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Marine Turtle Red Listing
One of the main functions of the MTSG is to conduct Red List Assessments for marine turtle species based on a set of criteria that are defined by the IUCN (see <http://www.redlist.org>). These exhaustive studies draw upon the Group’s experts and others to determine a status level (endangered, threatened, etc.) for the species with which we work, and these determinations become part of the IUCN’s global database, which is used to support policy reform and other initiatives.
For several years, Dr. Debby Crouse has served the position of Red List Focal Point and as Chair of the Red List Task Force within the MTSG to assure that our assessments are up-to-date and meet the evolving criteria of the IUCN Standards and Petitions Committee. Debby has recently stepped-down from this position, and we want to thank her for her years of dedicated service. The MTSG is most fortunate in that Jeff Seminoff immediately stepped-forward to fill her shoes in this role. So, in the same breath as we gratefully acknowledge Debby, we want to gratefully welcome Jeff Seminoff as the new MTSG Red List Focal Point and Chair of the Red List Task Force.
The revision of the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) assessment was finalized by Jeff Seminoff and was accepted by the IUCN Standards & Petitions Subcommittee in recent months as well, maintaining the green turtle’s listing as “Globally Endangered” under the IUCN Red List criteria. This is a major accomplishment, and one for which Jeff deserves another hearty round of applause, as do all the others that participated with this endeavor in one way or another. The full version is available for downloading from the MTSG website.
Over the coming months, the Co-Chairs will work closely with Jeff to develop a five-year action plan and fundraising strategy for updating the Red List Assessments for all species of sea turtle. We are also looking into pursuing population-level status assessments that will be of even greater value to conservation planning.
Crocodile Specialist Group Meeting
From May 24 to 29, Co-Chair Nick Pilcher participated in the Crocodile Specialist Group (CSG) meeting in Darwin to try to get a better feel for the CSG’s approach to use and how it might or not be applied to marine turtles. The CSG went through a process of deliberation between the 1970s and 1990s before trade was reinstated for crocodilians. Often it has been suggested that there exist sufficient parallels between the two animal groups for us to consider reinstating some form of controlled trade in sea turtles and/or their products as a management intervention. The CSG Annual General Meeting combines a full day Steering Committee (SC) meeting with several days of symposium. At the invitation of the CSG Chairman, Prof. Harry Messel, and their Executive Officer, Perran Ross, Nick was also able to sit in on both.
To begin, it was apparent that the CSG plays a much greater role as the scientific authority on crocodilians globally and at many different levels than does the MTSG with marine turtles. The CSG is regularly asked by CITES for opinions on proposals; governments make use of CSG procedures and policies in implementing their own crocodilian conservation actions; even the National Geographic Society makes use of the CSG for provision of photographs and expert advice on crocodilian conservation and biology issues. The MTSG, in our opinion, must strive to achieve this same level of importance as the clearinghouse of expert scientific advice on marine turtle biology and conservation.
So, how has trade impacted crocodiles and the CSG? Crocodiles continue to do well, and trade is widely regarded as not only being possible, but even beneficial to conservation initiatives. However, during the CSG meeting, conservation did not sound nearly as important in any discussion on crocodilian management as did the benefits of trade. To highlight how trade issues dominated over conservation or people-oriented issues: during a Sustainable Use workshop, people were mentioned only as an aside while the majority of discussion centered on trade – not the sustainable use of the animals, but rather the sustainability of the trade. Even when communities were addressed, it was only at the level of the livelihood of the few trappers, not the community as a whole, and whether or not they could continue to make a living. Certainly, if the MTSG were to head down the avenue of Sustainable Use, we would need to safeguard against losing sight of conservation objectives. We would clearly need to embrace a view of what the ‘benefits’ of trade might be at a much wider level than the CSG currently does.
