Supplementary Table 1. The 73 turtles successfully tracked from the four rookeries innorth-west Australia from 2005 to 2012 (Barrow Island [Barrow], n = 44 turtles; Mundabullangana [Munda], n = 2; Port Hedland [PHed], n = 21; Thevenard Island [Theven], n = 6).*One location (location closest to midday) was retained per day per turtle from the date of departure from the rookery to the furthest location to which each turtle migrated, excluding all locations at intermittent and final foraging locations.
TurtleCCLYearNestingUnitDate departNo. ofMax. migratoryGeneral
ID(cm)locationtypebreeding sitetrackingdisplacementdirection
days used*(km)of travel
1902005BarrowKiwisat1/1/2006541335NE
2902005BarrowKiwisat14/1/2006471410NE
3902005MundaKiwisat21/1/2006421010NE
4872006BarrowKiwisat27/12/200725755NE
5862006BarrowKiwisat21/1/2007441585NE
6852006BarrowFastloc13/1/200721380NE
7872006MundaKiwisat19/1/200721835NE
8892007 BarrowKiwisat2/1/20081755R
9922007 BarrowFastloc11/1/200816260NE
10922007 BarrowFastloc16/12/200810135NE
11912007 BarrowFastloc7/1/200834855NE
1290 2008BarrowFastloc25/1/200935920NE
13862008BarrowFastloc3/1/200929865NE
14902008BarrowFastloc4/1/200924630NE
15902008BarrowKiwisat21/1/200949850NE
16892008PHedFastloc3/1/200929420SW
17872008PHedFastloc8/1/200916770NE
18852008PHedFastloc22/12/200919370SW
19892009BarrowSRDL15/12/200930625NE
20882009Barrow SRDL7/1/20102170R
21912009BarrowSRDL11/1/201035770NE
22892009BarrowSRDL10/1/201057850NE
23912009BarrowSRDL9/1/2010741370NE
24962009BarrowSRDL`28/12/200980700NE
25902009BarrowSRDL9/1/20102970R
26872009BarrowSRDL8/12/20091051315NE
27912009BarrowSRDL21/1/2010980R
28902009BarrowSRDL16/1/2010421405NE
29932009BarrowSRDL26/12/20091590R
30962009BarrowSRDL15/1/2010992R
31902009BarrowSRDL10/1/2010771635NE
32902009BarrowSRDL1/12/2009521290NE
33882009BarrowSRDL29/12/2009951500 NE
34882009BarrowSRDL27/1/2010781800NE
35872009BarrowSRDL15/12/200947800NE
36912009BarrowSRDL30/11/200934830NE
37922009PHedMK10-A16/1/201019440SW
38852009PHedMK10-A4/1/201012405SW
39862009PHedMK10-A27/12/2009571170NE
40872009PHedMK10-A22/12/2009411040NE
41872009PHedMK10-A11/12/2009795R
42862009PHedMK10-A6/1/2010581090NE
43862009PHedMK10-A11/12/200939835NE
44932009PHedMK10-A10/12/2009 27465NE
45942009PHedMK10-A28/12/2009 862695NE
46902010BarrowSRDL27/12/201053930NE
47912010BarrowSRDL16/12/201050625NE
48902010BarrowSRDL1/1/201147780NE
49902010BarrowSRDL7/1/201147855NE
50892010BarrowSRDL2/1/201133760NE
51902010BarrowSRDL1/1/201154400NE
52892010BarrowSRDL14/1/201137780NE
53882010PHedSRDL27/12/201029325NE
54902010PHedSRDL22/12/201012230NE
55902010PHedSRDL8/1/201120295NE
56882010PHedSRDL29/12/2010381640NE
57992010TheveSRDL16/12/2010781320NE
58922010TheveSRDL11/12/2010240R
59892010TheveSRDL14/12/2010310R
60982010TheveSRDL16/12/201043675NE
61922010TheveSRDL13/12/201018275NE
62892010TheveSRDL13/12/201044435NE
63922011BarrowSRDL15/12/2011471050NE
64892011BarrowSRDL20/12/201140805NE
65902011BarrowSRDL4/1/201254960NE
66932011BarrowSRDL4/1/201215440NE
67922011BarrowSRDL20/1/201213365NE
68912011BarrowSRDL5/1/2012611135NE
69922011PHedSRDL25/12/201145520NE
70902011PHedSRDL23/11/2011535R
71922011PHedSRDL3/12/201152970NE
72892011PHedSRDL22/11/2011475R
73902011PHedSRDL3/12/201148460NE
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Supplementary Table 2.Percentage of state and commonwealth reserves (ordered from west to east) that encompassed the flatback corridor cumulative track cells.
