New 40,000 square mile haven for Pacific’s leatherbacks

But how do they get there safely?

January 2012: Protection for 40,000 square miles of protected critical ocean habitat off the shores of Washington, Oregon and California are now in place - creating a haven for the endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle. The new protection laws establish critical habitat in areas where leatherbacks feed on jellyfish after swimming 6,000 miles across the ocean from nests in Indonesia.

This is the first permanently designated area for leatherbacks in continental US waters and, although it is substantially smaller than the original proposals for 70,600 square miles, it is the largest area set aside to protect sea turtle habitat in the United States or its territories.

Now we need migration safeguards for these ancient animals‘Habitat protections are vital to the survival of leatherbacks. We urgently need migration safeguards for these ancient animals as they make the longest, most epic journey of any creature on the planet to get to our West Coast every year,' said Catherine Kilduff of Florida's Center for Biological Diversity.

However, there are concerns that the new rules do not extend to protect turtles' migratory paths from commercial fishing, water pollution and marine vessel traffic. The new regulation excludes protections for migration through these habitats and also excludes consideration of dangers to the turtles from fishing, such as mile-long drift nets used for swordfish off California.

‘This is a major decision to protect feeding hotspots for endangered leatherback sea turtles, but the federal government failed to acknowledge that the turtles need safe passage to get there,' said Ben Enticknap, Oceana's Pacific project manager.

‘Leatherbacks finally have a safe haven along our coast, but still face extinction due growing threats from fisheries, pollution and ship strikes,' said Teri Shore, programme director at SeaTurtles.org in California.

Pacific leatherback population declined by more than 95 per centMile-long drift gillnets and longline gear used to catch swordfish, sharks and tunas are the two types of fishing gear most commonly known to capture and kill leatherback sea turtles. While current regulations restrict fishing to protect these sea turtles, the Fisheries Service is currently developing proposals to expand the use of these fishing gears into areas important to the leatherback.

The largest of all sea turtles, leatherbacks can grow up to nine feet long and weigh up to 2,000 pounds. Pacific leatherback sea turtles have declined more than 95 per cent since the 1980s; as few as 2,300 adult female western Pacific leatherbacks remain. The species dates from the time of the dinosaurs, having survived for 100 million years virtually unchanged; but now they face the danger of extinction.

The leatherback sea turtles feeding off the US West Coast make the longest known migration of any reptile, across the Pacific Ocean where they nest on beaches in Papua, Indonesia. They make this great migration to feed on jellyfish in the productive ocean waters of the American Pacific. They are generally found off the West Coast in the summer and fall months.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/pacific-leatherback.html

42 million turtles born in 2010-11 nesting season in Mexico, according to Mexican authorities

Times of India, IANS
Dec 22, 2011, 10.52AM IST

MEXICO CITY: Mexican authorities recorded a total of 42.2 million Olive Ridley, Leatherback and Kemp's Ridley sea turtle births during the 2010-11 nesting season, authorities said.

Efforts to secure the protection of female turtles and their nests and safeguard hatchlings' journey to the ocean are led by the National Commission on Natural Protected Areas, or Conanp, at 33 nesting beaches, the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat said in a statement Tuesday.

Ten of those beaches are natural protected areas, three are located inside biosphere reserves, 15 are internationally designated wetlands sites and the remainder are located in areas without special protection mechanisms, the secretariat said.

Approximately 1.2 million Olive Ridley turtle nests were laid and 23.3 million offspring made their way to the ocean at the Playa de Escobilla sanctuary and Morro Ayuta beach, both located in the southern state of Oaxaca.

A total of 20,574 Kemp's Ridley turtle nests were laid in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas and 534 in the eastern state of Veracruz and an estimated 18.9 million hatchlings reached the sea in those two regions.

"The nesting figure for the latest season is up (compared to the previous season), and therefore the conclusion can be drawn that the population is on the road to recovery," the secretariat said.

In the case of the Leatherback turtle, one of the most threatened turtle species in Mexico, authorities counted a total of 615 nests, mainly on the coasts of the Pacific states of Michoacan, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

In those states, authorities supervised the entrance to the sea of 15,414 Leatherback offspring.

The secretariat estimates that around 1,647 Leatherback turtle nests were laid along the entire Pacific coast during the 2010-11 nesting season.

Invasion of their habitat (beaches) by man, accidental fishing, depredation of their nests by some communities that still consume their flesh and eggs and injuries suffered by boats' outboard motors are the main dangers sea turtles in Mexico face.

