Conservation Hotspots for the Turtles on the High Seas of the Atlantic Ocean
Understanding the distribution of bycaught sea turtles could inform conservation strategies and priorities. This research analyses the distribution of turtles caught as longline fisheries bycatch on the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean. This research collected 18,142 bycatch observations and 47.1 mil...
Published in: | PLOS ONE |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4534298/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26267796 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133614 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4534298 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4534298 2023-05-15T18:21:15+02:00 Conservation Hotspots for the Turtles on the High Seas of the Atlantic Ocean Huang, Hsiang-Wen 2015-08-12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4534298/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26267796 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133614 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4534298/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26267796 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133614 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited CC-BY Research Article Text 2015 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133614 2015-08-30T00:07:22Z Understanding the distribution of bycaught sea turtles could inform conservation strategies and priorities. This research analyses the distribution of turtles caught as longline fisheries bycatch on the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean. This research collected 18,142 bycatch observations and 47.1 million hooks from large-scale Taiwanese longline vessels in the Atlantic Ocean from June 2002 to December 2013. The coverage rates were ranged from 0.48% to 17.54% by year. Seven hundred and sixty-seven turtles were caught, and the major species were leatherback (59.8%), olive ridley (27.1%) and loggerhead turtles (8.7%). Most olive ridley (81.7%) and loggerhead (82.1%) turtles were hooked, while the leatherbacks were both hooked (44.0%) and entangled (31.8%). Depending on the species, 21.4% to 57.7% were dead when brought onboard. Most of the turtles were caught in tropical areas, especially in the Gulf of Guinea (15°N-10°S, 30°W-10°E), but loggerheads were caught in the south Atlantic Ocean (25°S-35°S, 40°W-10°E and 30°S-40°S, 55°W-45°W). The bycatch rate was the highest at 0.030 per 1000 hooks for leatherbacks in the tropical area. The bycatch rates of olive ridley ranged from 0 to 0.010 per thousand hooks. The loggerhead bycatch rates were higher in the northern and southern Atlantic Ocean and ranged from 0.0128 to 0.0239 per thousand hooks. Due to the characteristics of the Taiwanese deep-set longline fleet, bycatch rates were lower than those of coastal longline fisheries, but mortality rates were higher because of the long hours of operation. Gear and bait modification should be considered to reduce sea turtle bycatch and increase survival rates while reducing the use of shallow hooks would also be helpful. Text South Atlantic Ocean PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 10 8 e0133614 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Research Article |
spellingShingle |
Research Article Huang, Hsiang-Wen Conservation Hotspots for the Turtles on the High Seas of the Atlantic Ocean |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
Understanding the distribution of bycaught sea turtles could inform conservation strategies and priorities. This research analyses the distribution of turtles caught as longline fisheries bycatch on the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean. This research collected 18,142 bycatch observations and 47.1 million hooks from large-scale Taiwanese longline vessels in the Atlantic Ocean from June 2002 to December 2013. The coverage rates were ranged from 0.48% to 17.54% by year. Seven hundred and sixty-seven turtles were caught, and the major species were leatherback (59.8%), olive ridley (27.1%) and loggerhead turtles (8.7%). Most olive ridley (81.7%) and loggerhead (82.1%) turtles were hooked, while the leatherbacks were both hooked (44.0%) and entangled (31.8%). Depending on the species, 21.4% to 57.7% were dead when brought onboard. Most of the turtles were caught in tropical areas, especially in the Gulf of Guinea (15°N-10°S, 30°W-10°E), but loggerheads were caught in the south Atlantic Ocean (25°S-35°S, 40°W-10°E and 30°S-40°S, 55°W-45°W). The bycatch rate was the highest at 0.030 per 1000 hooks for leatherbacks in the tropical area. The bycatch rates of olive ridley ranged from 0 to 0.010 per thousand hooks. The loggerhead bycatch rates were higher in the northern and southern Atlantic Ocean and ranged from 0.0128 to 0.0239 per thousand hooks. Due to the characteristics of the Taiwanese deep-set longline fleet, bycatch rates were lower than those of coastal longline fisheries, but mortality rates were higher because of the long hours of operation. Gear and bait modification should be considered to reduce sea turtle bycatch and increase survival rates while reducing the use of shallow hooks would also be helpful. |
format |
Text |
author |
Huang, Hsiang-Wen |
author_facet |
Huang, Hsiang-Wen |
author_sort |
Huang, Hsiang-Wen |
title |
Conservation Hotspots for the Turtles on the High Seas of the Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
Conservation Hotspots for the Turtles on the High Seas of the Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
Conservation Hotspots for the Turtles on the High Seas of the Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Conservation Hotspots for the Turtles on the High Seas of the Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Conservation Hotspots for the Turtles on the High Seas of the Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
conservation hotspots for the turtles on the high seas of the atlantic ocean |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4534298/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26267796 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133614 |
genre |
South Atlantic Ocean |
genre_facet |
South Atlantic Ocean |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4534298/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26267796 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133614 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133614 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
e0133614 |
_version_ |
1766200411059912704 |