PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — January 8, 2014 — The leatherback turtle in the Pacific Ocean is one of the most endangered animals in the world. Its population has declined by more than 90 percent since 1980. One of the greatest sources of mortality is industrial longlines that set thousands of hooks in the ocean to catch fish, but sometimes catch sea turtles as well. Using modern GPS technology, researchers are now able to predict where fisheries and turtles will interact and to reduce the unwanted capture of turtles by fishermen.
In a new study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers show the use-intensity distributions for 135 satellite-tracked adult turtles and distributions of longline fishing effort in the Pacific Ocean. The overlap of these distributions in space and time allows prediction of bycatch risk. The researchers argue that time and area closures for the fisheries are essential to protect these animals as well as to maintain the health of the commercial fishery.
The research was conducted by a team from Drexel University, several other universities, the NOAA/NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center and a U.S. non-profit, The Leatherback Trust. The study was supported by the Lenfest Ocean Program.
"Given the size of the Pacific Ocean and the number of fisheries from dozens of nations that use it, managing bycatch is a complex issue," said John Roe, PhD, lead author of the paper and an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. "To complicate things, fisheries authorities are not always forthcoming with information on when and where they capture turtles, so identifying problem areas, or hotspots, where bycatch likely occurs has proven elusive until now".
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