Mexico banned the harvest of sea turtles for commercial or subsistence reasons in April 2006.

(Editor-Anyone out there who could verify this?)

via Herp Digest

Jellyfish may be helping leatherback sea turtles make a comeback (Via Herp Digest)

Jellyfish may be helping leatherback sea turtles make a comeback
Massive blooms of jellyfish are big source of food for endangered turtles

By Ludmilla Lelis, Orlando Sentinel
11:06 p.m. EST, November 25, 2011

It's the annual bane of beachgoers: massive "blooms" of jellyfish. This past summer, when the blooms hit Volusia and Brevard counties, thousands of ocean swimmers felt their sting.

But researchers say the very creatures that are such a nuisance to people could be fueling the comeback of one of Florida's endangered species: the leatherback sea turtle.

The largest of the marine reptiles, leatherbacks used to be rare visitors to Florida shores. But over the past two decades, the number of nests dug at Florida beaches has been increasing. This year's count is 600 nests, one of the highest ever at beaches tracked for long-term trends. Nest counts are the main method of assessing sea-turtle population trends.

This success story of sea-turtle conservation has a possible twist, said Kelly Stewart, a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When jellyfish are abundant, the leatherbacks have a veritable feast, which could help the female turtles reproduce more often.

"Jellyfish, and any gelatinous species, are the preferred food source for leatherback sea turtles," said Stewart, who completed her doctoral thesis at Duke University on these turtle trends. "So, if there are more jellyfish, that may not be good for people, but is good for the leatherbacks."

Jellyfish aren't really fish but gelatinous creatures related to corals. There are more than 1,000 species around the world, and they have a familiar, umbrella-like body and tentacles. Most have the ability to sting their prey, but their main predators, such as leatherback turtles, seem to be immune to the venom.

In recent years, there have been giant blooms around the world, including several cases involving a jellyfish species that is foreign to an area. Cocoa Beach had such a phenomenon over the Memorial Day weekend with an invasion of mauve stingers, a deep ocean jellyfish that is rare in Florida but common in the Mediterranean.

Although there is some evidence that the blooms are increasing in size and frequency, it's difficult to be sure because there aren't a lot of data on the history of blooms, according to a University of Washington study.

Stewart said a connection between more jellyfish and more leatherback nests needs further study but offers a possible explanation for the resurgence of the turtles.

Ranked as an endangered species, leatherbacks are the largest sea turtles and the only ones lacking a hard shell. In the late 1990s, leatherback nest numbers started to climb dramatically, with some Florida beaches seeing annual increases of as much as 16 percent, Stewart said.

Also, the turtle, which historically nested only in South Florida, has been digging nests farther north. Volusia County, for example, rarely saw a leatherback nest 20 years ago but this year had 13, a record. A leatherback turtle that had been tagged with a satellite tracker even dug a nest in North Carolina after digging nests in Florida, Stewart said.

"It is a remarkable increase, and one of the marvels of sea turtles," said Anne Meylan, research administrator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. A co-author of Stewart's study, she credits strong efforts to protect nesting beaches and better monitoring.

However, the study found that nests were increasing even in other countries where the protections are weaker. Stewart said she thinks that means the increases relate to what's happening to turtles in the Atlantic as they travel.

That turtles are reaping a benefit from jellyfish feasts would make sense because of the need for females to fatten up to reproduce. Sea turtles typically nest only every few years, building energy reserves during non-nesting seasons. A typical nest contains 100 or so eggs, and turtles often dig two or three nests a season - all of which quickly depletes the reserves, Stewart said.

But if leatherback turtles have plenty of jellyfish to eat, they may be able to fatten up quicker and reproduce more often, she said. "These nesting cycles can be reduced if they don't have a limit on their food supply."

Leatherback turtle washed up on Cumbrian beach, Ireland (Via Herp Digest)

Leatherback turtle washed up on Cumbrian beach, Ireland
By Victoria Brenan, News & Star, 10/27/11

An amazing discovery was made on a Cumbrian beach earlier this month when a leatherback turtle washed ashore.

The reptile - which is critically endangered - is not often seen in the waters around Cumbria but the latest appearance has confirmed the breed's existence in the Irish sea.

They say the turtles have been spotted swimming in the Irish sea, a rich food source for them because of the high levels of plankton and algae but numbers of them have dwindled worldwide due to egg theft.

