Somatic Growth Rates of Juvenile Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Fijian Archipelago

Establishing key life history traits (i.e., somatic growth rates) for sea turtles produces insights into population demography and informs conservation efforts. Despite a plethora of studies on sea turtles over the past decades, there remain significant knowledge gaps for the demography of many populations. From 2015 to 2022, we measured somatic growth for 215 foraging green turtles (Chelonia mydas) captured among three foraging areas in the Fijian Archipelago, tropical South Pacific. We modeled a mean size-specific growth rate function for this foraging aggregation that was non-monotonic decreasing with size. The mean growth rate for this foraging aggregation was 1.6 ± 0.1 cm year^-1 curved carapace length, and we found some spatial variation in growth rates across the three foraging sites (range of means = 1.1-1.8 cm year^-1), perhaps owing to differences in habitat quality and/or ontogeny-based differences in feeding ecology. Overall, the range of Fijian juvenile green turtle growth rates aligns with those reported from foraging aggregations elsewhere in the Pacific and also conforms to the general pattern of non-monotonic declining growth reported for green turtles throughout this ocean basin. Establishing foraging area-specific growth parameters for Fijian green turtles provides current estimates to inform ecological and health assessments vital to the development of future conservation plans.