What Works: Tracking of Rehabilitated Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles Released in the New York Bight

The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation has rescued and rehabilitated marine mammals and sea turtles since 1996. To understand the movements of rehabilitation seals and sea turtles satellite and sonic tags were used. Wildlife computers satellite linked position only tags and time depth recorders were used on three species of cetaceans: bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griesus):  four species of pinnipeds; harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), gray seal (Halichoerus grypus), harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus), ringed seal (Pusa hispida) and three species of sea turtle; green (Chelonia mydas), loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempi). During the summer of 2010 the RFMRP using sonic tags on rehabilitated sea turtles. These tags have exhibited longer retention times.