The male turtle was found by a member of the public who alerted Cumbria Wildlife Trust after making the grim discovery at St Bees around a week ago.

"It was in such a bad condition it's not easy to say [how it died]," said Alan Wright, of the trust.
"We are still investigating.

"[Other ones] have either been killed by boat propellers or eaten a plastic bag and died. There's good chance there would be some human involvement in its death."

Mr Wright said the discovery was 'good and bad news.'

"It's good in that we know they are in the sea but obviously bad in that it's dead. We do get the odd one washing up on shore in Cumbria."

He said they believed the turtle was between 10 and 15 years old and said they could live for hundreds of years.

The largest one ever found in the UK was reportedly washed up in Wales. It was nearly 10ft long and weighed 916 kilos, equivalent to a Mini.

The turtle's body was removed by trust officers working with marine bodies, Defra and Natural England.
Experts are now trying to establish how it died.

USFW to revisit leatherback nesting designation

Corridor is important spawning place for turtle by The Daily Sun staff

Revisions should be made to the endangered leatherback sea turtle's current critical habitat designation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined.

The critical habitat for the leatherback is one of several species to be studied in depth by the Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine how best to protect it.

However, because it enjoys international protections, it is being left towards the end of the study, which could be critical for some of the five species under scrutiny.

The decision is the result of a 90-day finding and a 12-month determination on a petition to designate critical habitat for the leatherback in Puerto Rico. A comprehensive status review for this species, federally listed as endangered since 1970, will be completed, and critical changes in habitat policy will be considered.

Until then, the current critical habitat designation remains in effect.

Areas within the designation, as well as areas that support leatherback sea turtles outside of the designation, continue to be subject to conservation actions under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act.

In March 1978, the Service designated as critical habitat for the leatherback beach area in St. Croix, now the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge. The Sierra Club petitioned for the critical habitat designation to
be revised to include the coastline of the Northeast Ecological Corridor of Puerto Rico, a 132-foot stretch of beach from Luquillo to Fajardo including the beaches known as San Miguel I and II, Paulinas, El Convento
Norte, and Seven Seas, all of which are over five miles long.

Beaches along the Corridor are important nesting grounds for the leatherback, with an average of 213 nests, according to the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. Together, Puerto Rico
beaches hosted between 469 and 882 leatherback nests each year between 2000 and 2005. The adult leatherback turtle population in the North Atlantic Ocean is estimated at 34,000 to 94,000.

Critical habitat for the leatherback will be fully assessed when the Service and the NMFS conduct the status review for the leatherback.

Following five-year reviews for sea turtle species in 2007, the agencies decided to review five of the federally listed sea turtles to determine the application of the distinct population segment policy. The recommended
status reviews will be conducted on the loggerhead sea turtle, green sea turtle, olive ridley sea turtle, leatherback sea turtle, and hawksbill sea turtle, in that order. The leatherback was selected as one of the last
species to receive a full status review because as an endangered species it receives full protection under the ESA.

Critical habitat is a term in the Endangered Species Act that identifiesareas with features essential for the conservation of a threatened orendangered species, and which may require special management or protection. Designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge or preserve. A reminder to federal agencies to protect these areas, it has no effect on private landowners taking actions on their land that do not require federal funding or permits. The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats. Visit http://www.fws.gov/southeast/ or http://www.fws.gov/.

http://www.prdailysun.com/index.php?page=news.article&id=1312518834

Leatherback turtle seen in The Minch off Western Isles

The turtle was photographed by researchers and volunteers aboard the Silurian

10 June 2011

A leatherback turtle has been spotted in the sea off Scotland.

Crew members of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust research vessel Silurian estimated it was about 1.5m (5ft) long.

They saw the turtle in The Minch, a stretch of water between the Western Isles and mainland Scotland on Sunday.

Leatherbacks nest in the tropics but have been spotted previously off the UK, with one sighting made near a beach at Cleveleys in Lancashire last June.

Dave Hanna, skipper of the Silurian, said seeing the turtle was the most exciting moment of his life.
The cold

The leatherback is the world's biggest turtle and listed as Critically Endangered, largely because of poaching for eggs and snaring in fishing gear.

Typically between 1m and 2m long, the animals weigh up to three-quarters of a tonne and can swim across entire oceans, returning to their ancestral nesting sites to breed every few years.

In 2002, a rare green turtle was found dead off Loch Inver on the north west coast of Scotland.

At the time it was believed to be only the third recorded discovery of a green turtle in Scottish waters in more than 150 years.

