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A giant sucking sound for sea turtles
August 04, 2005Study says Nicargua are last stop for endangered green turtles
NEW YORK - Sea turtles that receive the highest protection in Costa Rica and other neighboring countries are dying by the thousands at the hands of unregulated-and unsustainable-commercial fishing in Nicaragua, according to a study by the Bronx Zoo based Wildlife Conservation Society.
The study, appearing in the latest issue of the journal Herpetologica, found that turtles tagged in Nicaragua have only little more than a 50 percent chance of surviving until the next year. This includes adult turtles from Tortuguero, a world famous turtle-nesting beach in Costa Rica. For a slow-growing, slow-to-mature species, removing so many large juveniles and adults from the population spells potential disaster, according to WCS scientists. The largest remaining green turtle population in the Atlantic lives in this region, scientists believe.
"Green turtles cannot take this relentless pounding by the Nicaraguan sea turtle fishing industry," said WCS researcher Cathi Campbell, the lead author of the study. "Drastic reductions are needed in fishing levels, or both the turtles-and turtle fishers-will vanish within a matter of years."
Although protected from international trade by CITES-the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, an estimated 11,000 green sea turtles are still harvested annually in Nicaragua for local consumption. WCS says that an annual quota of between 1,000-3,000 turtles needs to be established to sustain the fishery.
Green turtles-the only herbivorous sea turtle species-travel from throughout the Caribbean to Nicaragua to forage in its rich sea grass beds, making it especially frustrating for neighboring countries that protect turtles in their own waters, only to lose them once they enter Nicaragua, according to WCS.
"Other countries are doing so much to protect nesting populations and in-water aggregations of green turtles," Campbell said, noting that Costa Rica in particular has worked hard to protect nesting turtles from poachers. "Nicaragua plainly needs to do more to protect what is an international resource."
For the past seven years, WCS has worked along Nicaragua's Miskito Coast to establish conservation programs that safeguard green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles. WCS also operates turtle conservation programs in Africa.
Wildlife Conservation Society
"Green turtles cannot take this relentless pounding by the Nicaraguan sea turtle fishing industry," said WCS researcher Cathi Campbell, the lead author of the study. "Drastic reductions are needed in fishing levels, or both the turtles-and turtle fishers-will vanish within a matter of years."
Although protected from international trade by CITES-the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, an estimated 11,000 green sea turtles are still harvested annually in Nicaragua for local consumption. WCS says that an annual quota of between 1,000-3,000 turtles needs to be established to sustain the fishery.
Green turtles-the only herbivorous sea turtle species-travel from throughout the Caribbean to Nicaragua to forage in its rich sea grass beds, making it especially frustrating for neighboring countries that protect turtles in their own waters, only to lose them once they enter Nicaragua, according to WCS.
"Other countries are doing so much to protect nesting populations and in-water aggregations of green turtles," Campbell said, noting that Costa Rica in particular has worked hard to protect nesting turtles from poachers. "Nicaragua plainly needs to do more to protect what is an international resource."
For the past seven years, WCS has worked along Nicaragua's Miskito Coast to establish conservation programs that safeguard green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles. WCS also operates turtle conservation programs in Africa.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Sea Turtles Current Events and Sea Turtles News RSSZoologists: Sea snakes seek out freshwater to slake thirst
Sea snakes may slither in saltwater, but they sip the sweet stuff. So concludes a University of Florida zoologist in a paper appearing this month in the online edition of the November/December issue of the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.
Loggerhead release to provide vital information to scientific community
Thursday, November 6, 2008, Dr. Kirt Rusenko, Marine Conservationist, and staff from Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton will release two juvenile loggerhead sea turtles raised in captivity into the Indian River Lagoon near Sebastian Inlet.
Small islands given short shrift in assembling archaeological record
Small islands dwarf large ones in archaeological importance, says a University of Florida researcher, who found that people who settled the Caribbean before Christopher Columbus preferred more minute pieces of land because they relied heavily on the sea.
Revealing the evolutionary history of threatened sea turtles
It's confirmed: Even though flatback turtles dine on fish, shrimp, and mollusks, they are closely related to primarily herbivorous green sea turtles.
Study finds high mortality of endangered loggerhead sea turtles in Baja California
Along the southern coast of Baja California, Mexico, scientists have been counting the carcasses of endangered sea turtles for a decade as part of an effort to assess and eliminate threats to loggerhead sea turtle populations.
New study reveals large scale conservation essential
Scientists were surprised with findings of a recent study that reveals many animal species believed to persist in small contained areas actually need broad, landscape level conservation to survive.
New Whale Detection Buoys Will Help Ships Take the Right Way through Marine Habitat
Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Bioacoustics Research Program (BRP) at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have teamed up with an international energy company and federal regulators to listen for and help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales in New England waters.
Researchers to Develop Ocean Sanctuary "Noise Budget" to Identify Sources and Evaluate Potential Impact on Marine Mammals and Fish
Like sentinels at their posts, an array of buoys equipped with underwater microphones and other sensors will be on duty in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Massachusetts for the next 30 months, recording sounds from whales, fish, ships and other sources around the clock.
Isotope analysis reveals foraging area dichotomy for Atlantic leatherback turtles
The beaches of French Guiana constitute a major reproduction site for leatherback turtles. This sea turtle, although a protected species, is threatened by human activity: it ingests plastics, get accidentally caught in fishing nets, sees its egg-laying sites destroyed and its adults hunted illegally for their meat and their eggs.
Turtle nesting threatened by logging practices in Gabon, Smithsonian warns
Endangered sea turtles are victims of sloppy logging practices in the west central African country Gabon, according to a study led by William Laurance, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The study will be published online in the journal Oryx later this month.
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