AUTHOR=Lamont Margaret M. , Johnson Darren TITLE=Variation in Species Composition, Size and Fitness of Two Multi-Species Sea Turtle Assemblages Using Different Neritic Habitats JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=7 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.608740 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2020.608740 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=
The neritic environment is rich in resources and as such plays a crucial role as foraging habitat for multi-species marine assemblages, including sea turtles. However, this habitat also experiences a wide array of anthropogenic threats. To prioritize conservation funds, targeting areas that support multi-species assemblages is ideal. This is particularly important in the Gulf of Mexico where restoration actions are currently ongoing following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. To better understand these areas in the Gulf of Mexico, we characterized two multi-species aggregations of sea turtles captured in different neritic habitats. We described species composition and size classes of turtles, and calculated body condition index for 642 individuals of three species captured from 2011 to 2019: 13.6% loggerheads (