Historic Caribbean sea turtle population falls 99%

[Robbien]

<snip>

The researchers estimate that turtle populations have declined significantly since the 17th century, with the number of green turtles living throughout the Caribbean falling from 91 million to 300,000 today and the population of Hawksbill turtles plunging from 11 million to less than 30,000 during this same time period. The change represents a 99.7 percent drop in historic Caribbean sea turtle populations for the two species.

McClenachan and colleagues suggest that the loss of nesting sites and nesting populations due hunting contribute to the decline. They say that the reestablishment of lost nesting sites is “extremely unlikely” but that more protection is needed for existing sea turtle nesting sites.

Ecological impact

The decline in sea turtles has had consequences for other marine life in the Caribbean. The researchers say that sea turtles, as "ecosystem engineers", shaped the environment around them by feeding on turtle grass (green turtles) and sponges (hawksbill turtles).

“The ecological extinction of green turtles transformed an ecosystem with diverse species of seagrass dominated by large herbivores into a detritus-based ecosystem dominated by overgrown monocultures of one species of grass,” said the researchers. “The decline in green turtles has led to a loss of productivity available to the animal food chain – including commercial reef fishes – reducing the protein-rich food available for the Caribbean people."

The Scripps team says that hawksbill’s now eat less toxic sponges, a shift that could "ultimately affect the landscape of coral reefs" in the region.


http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0801-turtles.html

[Teaser]

1. Good

Soon our most ancient of enemies, the monstrous "sea turtle" will be nothing but dust and memories.

Then the world will be ours.

[megatherium]

11. "that was no boating accident" nt

[Up2Late]

2. Very sad.

There are so many factors working against these animals, most don't even know.

[Beetwasher]

3. One Swam W/ Us While Scuba Diving Last Year

It was awesome. This is so sad.

[Divernan]

4. Just saw a large, injured one on the coast of Montserrat.

It had lost a rear flipper/part of leg - you could see the bone sticking out - but it was hanging close to shore and the local divers kept track of it and were hoping that the salt water would help it heal - not unknown to see a turtle missing a flipper - could have been from a shark attack, but we didn't see a single shark the entire week either.

So that's not related to the marine ecosystem per se, but it was one of only two turtles we saw in a week of diving, and this is the beginning of the nesting season on Montserrat for three species of turtles, so we expected to see many, and we didn't.

[babylonsister]

7. OT: Has the volcano quieted there? I guess so, if you were diving.

Sounds like fun! Is all back to normal, fit for touristas?

[bvar22]

8. Outboard propeller more likely.

*

[hatrack]

5. Long ago, you could find islands in the dark from the sounds of turtles

At least, that's what the logs of the early English and Spanish ships said.

No longer.

[jpak]

9. Columbus encountered sea turtles so numerous

they nearly halted his ships...

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/publications/zoogoer/1999/5/greenturtlestale.cfm

<snip>

When Christopher Columbus sailed through the Caribbean 500 years ago, his crew reportedly had to push green turtles aside with poles to clear passage for the ships. Columbus saw so many green turtles around three low islands 150 miles south of Cuba that he named them "Las Tortugas," Spanish for "The Turtles." The name didn’t last long — today these islands are known as the Caymans — and neither did the turtles. While the Caymans once hosted the largest green turtle rookery in the Americas, today the nesting wild turtles are all but gone from these tropical islands. The story is much the same throughout the green turtle’s range, which once included tropical and subtropical waters worldwide.

<snip>

and the Gulf Stream teamed with them too...

[MrPrax]

6. So they are extinct basically n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. Not yet, but they will be if we don't take steps to protect them.

This election is so crucial...

[tex-wyo-dem]

10. I often wonder what our ecological world must have been like...

300 or more years ago. Must have been an unbelievably beautiful place.

As far as nature and biodiversity are concerned, humans have been a remarkably destructive force.

[malmapus]

14. Always find myself thinking the same thing

Espicially when I lived in San Francisco, always wondered what that area was like when it was mostly beach dunes 400 years ago or so.

Can't believe that Manhattan use to be farmland when it was still part of the colonies, let alone what it must have looked like before that!

[JohnyCanuck]

12. If you visit Barbados, you can swim with the sea turtles.

I did this a while ago and it was awsome. The turtles in one particular spot off the West coast of the island are totally unafraid of people and you can swim among them and they'll come right up to you and let you touch them apparently without a qualm.

I am not sure if it's good that they have lost their fear of people, but by becoming semi-tame they've become a tourist attraction and now more and more of the locals who used to hunt them for food and to make jewelry out of the shells and also ate the turtle eggs are now actively involved in turtle conservation projects, protecting their nesting areas etc. because it has become such a great money earner with the locals finding work as guides, glass bottom boat operators etc.

Julia Horrocks, who was born in the United Kingdom, received her undergraduate degree in zoology and psychology from the University of Reading, in Berkshire, UK. She obtained her doctorate in behavioral ecology and primatology from the University of the West Indies, and since 1984 has been a faculty member there.

She started a pioneering initiative called the Barbados Sea Turtle Project in 1987 to protect threatened populations of sea turtles in Barbados. Soon after, a telephone "hotline" was created to increase knowledge about sea turtle nesting sites around the island, and to allow immediate response to emergencies such as turtle strandings and hatchling disorientation. Horrocks manned the hotline single-handedly, 24 hours a day, for several years. She explains, "I responded to every call, by meeting the caller at the site, by day or by night, and this became the public's measure of our commitment and a cornerstone of our public awareness program. I am convinced that nothing replaces the one-on-one discussion of conservation issues on the beach with the vendor, water sports operator, fisherman, beach cleaner, or hotel security officer who has made the report." The hotline has become a nationally respected institution, now operated by graduate students and volunteers. It has contributed greatly to rehabilitation of sea turtle populations around Barbados.

In 1990 the Barbados Sea Turtle Project took a significant leap forward when Horrocks was invited to join WIDECAST as a country coordinator for Barbados. She and WIDECAST executive director Karen Eckert (a 1997 Pew Fellow) produced the first action plan for sea turtle recovery in the Caribbean.

Through the Barbados Sea Turtle Project, Horrocks and her students have conducted research and implemented monitoring programs for hawksbill, green, and leatherback sea turtles. The Project's monitoring programs have yielded a great deal of sound information, including more than ten years of data on hawksbill sea turtle nesting activity, and five years of data on the population of hawksbills that feed on Barbados' reefs. In response to Project data indicating that sea turtle populations were severely depleted, a national moratorium on their capture and trade was established in 1998

snip

Horrocks says that ecotourism may be "one of the few viable ways to encourage conservation and sustainable use of these animals in this area of the world ." Thus, another aspect of her Pew Fellowship is to help Caribbean countries understand and develop sustainable sea turtle ecotourism. Barbados' "Swim with the turtles" attraction is hugely popular with tourists, yet may be causing harm to the turtles through too much handling, food, and familiarity with humans. Horrocks has proposed some changes to the venture to allow the fisherfolk involved to derive greater economic benefits while interfering less with the natural lives of the turtles. In the future, she plans to work with hotel staff and developers to preserve nesting beach habitat for sea turtles.

http://www.pewmarine.org/pewFellowsDirectoryTemplate.php?PEWSerialInt=5160

Info on swimming with the turtles here:
http://www.barbados.org/species/turtles-romance.htm