Bowen B W, Abreu-Grobois F A, Balazs G H, Kamezaki N, Limpus C J, Ferl R J
BEECS (Biotechnologies for the Ecological, Evolutionary, and Conservation Sciences) Genetic Analysis Core, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995 Apr 25;92(9):3731-4. doi: 10.1073/pnas.92.9.3731.
Juvenile loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) have recently been documented in the vicinity of Baja California and thousands of these animals have been captured in oceanic fisheries of the North Pacific. The presence of loggerhead turtles in the central and eastern North Pacific is a prominent enigma in marine turtle distribution because the nearest documented nesting concentrations for this species are in Australia and Japan, over 10,000 km from Baja California. To determine the origin of the Baja California feeding aggregate and North Pacific fishery mortalities, samples from nesting areas and pelagic feeding aggregates were compared with genetic markers derived from mtDNA control region sequences. Overall, 57 of 60 pelagic samples (95%) match haplotypes seen only in Japanese nesting areas, implicating Japan as the primary source of turtles in the North Pacific Current and around Baja California. Australian nesting colonies may contribute the remaining 5% of these pelagic feeding aggregates. Juvenile loggerhead turtles apparently traverse the entire Pacific Ocean, approximately one-third of the planet, in the course of developmental migrations, but mortality in high-seas fisheries raises concern over the future of this migratory population.
最近在加利福尼亚湾附近发现了幼年蠵龟（Caretta caretta），并且在北太平洋的海洋渔业中捕获了数千只这种动物。蠵龟在北太平洋中部和东部的出现是海龟分布中一个突出的谜团，因为该物种最近记录到的筑巢集中地在澳大利亚和日本，距离加利福尼亚湾超过10000公里。为了确定加利福尼亚湾觅食群体和北太平洋渔业中死亡个体的来源，将来自筑巢区和远洋觅食群体的样本与从线粒体DNA控制区序列获得的遗传标记进行了比较。总体而言，60个远洋样本中有57个（95%）与仅在日本筑巢区发现的单倍型相匹配，这表明日本是北太平洋洋流和加利福尼亚湾附近海龟的主要来源地。澳大利亚的筑巢群体可能占这些远洋觅食群体的其余5%。幼年蠵龟显然在发育迁徙过程中穿越了整个太平洋，约占地球的三分之一，但公海渔业中的死亡率引发了对这一洄游种群未来的担忧。
