sea turtles and marine mammals, a proportion of animals in a surveyed area will be missed because they are diving and out of view. While it is likely that dive and surface times vary with environmental conditions,...

Marine turtle reproductive success is correlated with the stability and quality of the nesting environment. Female marine turtles show fidelity to nesting beaches, making artificial beach nourishment practices directly relevant to their recovery. We evaluated the impacts of artificial beach nourishment on Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) between artificially nouri...

Decompression sickness (DCS), as clinically diagnosed by reversal of symptoms with recompression, has never been reported in aquatic breath-hold diving vertebrates despite the occurrence of tissue gas tensions sufficient for bubble formation and injury in terrestrial animals. Similarly to diving mammals, sea turtles manage gas exchange and decompression through anatomical, physiological, and be...

Pulmonary CO diffusion capacity ( D L C O ) , lung volume (VL), oxygen uptake (Vo ) and pulmonary blood flow (QL) were measured simultaneously in the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta (Linnaeus) (8—11 kg) using a gas rebreathing technique (syringe pump ventilation). Calculated D L C O and Vo values in the loggerhead turtle are approximately twice those of non-varanid reptiles and about 25 %...