Online Map & Sea Turtle Database

SWOT’s interactive map and database of sea turtle biogeography is hosted and maintained by the SWOT Team and Duke University’s OBIS-SEAMAP. The database contains thousands of sea turtle nesting data records and sea turtle telemetry tracks that have been generously contributed by SWOT Team members worldwide and sourced from published literature, including sea turtle nesting data, satellite telemetry data, species distributions, Regional Management Unit (also called subpopulations) boundaries, genetic data (mtDNA and nDNA), and more.

Maps of Sea Turtle Biogeography

Starting with publication of the first comprehensive global map of leatherback turtle nesting in SWOT Report, vol. I in 2006, the SWOT Program has produced a variety of printed maps of sea turtle biogeography. Maps produced by SWOT have included the first comprehensive global maps of nesting distribution and abundance for all seven sea turtle species, continent-scale maps of nesting and satellite telemetry data for South America and Africa, national-scale maps of nesting for Costa Rica, the French Territories, and Japan, satellite telemetry of loggerhead turtles in the Pacific Ocean, and more. Our map of “Worldwide Green Turtle Nesting Sites” was awarded ESRI’s prestigious International Conservation Mapping Grand Prize in 2011.

Please note that while SWOT maps are crafted using the best available data at the time of production, errors can creep in and are often discovered post-publication. When this occurs, our experts make every effort to correct the original data to assure that all future products are derived from the most current and accurate information available.