I wore a mask indoors at #ISTS43. Several people asked me if I was sick. My answer was: no, I just want to stay healthy. It seems to have worked, as I now know of multiple attendees who are sick.

J’s picture next to red text that says, “Hey girl, I dig sea turtles too.”

ISTS attendees hold blue marbles up their eyes to emulate looking through water.

A blue marble in my palm. J used to hand these out to show that this is what our planet looks like from a million miles away.

Friends of J accept the Lifetime Achievement Award.

We also honored Wallace J. Nichols with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award. All attendees received blue marbles in his memory. #ISTS43

Andrea Phillot, on behalf of nominees who could not be present, honors Tony Tucker who is pictured on the screen behind her.

Yesterday, we remembered Tony Tucker and honored him with a posthumous ISTS Lifetime Achievement Award.
#ISTS43

Nominator Mustapha Aksissou speaks as President Andrews Agyekumhene stands next to Manjula Tiwari.

Andrews Agyekumhene presents the Presidential Award to Manjula Tiwari.

Congratulations to Manjula Tiwari, ACCSTR alum, for receiving two awards last night: ISTS Champion in Conservation Award and the Presidential Award!

#ISTS43

Six of eight awardees stand on the stage with Andrews Agyekumhene and Andrea Phillip presenting the awards. The other two were not able to attend the awards ceremony.

Congrats to the #ISTS43 student award winners!

A square plate containing fried plantains on the left and red red (bean stew) on the right.

A bowl of stew containing okra and meat on the left with two bulb-shaped chunks of banku on the right. Traditionally, the banku was wrapped with leaves, not plastic.

I have eaten these two traditional dishes multiple times this week because I liked them so much. #ISTS43

L: Red red (Ghanaian bean stew) with plantains
R: Okra stew with banku (fermented maize and cassava dough that is boiled)

Excited to hear about NEXT year's International Sea Turtle Symposium in Hawaii!! #ISTS43 #ISTS44 #seaturtles

A journal article page with the bottom third torn off

Two out in one week - must be the power of #ISTS43!

Sea turtle eggs need the right conditions to develop & where Mom picks to nest plays a role. So what happens when things get warmer? Great collab with @uncw-cms.bsky.social & BHIC (@paulhillbrand.bsky.social)

Find it: tinyurl.com/36n4ntwz 🐢🐍🦑🌎🌊🧪

Humane euthanasia is often not discussed in #seaturtle rehabilitation. Harrison Watler presented a decision making framework that could help. #ISTS43

Thank you to all who came to my presentation! #ISTS43 🐢

Environmental enrichment is very beneficial to #seaturtles in rehabilitation. Eva-Marie Alexandra Pangiotou presented work done at Two Oceans Aquarium and found even short term exposure to increased desired exploratory behavior and decreased undesired stereotypical behavior. #ISTS43

In a first comprehensive clinical assessment of #seaturtles in Saudi Arabia, Maximilian M.R. Polyak found 90% of turtles present with chronic debilitation syndrome. Uric acid levels very high. Other indicators of stress. Very interesting! #ISTS43

Even though Guanabara Bay, Brazil is polluted, green #seaturtles use it as a feeding ground from juvenile to subadult stages. Gisele Lobo-Hajdu shared that 60% have FP tumors. She took and analyzed cloacal swabs and identified 7 bacterial species, 6 of which are resistant to antibiotics. #ISTS43

Regional clusters of ChHV5 exist on the east coast of Australia, similar to other parts of the world. Karina Jones analyzed samples biopsied from FP tumors on #seaturtles along the west coast of Australia and also found regional clusters. 2 of 3 clusters matched east coast variants. #ISTS43

The prevalence of fibropapillomatilosis (FP) tumors is higher on #seaturtle ventral surfaces, reported Carson Harvill. She studied wild juvenile green turtles as well as those in rehabilitation in Florida. InageJ was helpful in analyzing photos. GoPros were challenging to use in the wild. #ISTS43

Very sobering, given #climatechange. Significant differences in blood values exist between 4-5 wk #seaturtle neonates that incubated in hot nests vs cold nests, found Samantha G. Kuschke. Her findings suggest there could be long term negative impacts from increased incubation temps. #ISTS43

Chemical exposure can change over time. Kimberly A. Finlayson suggests including a temporal element in studies of contaminants in #seaturtles to better understand risk. Effects-based analysis can help identify risk from organics. #ISTS43

In a study of juvenile hawksbill #seaturtles in the Maldives, Mariana Fragoso conducted health assessments, established clinical range. Maximilian M.R. Polyak presented the project. While most turtles exhibited good body condition, clinical findings found stressors to renal function. #ISTS43

Interesting project! Krista Blair Reed analyzed blood samples taken from nesting and non-nesting loggerhead #seaturtles in the Yucatan. #ISTS43

Using biomarkers that indicate physiological processes, Joslyn Blessing Kent found her study group of captive hawksbill #seaturtles are capital breeders. Markers examined included triglycerides (TRG), beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), and testosterone (T). TRG useful as a reproductive biomarker. #ISTS43

The technological tools available to identify individual #seaturtles from photographs are amazing! Jesús Fernando Franco López presented the Graph Attention Networks (GAT) Model, a strong new model that performs very well in image identification. #ISTS43

Fascinating morphological and kinematic study of leatherback hatchlings presented by Samantha Elizabeth Trail. Leatherbacks appear to produce force in different portions of the power stroke than other #seaturtles. #ISTS43

Does paternity impact #seaturtle hatchling fitness? Speaking on behalf of Alyssa Rose Hennessey, Holly Schmidt presented results suggesting that hatchlings from multiple paternity nests perform slightly better on crawling tests & righting tests than hatchlings from single paternity nests. #ISTS43

Color vision differences likely optimize foraging and navigation based on habitat- specific light availability, asserted Mohammed F. Khayat. He found this partitioning in studies of green and hawksbill #seaturtles. #ISTS43

Bio-fouling made plastic more attractive to green #seaturtles, found Lyu Lyu. Turtles appear to use both visual and olfactory cues, with smell being most important. #ISTS43

Models can offer insight into #seaturtle movement. Julien Temple-Boyer presented a Sea Turtle Active Movement Model (STAMM) and validate it with data from satellite- tracked turtles. #ISTS43

In studying green #seaturtles in shallow mangrove creeks in the Bahamas, Ruth Doñate-Ordóñez found some of the shortest dives ever recorded. She suggested the turtles are partially inflating their lungs for neutral buoyancy. Conservation implication - Possible risk of drowning faster. #ISTS43

Surveys performed over 4 years in the Carragas Islands off Brazil found the longest stay was 45 days. Suzana Machado Guimarães explained that #seaturtles showed strong site fidelity. Turtles were mainly observed at depths <10m. Red algae and filamentous green algae were preferred food. #ISTS43

In another #citizenscience project around Reunion Island, 2 decades of #seaturtle sightings gathered from divers lend insight into the greens and hawksbills in that area. Claire Jean also shared some pros and cons of these data. #ISTS43