Mericho

Eastern Pacific Black marine turtle

A project of WWF.

click map for full-size version Mericho has traveled from the coral reef to the South Azufrada Gorgona Island. We continue to follow the new routes of movement in this area or open sea!!!!

Full-Size Map (70KB)
Zoom Map (80KB)
Animated Map (70KB)

Species: Black Turtle
Life Stage: Sub-Adult
Gender: Male
Release Date: 2012-06-19 20:30:00
Release Location: Parque Nacional Natural Gorgona, Colombia
Last Location: 2012-07-02 17:51:36

Background

Mericho is the name of a subadult male black turtle of 72.6 cm (CCL) caught by hand while snorkeling at 10 m depth in La Azufrada coral reef at Gorgona national Park, Colombian Pacific. This healthy long tailed male, was named Mericho, the nickname of a Colombian researcher committed for long time to the conservation of sea turtles in the Eastern Pacific. This foraging black turtle was released with a SPOT 5 satellite transmitter attached to his carapace and a metal tag applied on his left front flipper. Mericho is the second turtle and first male captured in water and satellite tracked by the "Eastern Pacific marine turtles Bycatch Program." This great achievement has been possible thanks to the kindly support of WWF NL and the National Lottery Oceans Project and it is a joint effort of WWF´s Marine Turtle Bycatch Reduction Program in the Eastern Pacific, WWF's Latin-American and the Caribbean Species Program, Fauna and Flora International (FFI), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Centro de Investigación y Conservarción Marina (CICMAR), Centro de Investigación para el Manejo Ambiental y el Desarrollo (CIMAD) y la Unidad de Parques Nacionales de Colombia. We acknowledge the Gorgona National Park, Ximena Zorrilla, Luis F. Payán, Hector Chririmia, volunteers and colleagues that contribute muscles and enthusiasm during night diving seeking turtles, and WWF research assistant Luis Merizalde and CIMAD biologist Alexander Tobón for their support to deploy two PTT and two acoustic tags on turtles assessed during the 3-day fieldwork. The developmental movements of Mericho and his journey along the Eastern Pacific growing grounds can be followed here.