Thousands of loggerhead turtles
are killed annually in areas of Syria, Libya and Egypt and Tunisia where they
travel to find food
Date: April 6, 2016
Source: University of Exeter
Thousands of loggerhead turtles
are killed annually in areas of Syria, Libya and Egypt and Tunisia where they
travel to find food, a new study led by researchers at the University of Exeter
has highlighted.
Robin Snape, a postgraduate
research student with the Marine Turtle Research Group at the Centre for
Ecology and Conservation at Penryn Campus and a team of fellow conservation
biologists found that many adult loggerhead turtles are migrating to areas of
the Mediterranean where they are dying, trapped in fishing nets used by small
scale fishing operations in Cyprus, the Middle East and North Africa.
The researchers tracked female
turtles by satellite from Cyprus and provided new evidence that the turtles,
rather than returning to the place of their birth to lay their eggs, will
sometimes nest in a number of countries. Following breeding, females travel to
foraging sites over an area covering the continental shelf of Cyprus, the Levant
and North Africa sometimes up to 2,100km from their nesting sites.
Three of the 27 adult female
loggerhead turtles that were tracked by using satellite devices over a ten year
period from north Cyprus nesting beaches died within a year of being followed. The
study, published in the journal Diversity and Distributions, shows researchers
believe the turtles died as bycatch, a result of being caught accidentally in
fishing nets.
This suggests an 11 per cent
mortality rate per year, which is a higher rate than expected in a species that
is thought to be very long lived. Turtles need to live longer so that they can
produce enough offspring to keep the species going.
Robin Snape, who is based in
northern Cyprus, said: "The mortality rate and level of bycatch in these
countries is very concerning. There is poor understanding of the need for
conservation and of the impacts that fishing practices can cause. This is
particularly difficult to manage when local people are dependent on fish for
their food and livelihood. Wider studies are needed into fishing practices, the
exact methods being used and into how we can mitigate bycatch. Although this is
difficult at the moment when countries are at war or politically unstable,
Cyprus as an EU member state is well situated to address its significant sea
turtle bycatch."
Project leader, Professor Brendan
Godley added: "Whilst the Mediterranean loggerhead turtle population is
dependent on the continuation of decades of intense conservation work at core
nesting sites in Greece, Cyprus and in Turkey, we now need to move into the
water to secure the future of the species mitigating threats from fisheries and
oil and gas related seismic activity. Encouragingly, we have been involved in
some recent work elsewhere that has shown that the simple and inexpensive
measure of putting LED lights on nets can reduce turtle bycatch significantly.
Our knowledge of the impacts of seismic activity is embryonic."
Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials
provided by University of Exeter. Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
Robin T. E. Snape, Annette C.
Broderick, Burak A. Çiçek, Wayne J. Fuller, Fiona Glen, Kimberley Stokes,
Brendan J. Godley. Shelf life: neritic habitat use of a turtle population
highly threatened by fisheries. Diversity and Distributions, 2016; DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12440
Cite This Page:
University of Exeter.
"Mediterranean loggerhead turtles dying in waters off the Middle East,
North Africa: Thousands of loggerhead turtles are killed annually in areas of
Syria, Libya and Egypt and Tunisia where they travel to find food."
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6 April 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160406123946.htm>.
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