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Time is running out for embattled Pacific leatherback sea turtles
by Marlowe Starling on 30 April 2021
Marine biologists warn that the western Pacific leatherback could go extinct without immediate conservation measures and transnational cooperation.
This subpopulation has decreased at a rate of 5.6% each year for an overall 80% decline over a 28-year period, according to a recent study.
While the IUCN lists the species as a whole as vulnerable, the Pacific populations are critically endangered partly because of their long migratory routes through the high seas, where they face threats like drift gillnet fishing, ship strikes and pollution.
The eastern Pacific subpopulation, which nests in Mexico and Central and South America, faces similar threats. Both populations are at high risk of extinction.
Major Drop in Leatherback Sea Turtle Population off US West Coast
3 hours ago
In this aerial photo provided by Joel Schumacher, scientists in a research boat pursue a Pacific leatherback turtle in the Pacific Ocean off California in September 2016. (Joel Schumacher via AP)
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Scientists say there has been a major drop in the population of leatherback sea turtles off the U.S. West Coast.
Researchers say there was an 80 percent drop in one group of leatherbacks found off the California coast over the past 30 years. One recent study found a 5.6 percent yearly decrease in the population.
1. United States
Harbor porpoises have made a comeback after the banning of gill netting in key coastal communities of California, new research shows. Gill nets are a cheap and effective way for commercial fishers to catch loads of sea bass and halibut by the gills, but they also wreak havoc on other species, including sea otters, some sea birds, and the lesser-known harbor porpoise. The latter exclusively lives in shallow waters. Being unable to detect the nylon mesh using echolocation, the porpoises would frequently drown after getting tangled in gill nets. Aerial surveys for harbor porpoises, which began in 1986, allowed researchers to identify and track four distinct porpoise populations off California’s coast as gill netting bans rolled out over the following decade. The latest assessment of that data shows the groups affected by gill netting have doubled their populations since the bans were put in place, and are now beginning to stabilize. It’s the first documented case
Los Angeles Times
Now these porpoises are on the rebound
January 25, 2021
Around the world, fishermen use low-cost nets that sit like fences on coastal seafloors. Known as set gill nets, this type of gear is highly effective at catching fish when the mesh snags them by their gills.
But gill nets also catch a host of other species by mistake.
In California, decades of commercial sea bass and halibut fishing killed thousands of other coastal animals. Outraged by the deaths of sea otters and diving seabirds, voters in the state banned many of the nets from near-coastal waters starting in 1994.