ENVIRONMENT | Protecting our natural resources
26 August 2008
Threats to Marine Turtle Raise International Concern
United States funds protection, monitoring of endangered populations
Washington -- Marine turtles once were abundant in world oceans, but human activity has depleted their numbers sharply. To help reverse this trend, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced new grants to fund sea turtle recovery efforts in seven countries.
“The U.S. is committed to doing its part to ensure that sea turtles are part of the Earth’s diverse biological landscape for generations to come,” said USFWS Director H. Dale Hall.
Under the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund, established by Congress in 2004, the USFWS will award more than $337,681 in 2009 for species and habitat conservation in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and India, according to an August 19 statement. Matching funds given by private-sector partners will raise an additional $549,002.
Since 2005, nearly $4 million in grants and matching funds have supported 78 projects internationally.
“These grants provide critical support for efforts targeting highly imperiled species and habitats,” Hall said. “They focus on how to best conserve and manage biodiversity in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations, universities and government agencies.”
POACHING A MAJOR THREAT
The World Conservation Union identifies six turtle species as particularly endangered: the green turtle, the leatherback, the loggerhead, the hawksbill, the Kemp’s ridley and the olive ridley turtles.
The shelled reptiles have inhabited the seas since prehistoric times -- more than 100 million years. The critically endangered leatherback, the largest marine reptile, can reach 2 meters in length, weigh 900 kilos and have an average lifespan of 50 years.
Turtles are no match for humans. Poachers kill turtles to illegally traffic their body parts; habitat degradation and new diseases also take a toll.
Some species are trafficked for their shells, used for ornaments; their flesh, considered a delicacy; for medicines; or as pets. The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reports at least 13,000 metric tons of live turtles are exported from Southeast Asia to East Asia annually. In 2000, 25 tons of turtles were shipped from Sumatra to China every week.
ADDRESSING HABITAT DEGRADATION
A major factor in turtle population decline is destruction and obstruction of nesting beaches by housing and commercial development, or, as in Gabon, Africa, logging practices that prevent turtles from nesting.
Gabon has one of the largest remaining nesting populations of leatherback turtles in the world, and the USFWS works with WCS, local nongovernmental organizations and communities to monitor and protect the species.
In Nicaragua, USFWS and WCS monitor and protect nesting hawksbill turtles in the Central and Western Caribbean and develop alternative sources of livelihood for the local human population.
The USFWS Wildlife Without Borders Program involves international and local nongovernmental conservation organizations to conserve and restore compromised habitats and train natural resource managers.
In the Middle East, the Environmental Society of Oman partners with USFWS to protect the world’s largest nesting population of loggerhead turtles and one of the largest green turtle nesting populations along Oman’s coastline.
Even if they avoid the threats of poaching and dwindling habitats, adult turtles also die from ingesting plastics and marine waste, entanglement in nets and ropes or being hit by boat propellers as they feed near the ocean surface.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service worked with the fishing industry to develop turtle excluder devices (TEDs) to prevent turtle bycatch. Alternative fishing technologies such as substituting the J-hook with a circular hook have been found to significantly reduce turtle bycatch fatalities, according to a recent World Wildlife Fund report.
The most recent USFWS grants will fund 11 turtle-protection projects in Mexico, Sierra Leone, India, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Costa Rica and Paraguay.
