The ecology and migrations of sea turtles 5:Comparative features of isolated green turtle colonies

As more is learned of the migrations of the green turtle, Chelonia mydas mydas (Linnaeus), it becomes increasingly clear that world populations of the genus, though spread broadly by post-breeding travel, are genetically isolated from one another by the habit of mating only at the few sites of aggregated nesting. These places are varyingly distant from the yeararound feeding territory and are often widely separated from one another. While some mingling of individuals may occur on the pasture ground, this, of course, would be of no genetic importance. If any interchange of genes occurs at the sites of group nesting, it would be only through the straying in of the occasional individual, lost or immune to the usual drives for group travel and reproduction. Such genetic fragmentation invited study on a comparative basis. The present paper is one of a series of investigations that involve the behavior and world-wide movements and ecology of the five genera of sea turtles. For several years Carr has hoped to augment the scant information available on the famous Ascension Island turtle ground, one of the original sources of green turtles for London soup chefs and for victualing ships of the British Navy. Eventually, with the authorization of Patrick Air Force