Reserve codeReserve name Reserve typeReserve size (km2)Zones traversed>1.5 SD (%)All SD (%)
by turtle tracksOverlap (%)categories (%)
MB-CRMontebelloCommonwealth3412Multiple-use0100
MB-SRMontebelloState578x2 General use +0100
x3 Special purpose +
x3 Sanctuary +
x2 Recreation
BS-SRBarrow IslandState1206Marine management +1866
Conservation +
Sanctuary
D-CRDampierCommonwealth1251Special purpose (ports) +62100
Marine national park
EM-CREighty Mile BeachCommonwealth10785Multiple-use59100
EM-SREighty Mile BeachState1483Marine park1643
R-CRRoebuckCommonwealth303Multiple-use17100
K-CRKimberleyCommonwealth74468Habitat protection zone +17100
x2 Marine national park +
Multiple-use
OS-CROceanic ShoalsCommonwealth71743Multiple-use035
A-CRArafuraCommonwealth22924Multiple-use05
WC-CRWest Cape YorkCommonwealth7957Marine national park05
Supplementary Table 3. Summary information of marine mammal, marine reptile and shark species for which tracking data or distribution data was found in the published literature that overlapped with the flatback corridor delineated in the current study. In the studies for which published tracking datasets were available, the percentage overlap was calculated from area estimatesbased on cumulative track length using a 20 km grid mesh generated by the Repeating Shapes ArcGIS extension. Core = >1.5 SD category; Total = all SD categories combined.
GroupCommonLatin nameTrackingOverlap (%)DistributionSource
nameinformationCore, Totalinformation
Tracking datasets
MammalHumpbackMegaptera40 individuals96, 46Complete overlapBrown et al. (1995); Marsh et al. (1993);
whalenovaeangliaeGales et a. (2009); Double et al. (2010,
2012a,b; SPRAT)
MammalBlueBalaenoptera2 individuals6, 5Complete overlapBranch et al. (2007); SPRAT;
WhalemusculusCentre for Whale Research
bluewhales/satellite.html
MammalPygmyBalaenoptera8 individuals0, 0NooverlapGales et al. (2009); Double et al. (2012);
blue whalemusculus brevicaudaSPRAT
ReptileOlive ridleyLepidochelys12 individuals0, 9Complete overlapMarsh et al. (1993); Whiting et al.
sea turtleolivacea(2007); McMahon et al. (2007) Hamel et
al. (2008); Wallace et al. (2010);
SPRAT
ReptileHawksbillEretmochelys4 individuals0, 0No overlapMarsh et al. (1993); Whiting et al.
sea turtleimbricata(2006); Wallace et al. (2010), SPRAT;
Hoenner et al. (2012)
FishWhaleRhincodon typus13 individuals9, 5Complete overlapWilson et al. (2006); Sleeman et al.
shark(2010); Sequeria et al. (2013); SPRAT
Distribution datasets
MammalDugongDugong dugongn/an/aComplete overlapMarsh et al. (1993; 2002); Whiting
et al. (2008), SPRAT
MammalBottlenoseTursiops spp.n/an/aComplete overlapMarsh et al. (1993), SPRAT
dolphins
MammalSnubfinOrcaella heinsohnin/an/aPartial overlapMarsh et al. (1993); Palmer (2011);
dolphinBejder et al. (2012); SPRAT
MammalHumpbackSousa chinensisn/an/aComplete overlapMarsh et al. (1993); Bejder et al.
dolphin(2012); SPRAT
MammalKillerOrcinus orcan/an/aComplete overlapChatto & Warneke (2000); SPRAT
whale
ReptileLoggerheadCaretta carettan/an/aComplete overlapMarsh et al. (1993); Wallace et al.
sea turtle(2010); SPRAT
ReptileGreenChelonia mydasn/an/aComplete overlapMarsh et al. (1993); Wallace et al.
sea turtle(2010); SPRAT
ReptileLeatherbackDermochelysn/an/aComplete overlapMarsh et al. (1993); Wallace et al.
sea turtlecoriacea(2010); SPRAT
ReptileOliveAipysurus laevisn/an/aComplete overlapMarsh et al. (1993); Lukoschek et al.
sea snake(2007); SPRAT
ReptileYellowPelamis platunusn/an/aComplete overlapMarsh et al. (1993); SPRAT
-bellied
sea snake
ReptileSaltwaterCrocodylusn/an/aPartial overlapCampbell et al. (2010); Semeniuk et al.
crocodileporosus(2011); SPRAT
FishSawfishPristis spp.n/an/aComplete overlapThorburn (2007); Morgan et al. (2011)
FishSilky sharkCarcharhinusn/an/aComplete overlapCamhi et al. (2009)
falciformis
FishAustralianCarcharhinusn/an/aPartial overlapField et al. (2012)
black tiptilstoni
FishSpot tailCarcharhinusn/an/aPartial overlapField et al. (2012)
sharksorrah
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Supplementary Figure 1.Commonwealth Marine Reserves acrossnorthwest and north Australia (Official Source: Australian Government, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities,
Supplementary Figure 2.(a)Frequency of turtle track lengths (km) in each 20 km grid. A total of 754 cells (20 km x 20 km) intersected with turtle tracks for the study area. A spatial join was used to weight each cell by cumulative track length to reflect corridor path use (b) Classification of the 20 km x 20 km cells weighted by sum of intersecting track lengths to generate the four categories. The classification scheme shows how each sum track length cell value varies using standard deviations from the mean. Four class breaks are then created using these values; specifically, >1.5 = very high use (termed core); 1.5–0.5 = high use; 0.5–-0.5 = intermediate use; <-0.5 = low use.
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Supplementary Figure 3.(a)The reconstructed migratory tracks (n = 79) of six marine species(humpback whales, blue whales, pygmy blue whales, hawksbill turtles, olive ridley turtles, whale sharks)for which publication records were available in the study region (see Table 1 and Supplementary Table 2 for the associated publication records and information about each dataset). (b) and (c) shows the reconstructed tracks with the 75% and 95% KDEs (bold black outline) of the flatback corridor, respectively.
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