In addition, we verified that fish and seaweed, which inhabit the Korean sea, are frequently detected in the stomach of sea turtles. Our findings support those of previous studies suggesting that sea turtles are steadily appearing in the Korean sea. The gulfweed, Sargassum thunbergii, and the kelp species, Saccharina japonica, were frequently detected from the stomachs of green turtles and the jellyfish, Cyanea nozakii, the swimming crab, Portunus trituberculatus, and kelps had high frequencies of occurrences in loggerhead turtles. Based on DNA analysis, food items from a total of 26 stomachs were identified to the species or genus level. Seaweeds were abundant in stomachs of green turtles, and Bivalvia was the most detected food item in loggerhead turtles. Food remains were morphologically identified from 19 stomachs, mainly at class level. In most species, the proportion of females was higher than that of males and juveniles, and was more than 70% across all the species. Comparing the sizes of collected sea turtles according to species, the average CCL of loggerhead turtles was 79.8 cm, of green turtles was 73.5 cm, and of the relatively large leatherback turtle species was 126.2 cm. In terms of locations, most sea turtles were collected from the East Sea, especially from Pohang. The highest numbers were collected in the year 2017 and during summer among the seasons. There were 36 loggerhead turtles, which were the dominant species, followed by 19 green turtles, three hawksbill turtles, two olive ridley turtles, and two leatherback turtles. ResultsĪ total of 62 stranded or bycaught sea turtle samples were collected from the Korean shores during the study period. For an analysis of diets through stomach contents, we identified the morphology of the remaining food and extracted DNA, followed by amplification, cloning, and sequencing. To investigate the spatio-temporal occurrence patterns of sea turtles on the Korean shore, we recorded sampling locations and dates, identified species and sexes and measured sizes (maximum curved carapace length CCL) of collected sea turtles from the year 2014 to 2020. More studies on sea turtles in Korea are necessary to aid their conservation. Sea turtles, which are globally endangered species, have been stranded and found as bycatch on the Korean shore recently.
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