Gulf of Mexico Marine Assessment Project for Protected Species: Sea Turtles

The overarching goal of the Gulf of Mexico Marine Assessment Project for Protected Species: sea turtles (GOMMAPPS) study was to collect broad-scale information on the distribution and abundance of sea turtles in the Gulf to inform seasonally- and spatially-explicit density estimates for priority species. GOMMAPPS represents a multi-agency partnership between BOEM, USFWS, NOAA, and USGS, all of whom collect information on large marine vertebrates to provide improved spatially-explicit density distributions for multiple management objectives. Though GOMMAPPS is intended to provide broad-scale information, specific locations identified for satellite tagging targeted regions of highest oil and gas activity (i.e., in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico).