The photo-ID method
Our photo-ID methods is based on the use of facial profile photographs of marine turtles. As each individual does not display the same scute patern in the right and left facial profiles, both sides are used to characterise each individual whenever possible. Each facial profile is transformed by visual inspection into a code. This code describes the scutes on the turtle’s head located posterior to the eye to the neck and from the line of upper jaw to the top of the turtle’s head (Figure 1). First single digit of the code profile represents the number of scutes located immediately to the eye, the post-ocular scutes. Thereafter, 3-digit code series represent each scute posterior to the eye, post-ocular scutes comprised, which share at least one scute border (Figtuer 1). The first number of the scute in that row. And the third one corresponds to the number of sides of the scute (Figture 1). At the end, two codes composed of a 1-digit plus a series of 3-digit codes and defined for both profiles define the identity of one individual.