Evaluation of sea turtle morbidity and mortality within the Indian Ocean from 12 years of data shows high prevalence of ghost net entanglement.
Journal
PloS one
ISSN: 1932-6203
Titre abrégé: PLoS One
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101285081
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2023
2023
Historique:
received:
13
12
2022
accepted:
12
07
2023
medline:
11
8
2023
pubmed:
9
8
2023
entrez:
9
8
2023
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Anthropogenic activities can negatively affect sea turtle populations. Quantifying the effect of human actions on these threatened species can help guide management strategies to reduce adverse impacts. However, such assessments require extensive effort and resources and as such have not been carried out in many areas of important sea turtle habitat, including the Republic of the Maldives (Maldives). Here, we utilise 12 years of data (2010-2022) collected from marine turtle stranding and rehabilitation cases from across the Maldives to identify the key threats in this region. Olive ridley turtles were found stranded or injured most frequently (74.7% of total cases), along with hawksbill (15.2%), and green (10.1%) turtles. Anthropogenic factors were the primary cause of injury or stranding in 75.2% of cases with entanglement in ghost fishing gear being the most common (66.2% of all cases). Other causes of morbidity, such as from turtles being kept as pets (5.6%), boat strikes (<1%), bycatch (<1%), and poaching (<1%) were recorded less frequently. Olive ridley turtles were more likely to have injuries associated with entanglement than other species and showed a peak in admissions during the northeast monsoon, in the period following the known arribada nesting season in nearby India. Turtles admitted to rehabilitation following entanglement were released a mean of 70 days sooner and had 27.5% lower mortality rates than for other causes of admission. This study highlights the high prevalence of ghost net entanglement of sea turtles within the Maldives. The topic of ghost fishing is of global importance and international cooperation is critical in tackling this growing issue.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37556405
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289167
pii: PONE-D-22-34145
pmc: PMC10411791
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e0289167Informations de copyright
Copyright: © 2023 Himpson et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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