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Marine Turtle Newsletter 125:19-23, © 2009

Marine Turtle Newsletter-Online

NEWS AND LEGAL BRIEFS


This section is compiled by seaturtle.org. You can submit news items at any time online at <https://seaturtle.org/news/>, via e-mail to news@seaturtle.org, or by regular mail to the Editors. Many of these news items and more can be found at <https://seaturtle.org/news/>, where you can also sign up for news updates by E-mail. Note that News Items are taken directly from various media sources and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the editorial members of the MTN.

ASIA

Turtle Lands in Patong, Then Vanishes


A large sea turtle made its way to shore in Patong today, much to the surprise of an early-rising beach boy who discovered the creature on the sand, close to Loma Park. As with so many Patong stories, there was a happy beginning, hope for a fresh start, followed by a sad ending. Word quickly spread. There was some elation at the news that a turtle had been found in Patong, so often criticised for the quality of its water and the way some visitors are treated. The sad ending eventually caught up with the happy beginning, but only after the turtle was mistakenly carted away as trash. For sometime after she arrived on Patong’s shores, the turtle had died. Jaruj Seriruk of the Marine Animal Rescue service eventually tracked down the creature and claimed her body for research, with the prospect of the turtle having at least a little dignity in death. The tanu turtle is an Andaman species and it’s entirely possible that she was driven by instinct to return to a place which she had once been familiar. Has she deposited eggs on a Phuket beach in her 20 years? Were there close calls over time with fishing trawlers and human predators? Nobody can say. What’s known is that she was large and beautiful, measuring 77 centimetres from head to tail and with a shell that was 73 centimetres broad. Along the shore, conveying the impression that turtles are regular guests at Patong beach, are replica turtles similar in size to the one that came ashore today. Source: Phuket Wan, 31 July 2009.

Bali Water Police Release Protected Sea Turtles

“Go! Go! Go!” screamed a bunch of kids and teens at four green sea turtles as the protected animals were released by Bali Water Police officers back into the sea Sunday afternoon at Kuta. “Yes, kids! Help me encourage these big turtles to swim away!” said one of the officers, while his friends carried two huge turtles. One has a carapace length of 1 meter and the other 1.5 meters. The sea turtles were seized Saturday afternoon during a raid at a house belonging to a suspected turtle trader in South Kuta. During the raid the police arrested an alleged trader and the skipper of a boat transporting the protected species. The police moved on after receiving a tip from Tanjung Benoa residents about possible smuggling activities. The water police immediately sent a patrol boat to monitor the waters around Kedonganan and Tanjung Benoa. The officers identified one suspicious boat and tailed it closely. “The suspicious boat moved to Nusa Dua waters. As we could not reach Nusa Dua waters due to big waves, we waited for the suspects to drop off the rare wildlife onto land,” said chief of operations at the Bali Water Police, Comr. I Putu S. Dinata. “We captured them the suspect’s house.” Dinata added his team had found six green turtles, but only four were released into the sea Sunday because the other two would be kept as evidence for the suspects’ trial. Bali Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gede Sugianyar said the suspects might face a maximum of five years imprisonment as they have allegedly violated Government Regulation No. 21/1999 concerning the conservation of natural resources. “The turtles were poached in the waters off Java and will be sold here.” “The small ones command a price around Rp 1.5 million (US$145.70) while the big ones are worth up to Rp 5 million. The Balinese usually buy turtles for consumption. “We intentionally release the turtles in the crowded Kuta beach, because we also want to give a public education that green turtle is facing extinction. Especially for Bali residents, who we are hope will reduce their consumption of turtles.” During the release, some foreign tourists took photos and also encouraged the newly free turtles to swim back into the ocean. Source: Jakarta Post, 01 June 2009.

