Tammy Summer has been working with the DFW turtle program headed by Joe Ruak since she came on board two months ago.
She was hired through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Island Regional Office to give technical support to DFW’s federally funded sea turtle program.
Ruak said it’s the first time for the CNMI to have a marine biologist that specializes on turtles.
Summer is working on four tasks.
The first is the in-water capture in which her team measures and tags green sea turtles in the waters.
This research is a baseline monitoring system to give them an idea of the CNMI’s sear turtle population.
To date, 28 green sea turtles and one hawks bill turtle have been tagged.
The second task involves a nest-monitoring program through which they check the reproductive activity of the green sea turtles by ensuring the safety of their nests during the nesting season.
The third task involves cliff-side surveys through which the green sea turtles’ mating is monitored.
The turtle team goes to the cliff so they can observe the mating turtles from a vantage point.
The fourth task is necropsy through which they take bone and tissue samples that are then sent to the NOAA laboratory to determine the genetic origin of the green sea turtle.
The CNMI has four major foraging grounds for green sea turtles.
Ruak said having a marine biologist will help the program get more funding so that it can be extended to Rota, Tinian and the Northern Islands.
Now that they have a marine biologist, they can continue to learn more about the CNMI’s green sea turtle population, he added.