When it comes to parallels between the two animal groups, it was hard to be convinced that the traits they share at a biological level were sufficient justification for suggesting that a similar resumption of trade in marine turtles could be sustained. While they are both long lived and have low survival rates as juveniles, crocodiles still have significantly shorter lifecycles, and do not have the migrations and concomitant international implications for conservation that are linked to turtles. Crocodile nests are spread over a massive two-dimensional space, often in bogs and swamps with little access for humans or other animals. With a license to collect ‘all the eggs you can’, hunters still do not come close to collecting a large proportion of all that are laid. Conversely, sea turtles oviposit very strategically, for egg collectors, along a very narrow strip of beach, and leave massive tracks signaling their recent egg-laying, making it even easier to find the eggs. A license to collect ‘all the eggs you can’ in sea turtle terms would mean a 100% take. A first step in deliberating the concept of use must thus be to disassociate completely the life histories of turtles with crocodiles and others, and approach the issue with the things critical to marine turtles, which would impact any sustainable use initiative.
How we actually manage or control trade is also critical. When it comes to crocodilian ranching for instance, it is up to each country or programme to institute continuous monitoring to ensure that population sizes are known and thus have a way of determining the impact of the ranching efforts. However, and the CSG acknowledges this, there are significant gaps in these monitoring programmes – in some cases they do not exist at all, or the data are not reported. Several of these monitoring programmes do not even check with the CSG regarding the extant rules and required actions. It is argued that it is a problem with compliance and not conservation and biology, but it is important to wonder how they know it is not a conservation problem without data. If we were to consider a use approach to marine turtle management and require careful monitoring as part of the requirements for MTSG sanction, it would be imperative that stringent measures were in place for revoking licenses as soon as accurate and appropriate monitoring data were not forthcoming.
On the plus side, there can certainly be benefits to allowing some form of trade. For instance, initially it was feared that the harvest of crocodiles would eliminate populations, yet after a period of time it was found that populations were not adversely affected at all. Following this, it was the impetus of commercial value that drove the interest and effort in solving accompanying problems, such as habitat loss. We have trouble addressing this sort of issue with turtle conservation too, and it is a thought that the value of trade could sustain related conservation initiatives.
Sustainable use discussions can only take place if there is trade (or potential trade). This is the proverbial Catch 22: Use can be bad so don’t do it – but not doing it results in the inability to prove whether or not it is actually bad. As a group of experts on sea turtle biology and conservation, we ask you: where do we want to see turtles in this equation?
The 3rd National Sea Turtle Fair, Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico
MTSG Program Officer, Brian Hutchinson, represented the Group in Mexico in June. The Mexican Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, SEMARNAT, hosted the 3rd Mexican National Sea Turtle Fair in collaboration with the government of the state of Tamaulipas. Held in the newly constructed, state-of-the-art TAMUX natural history museum in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, the two-day affair convened around 200 students, biologists, community members, conservationists, government representatives and enthusiasts from all over Mexico, in additional to a handful of international participants from the USA and Central America.
The general theme of the Fair, was “Wanted! Oceans and seas – Dead or Alive?”, with a specific emphasis on coastal communities and sea turtle conservation. There were a wide range of presentations dealing with topics such as ecotourism, community involvement in conservation, education, biology, national programmes and international treaties, among others, altogether providing a very well rounded and interesting programme. Given that the focus of the conference was primarily national, Mexican MTSG Member Laura Sarti invited us to participate to discuss sea turtle conservation on the global level. Many other MTSG members were present, including former Chair, Alberto Abreu, and Members Ana Barragán, René Márquez and Georgita Ruiz.
Brian’s presentation gave an overview of the work of the ISTS and MTSG, as well as a description of the other actors in the global sea turtle conservation movement, and the role that each plays in global scale conservation. The presentation highlighted the need for broader scale collaboration and coordination of conservation efforts, and the urgent need for priority setting on all levels in order to maximize the impact of our global conservation efforts. Brian also emphasized the importance of the MTSG as a cohesive mechanism with the potential to link international partners and create synergy in our global community through initiatives like the State of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWoT) project, and efforts at priority-setting.
Oman
Nick was in Oman in June along with MTSG members Earl Possardt and Blair Witherington at the invitation of the Sultan Qaboos University’s sea turtle team, headed by new MTSG member Abdulaziz Alkindi. Abdulaziz and his colleagues helped arrange a trip to Ras Al Hadd and then onward to Masirah island, and helicopter surveys of both key nesting areas to assist the Ministry of Rural Municipalities and Environment in delineating a rigorous and standardized survey protocol for estimating nesting success and nesting volume. The ten-day trip was extremely successful in meeting up with local MTSG members and developing relationships for continued research and conservation initiatives. We hope to see a continuous stream of data flowing from the conservation and research programmes run by the Omani experts, and a much greater involvement by them in the international sea turtle conservation community. Several short and long-term sea turtle research and conservation projects were identified that require immediate scientific field studies and would bring great attention and visibility to the status and importance of the marine turtle resources in Oman. In addition, several ideas to improve public awareness and education about the marine turtles of Oman were discussed. It was agreed that the publication of two books, one scientific and technical and one written for the general audience with professional photography would be timely and increase support and appreciation for marine turtles in Oman. We look forward to seeing these ideas progress.
Mediterranean (Western Greece)
Co-Chair, Roderic Mast, travelled to the Mediterranean in June to visit key loggerhead nesting sites in Western Greece, as well as to visit the ARCHELON Sea Turtle Rehabilitation facility in Glyfada (near Athens), and to convene a meeting of Greek MTSG members in anticipation of the 2006 (26th) Sea Turtle Symposium, to be hosted in Greece by ISTS President-elect, Dimitris Margaritoulis.
The Odyssey began not far from the fabled birthplace of Homer’s Odysseus (the Island of Ithaki), where a real-life sea turtle tragedy is unfolding on nearby Zakynthos. The disturbing situation at the loggerhead nesting beaches of Laganas Bay on southern Zakynthos has been much in the news and in numerous email appeals distributed broadly by MEDASSET and others over the past several months.
The situation in Laganas Bay is quite depressing from the perspective of sea turtle conservation, and indeed it presents a rather shocking scene. Historically this is the most important nesting site for loggerheads in Greece and the entire Mediterranean with 6 total nesting beaches. Fortunately, significant strides have been made in recent years to ensure the protection of this critical sea turtle habitat. One such success was the purchase of the land behind the most densely nested beach in Laganas Bay by WWF Greece, ensuring restricted beach access day and night. Subsequent to this, the Greek Ministry of Environment created the National Marine Park in Laganas Bay, managed by a multi-sector Management Agency that had started to operate very effectively, and to enforce protection of this important marine and terrestrial habitat in the last few years. However, the Ministry of Environment has discontinued its funding for both the Park and its Management Agency this year, causing Park staff to go on strike and the Management Agency to crumble. The ensuing lack of Park protection has placed it at the mercy of the rampant tourism that occurs in the Bay, creating a critical situation for Mediterranean loggerheads. The western end of the Bay is as grossly over-developed as any beach on Earth. The majority of the tourists appear to be northern Europeans that have come on very inexpensive packages for a week of drinking and all-night partying, hence there is little attention paid by either developers or tourists to Nature and the turtles, and virtually no regulation of human impacts on the shoreline. Given the absence of Park funding and the urgent need for protection, ARCHELON has stepped forward to help patrol the Park. However, it is critical that the Ministry of Environment reinstate Park funding immediately and ensure its long-term protection.
From anchor at night in Laganas Bay, one can truly see the value of protected areas, in that the nesting beaches on the eastern side of the Bay are relatively dark, whereas the western extent is fully lit, with restaurant signs, vehicular and foot traffic 24 hours/day, and waves lapping right at the legs of beach furniture strewn across virtually every square meter of sand. It is encouraging that loggerheads can be seen quite easily surfacing in the relatively shallow Laganas Bay, and that there is a good deal of high density nesting on the small islet of Marathonissi, where tourism development is prohibited and ARCHELON’s team of international volunteers monitors nesting. But even on Marathonissi it appears that there is substantial pressure on nesting females from fishermen that ply the coast just meters from shore.
The next stop on this Greek sea turtle Odyssey was the beach along the western coast of Peleponnesus, where the scene is much different. There, from a camp run by Greek NGO ARCHELON, a team of volunteers monitors a somewhat lower-density nesting aggregation of loggerheads, and maintains good relations with local community leaders. The beach is much larger and the pressures far less intense than at Laganas Bay, likely due to the presence of ARCHELON and their commitment to community involvement and youth education. In addition to their field station, ARCHELON maintains an environmental education center in a former railway station that receives hundreds of students annually.
Lastly, a visit was paid to the sea turtle rehabilitation center run by ARCHELON at Glyfada, near Athens, a beautifully rustic facility designed around several refurbished train cars. Here too, ARCHELON provides not only an important service through veterinary rehabilitation of injured turtles, but they also educate thousands of visitors annually, and spearhead education programs targeted at fishermen and others responsible for sea turtle injuries and deaths at sea. ARCHELON and the staff at Glyfada were in the midst of planning a Mediterranean-wide workshop that will bring together the numerous centers throughout the region to perfect their techniques and to share lessons and unite efforts to educate the public and fisher communities (Workshop on the Rehabilitation of Injured Sea Turtles In The Mediterranean, 19-21 November 2004; contact Aliki Panagopoulou at <aliki@archelon.gr>).
An impromptu Greek MTSG meeting was convened by the MTSG’s Regional Vice Chair for the Mediterranean, Dimitris Margaritoulis, and fully attended by Greece’s MTSG members, Dimitrios Dimopoulos (ARCHELON Director), Anna Kremezi-Margaritouli (Friends of the Goulandris Natural History Museum), Thomas Arapis (ARCHELON Management Board) and Nikos Charalambides (Greenpeace Greece). Several hours and a several course meal were spent discussing global and regional sea turtle conservation issues, and planning for the best ways to assure MTSG involvement in the upcoming 26th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium. As regards the situation at Zakynthos, at the advice of the Greek membership, Co-Chair Rod Mast made contact with the European Commission upon return to the USA to see what could be done to hasten actions to better protect turtle in Zakynthos. The MTSG is sending a letter to Mr. Stavros Kaloyiannis, Greece’s Deputy Minister of Environment, as well as Commissioner Margot Wallstrom to offer the MTSG’s expertise and advice in assuring a rapid response to the unacceptable situation at Laganas Bay. We send out a special thanks to all those who helped to arrange Rod’s visit to Greece, including Dimitris Margaritoulis, Aliki Panagopoulou, Dimitrios Dimopoulos, ALan Rees, Kostis Grimanis, Melita Lazaratou and Herikleia Miniotou.
Conclusion
In our last missive we reported that the MTSG had submitted comments to the US Commission on Ocean Policy in response to their Preliminary Report, requesting improvement of sections pertaining to marine turtles. We are pleased to report that the Commission acknowledged the need for improvement to the Preliminary Report, and the MTSG was consulted in improving the Report to appropriately address conservation concerns for marine turtles and their habitats.
We are looking forward to seeing many of you at the quadrennial IUCN World Conservation Congress in Bangkok, Thailand (November 17-25, 2004). Preceding this will be an IUCN Species Survival Commission meeting (November 16), at which the MTSG Co-Chairs will present an update on our Group’s progress. With the coming of the new quadrennium, our MTSG Vision and Mission redefined and a streamlined working strategy in place, we remain optimistic for the future of the Group and in turn the conservation of marine turtles. Come see us at our website, read about us in the Marine Turtle Newsletter every quarter, visit us at the ISTS’ Annual Sea Turtle Symposium and other regional and local gatherings around the globe, and stay tuned for the upcoming SWoT publication, State of the World’s Sea Turtles 2004.