In 2007, the Wildlife Conservation Society, in partnership with the Belize Fisheries Department, initiated a long term in-water sea turtle monitoring program at Glover’s Reef Atoll. The main objectives of the monitoring program are to:
• Determine an absolute abundance estimate of the Glover’s Reef Atoll fore-reef habitat aggregation and long-term abundance;
• Increase our knowledge of sea turtle movements and habitat use;
• Assess genetic stock of foraging sea turtles at Glover’s Reef;
• Study growth rates of sea turtles at Glover’s Reef; and
• Build the capacity of stakeholders to collect accurate, reliable, and standardized data from foraging index sites (several staff from Government and NGOs have been trained).
In 2013, the program expanded to include satellite tagging in an effort to study the long-range movement of sea turtles. Five sea turtles have been tagged so far (2 Green and 3 Hawksbill Turtles) with Smart Position or Temperature Transmitting (SPOT 5) satellite transmitter tags.