Monday, February 8, 2010

No more emails from Carol!

Carol the Hawksbill turtle from Seychelles sent her last email to MCSS on 27th November 2009. After more than 700 days of data transmission to the Argos Satellite System, the battery on the revolutionary Mk10-AF fast-loc tag from Wildlife Computers has finally died.

Carol was one of the first turtles to be fitted with this type of tag, which records not only the standard data such as depth, temperature and light levels but also takes snapshots of GPS locations, allowing researchers to more accurately track movement patterns.


Currently Carol is the longest recorded satellite tracked animal, in terms of duration, in Seychelles - the longest whale shark attachment so far has been 123 days for a PAT tagged shark - and is possibly a world record for a GPS-satellite tagged turtle.

Carol should hopefully be returning to Seychelles during the 2010-11 nesting season. If she is captured while nesting, MCSS should be able to download 64MB worth of data, reporting on her every move, minute by minute, over the 704 days she kept in touch.

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