WWF Wants Turtle Eggs Off Malaysian menus

WWF on Wednesday launched a campaign to stop Malaysians eating turtle eggs, in a bid to help save the marine creatures from extinction. Turtle eggs are openly sold in markets in parts of Malaysia. Turtles once arrived in their thousands to lay eggs on Malaysian beaches, but are now increasingly rare thanks to poaching and coastal development. The five-month online campaign aims to collect 40,000 signatures from Malaysians pledging to stop consuming the eggs and halt the trade in turtles and their parts. A spokesperson said that some 10,000 leatherback turtles nested in northeastern Terengganu state every year in the 1950s but that this had been reduced to just 10 a year at present. Malaysian authorities said last year that they are carrying out night patrols near endangered hawksbill turtle nesting sites in southern Malacca state after 4,000 eggs were stolen. Under Malaysian law, it is illegal to collect turtle eggs without a permit from the fisheries department, but steady demand for turtle products and eggs in Southeast Asia continues to drive the illegal trade. Source: Economic Times, 22 April 2009.

AMERICAS

Belize barrier reef and Los Katios park in danger


The Belize Barrier Reef System and Los Katios National Park in Colombia are the two natural sites added to the List of World Heritage in Danger, following the advice of IUCN. Composed of seven protected areas, many small mangrove islands and coastal lagoons, the Belize Barrier Reef System is home to a number of threatened species, including marine turtles and the American crocodile. A series of technical assessments and a joint IUCN/UNESCO monitoring mission to Belize in March 2009 revealed alarming developments such as extensive mangrove cutting and sale of mangrove islands. The Belize Barrier Reef, the largest in the Northern Hemisphere, is also the country´s top tourist destination. Los Katios National Park was added to the World Heritage List in 1994 because of the exceptional diversity of flora and fauna in the area, consisting of low hills, tropical rainforests and wetlands. Illegal logging, security concerns, overfishing and potential road construction are all recognised threats to the outstanding value of the site. “Los Katios National Park needs a high level of protection, one that must involve not only the national authorities but the international community as well. IUCN commends the State Party for its proposal to put the site on the danger list. Critical conservation threats call for global action and the danger list is the mechanism we have at our disposal to help countries protect the world heritage.” says Pedro Rosabal, IUCN´s Senior Programme Officer on Protected Areas. Source: The World Sentinel, 01 July 2009.

Diplomatic Crisis Averted: Willy The Sea Turtle Safe

Consider the tale of Willy, an errant Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle who’s back in her native warm waters off the US East Coast – thanks to a US diplomat in London who got Willy a one-way ticket home. Willy’s tale is also a reminder that not all of the nation’s diplomatic business is about international conflict, or terrorism, or belligerent regimes posing nuclear threats. Sometimes a diplomat’s work is about addressing the needs of marooned American citizens – and in this case that “citizen” happened to be a rare turtle. Just how Willy survived a transatlantic swim is unclear, but somehow she washed up on the beach in Devon in southern England in January 2007, cold and nearly dead. Some pitying beachcombers alerted the nearby Sea Life Center in Weymouth, which took her in and nursed her back to health. But the center’s marine biologists thought the turtle, by now christened “Willy,” should be returned home. The center contacted John “Jock” Whittlesey, the regional environment, science, technology and health counselor at the US Embassy in London. Willy being a Kemp’s Ridley turtle – and thus included on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species list – she would require special documents to travel to the US. Mr. Whittlesey gave Willy’s case top billing, and by November she had her travel papers. Still, Willy had to wait for warmer weather to return home. Anyway, by then it was pretty clear Willy was not destined to cross the Atlantic in coach. On April 23, a special American Airlines flight – with a BBC camera crew in tow – transported Willy directly from London to North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham airport. From there, she rode to Topsail Island, part of the state’s Outer Banks barrier reef, where the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center welcomed her, deemed her fit for a return to her natural habitat, and released her to the familiar waters off the southeastern US. It may have taken a while, but this July 4 Willy is once again swimming in American waters. Source: Christian Science Monitor, 01 July 2009.

Long-line Fishermen: New Rules Are ‘Draconian’

Local fisherman are calling newly proposed fishing regulations “draconian” and say they could cripple the long-line fishing industry. “These could end long-line fishing altogether,” said one long-line fisherman during a meeting with Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council officials last week. Gulf of Mexico long-line fisherman are facing new regulatory proposals after a consortium of environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. The council is being sued after 21 loggerhead sea turtles were observed “affected” by long-line fishing equipment over an 18-month period beginning in July 2007 by the Southeast Fisheries Science Center. Of the 21 affected, seven were confirmed killed. Sea-turtles are protected by the Endangered Species Act, a federal law requiring the conservation of species endangered or threatened by extinction. The Magnuson-Stevenson Fisher Conservation and Management Act also requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to minimize bycatch, or the unintentional taking of unwanted marine creatures. GMFMC officials told a handful of local fisherman at the Hilton Garden Inn last week the GMFMC has only a small window of time to create new regulations, which are being considered in a proposal titled, Amendment 31. The fisherman were not impressed with the options being considered in the Amendment, particularly proposals that would restrict long-line fishing in waters less than 50 fathoms from the coast or reduce the number of permits by requiring fisherman to have 40,000 pounds of catch to receive a permit. Fishermen said the former proposal would crush the industry, while the latter, which is a stated preferred measure by GMFMC, would eliminate permits for 75 percent of long-line fisherman, by their own estimates. Long-line fishing is responsible for nearly 70 percent of all red grouper caught in the Gulf of Mexico by commercial vessels, according to GMFMC statistician Steven Atran. Fishermen said the economic impact of losing all or a large percentage of long-line vessels would go beyond themselves. “The restaurants and fish houses won’t be able to take it,” said Bart “Buster” Niquet, a local long-line fisherman who expressed fears of being put out of business. Most fishermen present preferred the option of restricting long-lines to less than four miles in length, reducing the number of hooks per line or restricting certain types of bait. These options would protect sea turtles while putting fewer fishermen out of business, they said. FWC officials said these measures still were under consideration, but added the regulations would be difficult to enforce and were not the preferred options of law enforcement agencies. Some of the fisherman expressed frustration over the “slow creep” of government regulation that has forced them out of other types of commercial fishing, such as trapping and vertical-line fishing. Some fishermen argued longline fishing accounted for only a fraction of loggerhead deaths and the industry was being unfairly targeted, saying the number of loggerheads killed by plastic bags (often mistaken for jelly fish prey), boat propellers and the millions of unobserved recreational commercial fisherman, kill exponentially more sea turtles than the approximately 260 long-line fisherman operating out of the Gulf of Mexico. Atran said it is impossible to determine the percentage of loggerhead turtles taken in the Gulf of Mexico by long-lining. While admitting the sample size was small, he said even very low confidence interval estimates have the number of sea turtles affected in the 400 range, well above the 113 anticipated. “We don’t have to reduce an exact number (of unintentional takings),” Atran said. “But it must be reduced by a practicable level.” Source: Panama City News Herald, 01 June 2009

Scientists Study the Riches of the Mexican Pacific

Mexico’s Pacific coast, one of the world’s richest seaboards in terms of biodiversity, has been the focus of very few scientific studies. A new observatory aims to fill that void. The Jacques Cousteau Observatory will explore the physical, chemical, biological, climate and socioeconomic characteristics of the area, which will serve as the basis for diagnosis and policies for sustainable management. The Observatory, the product of scientific cooperation between Mexico and France, was inaugurated Jun. 23 and will involve some 30 scientists in its operations. The Northwest Centre for Biological Research, which is part of the National Science and Technology Council’s system, serves as its initial headquarters. Located in La Paz, in the state of Baja California Sur, it was chosen for its ongoing academic exchanges with scientific institutions in France. The Observatory was named in honour of the famous French sea explorer Cousteau (1910-1997), who referred to the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) - the waters between the Baja peninsula and the Mexican mainland - as the world’s aquarium. Eleven of the world’s 232 marine eco-regions are found in Mexico. Of those, eight are located along the Pacific coast. The government’s National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity established around 30 priority marine areas along the seaboard from the southern state of Chiapas to the U.S. border. “That area has great environmental value. In states like Guerrero and Oaxaca there are internationally important beaches for some species of sea turtle, like the leatherback,” biologist Ana Barragán, a specialist with the national sea turtle programme of Mexico’s National Commission for Protected Areas, told Tierramérica. Mexico has six native sea turtle species, with three found along the Pacific: the black (Chelonia agassizii), leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) and Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) turtles. Today, the population of female leatherbacks is believed to be just 2,000. The area is home to 39 endangered marine species, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List. Mexico’s mangroves cover about 800,000 hectares (62 percent on the Atlantic coast and the rest on the Pacific coast). Some 10,000 hectares of mangroves - a forest ecosystem typical to coastal wetlands - disappear each year, according to official figures. A 2008 study of Gulf of California mangroves by Mexican, U.S. and Spanish scientists concluded that the destruction of this ecosystem was causing serious harm to local fishing industries. According to the report, more than 26 fisheries of high economic value, which provide annual benefits of about 700,000 dollars per hectare, are sustained by the Gulf’s mangroves. The area “is a huge cradle of biodiversity,” said Barragán. Environmental groups warn that the states of Baja California, Chiapas and Jalisco, along the Pacific, are among the most vulnerable areas to the effects of climate change in Mexico. Source: Tierramérica, 02 July 2009.

Ridley Nests on Corpus Christi Beach

It’s not every day a birth becomes a public spectacle. But when a mother chooses Corpus Christi Beach to bring 85 babies into the world, there’s bound to be some spectators. In this case, about 20 people watched Monday as a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle laid her eggs. But the location was just strange even for a sea turtle, said Donna Shaver, director of the National Seashore’s turtle recovery program. “I would even call it abnormal,” Shaver said. “It’s not the typical behavior and not really a desirable location.” The nesting is the first reported on the bay since Padre Island National Seashore experts started recording Texas Coast nestings in 1980, she said. The bay isn’t an ideal place for turtles to lay eggs because the clearer water and lack of vegetation make any hatchlings susceptible to potential predators. Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, which typically nest on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, have been tracked or sometimes stranded in the bay but none until Monday have nested there, Shaver said. Shaver said she planned to look at some pictures taken by a bystander to determine if the nesting turtle was part of a head start program from 1978 to 1988. The program involved releasing Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings from Padre Island and some from Nueces and Corpus Christi bays to encourage turtle nesting in the area. But she said she doubted she would be able to see any identifying spots or tags on the turtle because she had heard from bystanders it may have had algae on its shell. As of Monday, 156 nests have been found on the Texas coast this nesting season, which runs through mid-July. A record 195 Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nests were found on the Texas coast last year. The turtle, estimated at 80 pounds, was seen about 8:30 a.m. along Corpus Christi Beach by beachgoer Maribel Perez who said the turtle was tucking eggs under the sand. The turtle stayed in one spot for a while, kicking sand with her flippers and even spinning around at one point. Perez said she thought the turtle was hurt, but she quickly realized it was nesting. Bystanders marked off the area with sticks as others shooed off threatening seagulls. The turtle swam into the bay shortly afterward, bystanders said. Perez, of San Antonio, who was on her second visit to Corpus Christi, had no idea of the rarity of the event. Source: Caller-Times, 02 June 2009.

EUROPE

Turtles return to the sea


Eleven marine turtles that were nursed back to health at the San Lucjan Centre for Fisheries Science in Marsaxlokk, Malta, returned yesterday to their natural habitat during a release event in Golden Bay. Children from the EkoSkola programme attended the event, some holding posters carrying messages for people to dispose wisely of plastic bags. Plastic bags are a particular problem as turtles mistake them for jellyfish and swallow them. The bags get caught in the digestive tract and cause the turtles to starve. Some of the turtles released yesterday, rescued by fishermen and NGOs have been undergoing rehabilitation for more than a year. Injured turtles would need to be treated for fractured shells, or after having swallowed plastic bags or other inert objects. Locally, the last recorded nesting by a turtle on one of our beaches was in 1960 at Golden Bay. Emblematic of the gulf between yesteryear’s and today’s conservation ethics, the hapless loggerhead was consumed, along with its eggs, on that occasion by those observing its ordeal – marine turtle flesh could easily be purchased on markets for use in soups up to 10 to 15 years ago. Marine turtles need to lay their eggs on land. Global warming, through projected rises in sea level, could further erode remaining beach havens for the turtles. The distribution of loggerheads girdles the globe, being found in all tropical and temperate seas of the world and rare only in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean. Despite this, genetic studies have stressed the fact that turtles from different nesting areas differ genetically – this suggests that female turtles return to the same nesting beaches on which they hatched. Source: Malta Independent, 01 July 2009.

Wales on Course for Shopping Bag Charges

Wales is on course to be the first nation in the UK to introduce a charge on shopping bags. Environment Minister Jane Davidson put forward the radical proposal as a way of cutting down on free, single-use carrier bags at shops across the country. Ms Davidson proposes that customers will pay between 5p and 15p for bags at the tills of all retail outlets. Retailers will have to keep records about their charges, the number of single-use carrier bags sold, the gross amount received by a seller and where the net proceeds have gone per tax year. Retailers may also have to supply their records to Welsh ministers, trading standards and members of the public. Supermarket members of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) have already voluntarily agreed to reduce the amount of single-use carrier bags they give out by 50% by this year, and latest figures show they are close to achieving it having reduced handouts by 49%. “I support the voluntary agreement but I want to make more of a difference in Wales,” Ms Davidson said. “An estimated 480 million plastic bags are used in Wales each year. It takes between 500 and 1,000 years for these bags to biodegrade and this cannot continue. “By reusing bags, not only will we reduce litter, but we will also help cut our global footprint. “This voluntary agreement does not cover all retailers and means that half of all plastic bags are still used for one shopping trip only. “I want to look at how we can further reduce the amount of single-use carrier bags and how we can encourage more people to reuse bags,” said the minister. The problems caused by the 480 million plastic bags Welsh shoppers get through every year was highlighted in April by the Marine Conservation Society, which said many of them end up as litter on the beaches of Wales. The society warned that 170 species of wildlife, including seabirds, whales and the rare leatherback turtle that travels 10,000 miles from Mexico to Wales to feed on jellyfish, all mistake the plastic bags for food, resulting in starvation and poisoning. Source: Wales Online, 20 July 2009.

AFRICA

Largest Leatherback Turtle Nesting Area Found


The world’s largest nesting population of leatherback sea turtles has been identified in Africa. Land and aerial surveys indicate a population of between 15,730 and 41,373 female turtles use the nesting beaches in Gabon, West Africa. Leatherbacks are of intense conservation concern around the world after populations in the Indo-Pacific crashed by more than 90 percent in the 1980s and 1990s. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists leatherback turtles as critically endangered globally, but detailed population assessments in much of the Atlantic, especially Africa, are lacking. The research was led by the University of Exeter working in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) which spearheads the Gabon Sea Turtle Partnership, a network of organizations concerned with the protection of marine turtles in Gabon. During three nesting seasons between 2002 and 2007, the team’s members carried out a comprehensive survey of marine turtles in Gabon. This involved aerial surveys along Gabon’s 372 mile (600 kilometer) coast, using video to capture footage for evaluation, and detailed ground-based monitoring. By covering the entire coastline, the team was not only able to estimate the number of nests and nesting females, but also to identify the key sites for leatherback nesting, data which are crucial to developing conservation management plans for the species. Leatherbacks were first described nesting in Gabon in 1984. The new finding on the turtle population was published in the May issue of the journal Biological Conservation. “We knew that Gabon was an important nesting site for leatherback turtles but until now had little idea of the size of the population or its global ranking, said Matthew Witt of the University of Exeter, lead author of the research paper. “We are now focusing our efforts on working with local agencies to coordinate conservation efforts to ensure this population is protected against the threats from illegal fisheries, nest poaching, pollution and habitat disturbance, and climate change.” The study also revealed that around 79 percent of the turtles’ nesting occurs within National Parks and other protected areas. “These findings show the critical importance of protected areas to maintain populations of sea turtles,” said Angela Formia of the Wildlife Conservation Society, a coauthor of the paper. “Gabon should be commended for creating a network of National Parks in 2002 that have provided a sanctuary for this endangered species as well as other rare wildlife.” Source: MSNBC, 18 May 2009.

