Scientist Warns of Threat to Endangered Turtle
Scientist Warns of Threat to Last Stronghold of Endangered Turtle
A major conservation effort, led by Dr Brendan Godley of the University of Exeter, has just got underway to help protect endangered leatherback turtles which nest in Gabon, West Africa. The region is thought to be the animals'last global stronghold, as pacific populations dwindle precariously.
It's hoped the project, to tag and track the animals, will uncover their migratory secrets and provide the basis for efforts to safeguard them. After fitting them with satellite trackers the team are using the internet to follow their journeys, which are among the longest in the animal kingdom.
Dr Brendan Godley, who is also one of the Directors of SEATURTLE.org where the tracks are hosted online, said:"Pacific leatherbacks have been decimated by incidental capture at sea and overexploitation so it's vital that we protect the Atlantic population.This project is crucial to our understanding of the geographical range of the leatherback as so little is currently known about their travels. We think turtles from Gabon could be traveling as far afield as South America,Europe and even the Indian Ocean to feed on their jellyfish prey.
Once we have detailed information our tracking work will feed directly into strategies for marine protected areas in Gabon and farther afield and more sustainable fisheries.
We are just beginning to understand the importance of the leatherbacks of West Africa as a global stronghold but we need to know where they live to protect them."
The tracking data is publicly
available online and is creating much interest with more
than 100,000 hits from over 150 countries on the site tracking each
month. It's thought that globally more than 50,000
leatherback turtles are incidentally caught by fisherman
trawling for other species each year. Of these,
thousands are thought to die as a result. Approximately 1.4
billion hooks are cast into the world's oceans as part of
industrial long-line fishing, with 37% of this fishing
effort in the Atlantic. A major hotspot is found off West
Africa, the focus of this study. With fishing yields
decreasing in European seas the EU has struck up a number of
agreements with African nations to fish their waters.
Amazingly, most EU fishing concessions don't even
incorporate compulsory bycatch monitoring
programmes. Scientists from the University of Exeter's
Cornwall Campus are working with a consortium of partners in
Gabon (Aventures Sans Frontieres, Parcs Gabon and Wildlife
Conservation Society) and the USA (Duke University,
SEATURTLE.org) to try to solve the mystery of where the
turtles' spend their time. The work is supported by a
range of UK and international funding bodies including the
European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) 2004/5
Shellshock Campaign