Insights into identifying habitat hot spots and migratory corridors of green turtles in the South China region

Sea turtles are globally endangered, and face daily anthropogenic threats, such as direct take, by‐catch, and habitat degradation. Current research efforts on sea turtles in the South China region mainly focus on captivity and husbandry, haematology and blood chemistry, and nesting ecology. Published information on the marine habitat use of wild populations is limited. This situation therefore creates a pressing need for scientific research on free‐ranging sea turtles as a foundation for habitat management and species protection in South China. In this study, habitat use and oceanic movement of nesting, and by‐catch or stranded green turtles, were determined by satellite tracking combined with home‐range analysis. Coupled with previous findings, the foraging grounds of several sea turtle species (green turtle Chelonia mydas, hawksbill turtle Eretmochelys imbricata and loggerhead Caretta caretta) were mainly distributed along the coasts of Hainan Island Province and Guangdong Province, mainland China, as well as Taiwan and the Philippines, and the outlying islands in the South China Sea and East China Sea. Habitat hot spots and migratory corridors of green turtles, in particular nesting turtles in South China, were identified. Coastal waters near Wanning City of Hainan Island, the eastern Leizhou Peninsula, Iriomote‐jima and Ishigaki‐shima of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and Dao Bach Long Vi of Vietnam serve as foraging grounds for nesting green turtles from different origins in South China. Moreover, the Paracel (Xisha) and the Pratas (Dongsha) Islands in the South China Sea, Huidong Gangkou, and its vicinity in mainland China, and Liouciou Island and Penghu Island of Taiwan contain both nesting sites and foraging grounds for green turtles. The sites that are associated with migratory corridors, in particular Hainan Island, eastern Leizhou Peninsula, and Liouciou Island, which currently lack conservation plans for sea turtles, should be given higher priority for habitat and species protection.