Fishers, Ecosystem Among the Losers in Proposed Projects

Apart from the fear that the proposed Lamu port and refinery in Kenya could lead to the displacement of 6,000 people, there are concerns that the project could cause serious damage to the delicate marine ecosystem. It will involve mass uprooting of mangrove trees that act as breeding ground for rare fish. It will also cause water pollution due to possible oil spillage from the refinery. Lamu is known worldwide for its biodiversity and as a breeding ground for exotic fish species for the entire East African coastline from Somali to Mozambique while the Kiunga Marine National Reserve is part of the Manda Bay buffer zone. Kenya Marine Forum Lamu branch chairman Kohamed Athman is concerned that the destruction of mangrove trees will disturb the ecosystem and endanger the livelihood of hundreds of fishermen. Mr Athman said his organisation is lobbying for the projects to be shelved for the sake of the environment, despite the expected benefits. According to Athman, the environmental impact alone and the effects on local subsistence fishermen and local farmers could overshadow the benefits. Research shows that the East African coast loses about 3,000 acres per year and massive development will only make it worse. The bay around Manda Island is known to support corals, sea grass beds and lush stands of mangrove, while marine turtles use these areas regularly in the winter as feeding grounds. Also likely to be endangered is the Dugong fish , commonly known as the seacow, which is unique to Lamu. These creatures depend on shallow sea grass beds exclusively for their survival and the cutting of the mangrove trees would have an impact on one of Kenya’s most threatened fish species. In 1980, 60,000 hectares off the coast north of Lamu was designated a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Project in recognition of the international conservation importance of the north eastern coastal region. Environmental experts say that interference with the environment, such as the massive destruction of mangroves, will endanger this fragile ecosystem and reduce its capacity to mitigate climate change effects. In order to prevent the negative impacts of uncoordinated and piecemeal development of the country’s shorelines, Kenyan regulators recognise the need to develop a strategy for shoreline management in support of overall coastal zone. However, despite the acknowledged environmental importance of the area, the Kenyan government also knows the construction of Lamu port is likely to result in considerable economic benefits to the country. Source: The East African, 27 July 2009.

Saving Turtles by Fitting Satellite Trackers

Endangered leatherback turtles are being “hammered” worldwide with massive reductions of up to 90 percent in some populations, but South Africa’s conservation efforts appear to be paying off and the local leatherback populations are stable. While they are stable they are, however, not growing, unlike the local loggerhead turtles whose nesting populations have “rocketed”, according to marine scientist Ronel Nel of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Nel’s research is trying to find out why. One of the reasons could be an imbalance of the leatherback sex ratio. Normally a population would have around a 50:50 ratio between males and females, but an analysis of leatherbacks trapped in shark nets off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal suggests that their sex ratio is in fact two males to one female. Nel said generally the temperature of the sand in which the eggs were incubated determined the sex of the turtle, with cooler temperatures producing males and warmer temperatures producing females. Those hatched in warmer Mozambique were more likely to be females, with the southern populations in cooler South Africa more likely to be males. While South Africa’s strict conservation laws and enforcement practices protected the local turtle populations reasonably well, the leatherbacks in Mozambique were being “hammered” on an unsustainable basis, Nel said. Although the meat was generally not eaten, the leatherback flesh was sought after for its high oil content. Leatherbacks are known to swim many thousands of kilometres. Part of Nel’s research is to track the migrations of those that nest on our shores. “They go all over the place. Apart from one near Knysna at the moment, there is another one we’re tracking that is about 1 500km south east of Port Elizabeth. The furthest north we’ve tracked one is Angola.” In the Pacific, the leatherback populations have declined by 90 percent in the past 20 years. “They are in serious trouble there. They’re also declining in Indonesia and Thailand.” Major threats are longline fishing, especially the swordfish industry in the western Indian Ocean, the slaughter of the animals for meat and unsustainable harvesting of their eggs. Plastic is also a turtle killer as turtles mistake plastic floating in the ocean for jellyfish, swallow it and die. Source: The Mercury (South Africa), 15 June 2009.