The Marine Turtle
Interactive Mapping System (or Marine Turtle IMapS) has been developed
to provide user-friendly, public access to reliable and current
information on marine turtles.
The Marine Turtle IMapS is being developed by UNEP-WCMC
on behalf of the Convention
on Migratory Species. The system is global in scope, while being
developed on a regional basis, and is concerned with all species
of marine turtles. It is designed as an interactive facility to
enable the exchange of data, while enabling contributors to retain
ownership and credit for their work.
The system is designed to facilitate the integration
of public-domain field data, such as distribution, abundance, migration,
trends, status, photographs, and information on index beaches, together
with habitat information such as presence and extent of sea grasses,
coral reefs, mangroves, priority areas such as Internationally and
Nationally Protected Areas, and physical background parameters.
The system enables the user to combine and print
the various available data and layers on demand. It provides a zoom-in/zoom-out
function to reduce or amplify the area under analysis and provides
links to specialised sites on the internet.
The Marine Turtle IMapS in the Indian Ocean and Australasian Region
has been developed in support of the Memorandum of Understanding
on the Conservation and Management of Marine Turtles and their Habitats
of the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia (IOSEA
MoU).
This region constitutes the first phase of the global Marine Turtle
IMapS and provides initially a web-based interface to the Marine
Turtle Database already developed by Dr Colin Limpus, of the Queensland
National Parks and Wildlife Service and an IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle
specialist.
The approach being used here is to develop a working model for
the Indian Ocean and Australasian region using quality assured data,
the latest technology for GIS and web presentation, and existing
environmental data at UNEP-WCMC relevant to turtle management programmes.
The system includes information on the Flatback (Natator depressus),
Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), Loggerhead (Caretta
caretta), Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), Leatherback
(Dermochelys coriacea) and Green turtle (Chelonia mydas).
Click on the icon to enter the IMAPS for the Indian Ocean and Australasian
region.
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