Data validating radiocarbon aging in sea turtle hatchling eye lens samples obtained from Nassau to Volusia Counties in north Florida, 1992 and 2019-2021

This dataset contains data validating radiocarbon aging in sea turtle hatchling eye lens samples obtained from Nassau to Volusia Counties in north Florida between 2019-2021 and one sample from 1992. Population health assessments and conservation measures rely on accurate aging to estimate life-histories parameters, such as age at sexual maturity, timing of habitat shifts, and life-stage duration. Sea turtles are typically aged using skeletochronology, in which annual lines of arrested growth (LAGs) in the humerus are stained and counted, but there are multiple challenges to aging older individuals. In the 1950s and 1960s, nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific Ocean resulted in an atmospheric spike of radiocarbon (14C), which has become a useful tracer in aging applications of other taxa, including fish. In this study, we examined the efficacy of using eye lens Δ14C values to validate age estimates in sea turtle hatchlings. We measured loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green (Chelonia mydas) sea turtle eye lens Δ14C values from 15 hatchlings collected along eastern Florida during 2019-2021 and one hatchling from 1992. Hatchling sea turtle Δ14C values decreased annually, as expected. Though sea turtle eye lens Δ14C varied among individuals in a given year, this variation did not correlate with straight carapace length (SCL) or carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values.