Metadata for the Marine Turtle Tagging and Monitoring Program by Caño Palma Biological Station

This metadata repository describes long-term data collected by Caño Palma Biological Station and the Canadian Organization for Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation (COTERC). The dataset spans 2006–present and is collected at Playa Norte, Costa Rica, an important Atlantic rookery. Green (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), and leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are the most common species in the database, with infrequent observations of loggerheads (Caretta caretta). The data pertain to the following topics: All activity: Beach activity by nesting females is collected daily. When a nesting female is encountered, nest information, tag data, and body health information is collected. This data includes a tag database of all individuals observe on the study transect.Nest excavations: After a nest hatches or expires, information on embryo stage, predation, important incubation events, deformities, and nest success is recorded. Human impact: By Costa Rican law, human activity on the Playa Norte is prohibited during the sea turtle nesting season except with a permit. Data on the types, times, and locations of human activity observed during nighttime surveys is recorded.Survey effort: The effort expended by all field teams (i.e. morning, night, and excavation surveys) is recorded.Non-standardized data: This pertains to data that does not have a standardized format and does not exist for most years, and thus metadata is not included in this repository. Notably, daily nest status data contains detailed longitudinal information on events occurring throughout the incubation of each marked nest. For questions about the data or metadata, or if interested in collaborating or accessing this data, please email [e-mail]. More information about COTERC and Caño Palma Biological Station can be found at coterc.org.Peer reviewed publications using this dataset include:Damian, M., Harris, A., Aussage, J., & Fraser, G. S. (2022). Seasonal deposition of marine debris on an important marine turtle nesting beach in Costa Rica. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 177, 113525.Restrepo, J., Rojas-Cañizales, D., & Valverde, R. A. (2022). Historical Records of Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Nesting at Tortuguero, Costa Rica. Journal of Herpetology, 56(3), 336-340.Pheasey, H., Glen, G., Allison, N. L., Fonseca, L. G., Chacón, D., Restrepo, J., & Valverde, R. A. (2021). Quantifying illegal extraction of sea turtles in Costa Rica. Frontiers in Conservation Science, 2, 705556.Pheasey, H., Roberts, D. L., Rojas-Cañizales, D., Mejías-Balsalobre, C., Griffiths, R. A., & Williams-Guillen, K. (2020). Using GPS-enabled decoy turtle eggs to track illegal trade. Current Biology, 30(19), R1066-R1068.Pheasey, H., McCargar, M., Glinsky, A., & Humphreys, N. (2018). Effectiveness of concealed nest protection screens against domestic predators for green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) sea turtles. Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 17(2), 263-270.Velez-Espino, A., Pheasey, H., Araújo, A., & Fernández, L. M. (2018). Laying on the edge: demography of green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) nesting on Playa Norte, Tortuguero, Costa Rica. Marine Biology, 165(3), 1-12.