Historical sea turtle relocation trawling data in the southeast U.S. (1991 - 2024)

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Wetlands Aquatic Research Center worked alongside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to amalgamate over three decades of relocation trawling records. It is USACE's mission to provide safe, reliable, efficient , and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation systems (channels, harbors, and waterways) for movement of commerce, national security needs, and recreation. Coastal waterways and harbors are often maintained by using hopper dredging to remove sediment from the channels. USACE also provides coastal storm resiliency through efforts including nourishing beaches. A portion of those beaches are nourished using sand acquired from borrow sites under BOEM's jurisdiction. Since the 1980's, relocation trawling has been used as a minimization measure to reduce the likelihood of lethal take of sea turtles from hopper dredging. Protected Species Observers (PSOs) onboard both hopper dredges and relocation trawlers monitor and handle the capture of protected species, including sea turtles and fish, under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The protected species captured during relocation trawling efforts include Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii), loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta), green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys Coriacea), Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus), Gulf sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi), shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum), and smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata). These species are identified in the data by their respective species initial abbreviations: lk, cc, cm, dc, ei, ao, aod, ab, and pp. These PSOs are approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and funded under USACE contracts for dredging or required for specific USACE permitted dredging projects. PSO reports are then required to be submitted to USACE to document details about the trawling and captures. USGS oversaw the digitization of available paper PSO reports and incorporated them with other available digital records provided by USACE. The thirty years of records covering multiple Divisions within USACE resulted in missing records that were thankfully provided by PSO companies including Coastwise Consulting Inc. and East Coast Observers, Inc.. The Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research at the University of Florida hosts the sea turtle tagging database and also provided records of USACE projects completed by PSO companies including Coastwise Consulting, East Coast Observers, and Research, Environmental, and Management Support (REMSA). This multi-year effort required an extensive data carpentry effort by the USGS that standardized and homogenized data contents, amended human error during the data digitization process, and bound many individual datasets together into a single, organized dataset. These data will be used by agencies to make policy decisions based on an evaluation of the relocation trawling efforts. Other stakeholders and researchers will also have access to these data when asking future research questions and generating queries.