|
Scientists Call for
Fishing Moratorium to Save Leatherback Sea Turtles
By Doug Israel,
Published on ARBEC June 18, 2002
Monterey, CA
-- Scientists and environmental experts have called for a
moratorium on all fishing methods that cause harm to Pacific leatherback
sea turtles which are in danger of imminent extinction.
Concluding the International Leatherback Survival Conference,
36 participants signed a
resolution asking the United Nations, United States and all other nations
whose citizens fish in the Pacific to institute a moratorium, and other
conservation measures, to halt the dramatic decline of these
ancient creatures.
“Leatherback sea turtles swam the seas while dinosaurs walked the
Earth,” said Todd Steiner, biologist and Director of Sea Turtle
Restoration Project. “But they will not survive the next decade if we do
not take dramatic and immediate action, including halting the use of
fishing methods that kill turtles.”
At the three-day conference held at Asilomar in Monterey, California,
scientists from around the world reported that populations of Pacific
leatherback sea turtles are plummeting. The
Pacific population has dwindled from 91,000 in 1980 to fewer than 5,000
now. In what may be
the worst year ever, minimal numbers of females are returning to nesting
beaches throughout the world. Mexican biologist
Laura Sarti reported that in the
mid-1980s, there were around 1,000 leatherback nesting at Mexiquillo,
Mexico, but over the last few breeding seasons, there were less than 25
with just 4 returning this year. Scientists
from Malaysia and Costa Rica reported similar declines.
“The decline in the last five years is nothing short of catastrophic,”
said Dr. Sylvia Earle, an Explorer in Residence at National Geographic and
leatherback expert. “The
number has dropped at a precipitous rate.
Their future depends on what we do — or may not do — even in
the next five years.”
The causes are many, but industrial longline fishing, primarily for
swordfish and tuna, appears to be a major one.
Leatherback numbers have dropped while longlining use has risen
dramatically. A
single football-field size longline ship can send out thousands of baited
hooks on hundreds of lines that total 60 miles in length.
The hooks also snag and kill seals, sharks and seabirds.
Leatherbacks, the Earth’s most ancient and largest living reptile, can
reach 9 feet long and 2,000 pounds, and are one of six species of
endangered sea turtles. They
range throughout the world’s oceans. |