The animal normally lives in tropical and sub-tropical waters and scientists said it probably perished in the cold after losing its way.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-13727829

Leatherback turtle seen in The Minch off Western Isles (Via Lindsay Selby)

unusual creature off Scottish coast
10 June 2011
Leatherback turtle seen in The Minch off Western Isles

Crew members of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust research vessel Silurian estimated it was about 1.5m (5ft) long.They saw the turtle in The Minch, a stretch of water between the Western Isles and mainland Scotland on Sunday.Leatherbacks nest in the tropics but have been spotted previously off the UK, with one sighting made near a beach at Cleveleys in Lancashire last June.Dave Hanna, skipper of the Silurian, said seeing the turtle was the most exciting moment of his life.

The leatherback is the world's biggest turtle and listed as Critically Endangered, largely because of poaching for eggs and snaring in fishing gear.Typically between 1m and 2m long, the animals weigh up to three-quarters of a tonne and can swim across entire oceans, returning to their ancestral nesting sites to breed every few years.In 2002, a rare green turtle was found dead off Loch Inver on the north west coast of Scotland.
Read rest see pic here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-13727829

Leatherback Sea Turtle Nests Increasing in Florida (Via HerpDigest)

ScienceDaily (Apr. 4, 2011) - The number of endangered leatherback sea turtle nests at 68 beaches in Florida has increased by 10.2 percent a year since 1979, according to a new Duke University-led study published in the current issue of the journal Ecological Applications.

Some beaches posted annual increases of more than 16 percent, others as low as 3.1 percent.
The population boom of turtle nests in the Sunshine State mirrors trends observed for other Atlantic leatherback sea turtle populations and is "very encouraging news," says Larry B. Crowder, director of the Duke Center for Marine Conservation. "It suggests that conservation and recovery efforts mandated under the Endangered Species Act are paying off region-wide."

The growth has likely been fueled in part by improved monitoring and protection of nesting beaches over the last 30 years, Crowder says, but other less benign factors may also be at work.
"Nesting is increasing even where beach protection has not been enhanced," he says. "Changing ocean conditions linked to climate variability may be altering the marine food web and creating an environment that favors turtles by reducing the number of predators and increasing the abundance of prey, particularly jellyfish."

With plenty of jellyfish to munch on, breeding-age female leatherbacks may be able to build up fat reserves more quickly, allowing them to nest more frequently, says Kelly Stewart, lead author of the study. Stewart received her Ph.D. from Duke in 2007 and conducted the research on Florida's leatherback sea turtles as her dissertation research. Crowder was her faculty adviser.

Reduced populations of large predators, including the collapse of shark populations in the northwest Atlantic over the past decade, may be playing an even larger role in the turtle boom by decreasing at-sea mortality rates for juvenile and young adult turtles, she says.

Despite being a small population -- scientists estimate fewer than 1,000 leatherbacks nest on Florida beaches -- the increases in nest counts there may help achieve objectives of the federal Endangered Species Act-mandated recovery plan, Stewart says.

News for leatherback populations elsewhere is not so encouraging, however. Populations have plummeted at eastern Pacific nesting beaches in Mexico and Costa Rica, which once hosted thousands of female leatherbacks each year. Extirpation, or local extinction of the species, may be imminent on those beaches.

"The good news here is that while most sea turtles continue to decline, some sea turtles are increasing. We need to understand why they are increasing as much as why they are declining so we can transfer this understanding to other at-risk species, like Pacific leatherbacks," says Crowder.

Stewart, Crowder and their colleagues modeled the 30-year nest counts on Florida beaches using a type of multilevel statistical analysis called Poisson regression, which is frequently used to model counts affected by multiple, often random, factors.

Nest counts are the most reliable way of assessing trends in sea turtle populations because they spend most of their lives in the open ocean, where changes in abundance are difficult to detect.

Stewart is now based at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in LaJolla, Calif., as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow. Prior to that, she served as a postdoctoral research associate at the Duke Center for Marine Conservation.
Other co-authors of the study are Michelle Sims of the University of Bath, U.K., and Anne Meylan, Blair Witherington and Beth Brost, all of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Epic Journeys of Turtles Revealed - Leatherbacks in the Atlantic

(PhysOrg.com) --1/15/11 The epic ocean-spanning journeys of the gigantic leatherback turtle in the South Atlantic have been revealed for the first time thanks to groundbreaking research using satellite tracking.

Experts at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter led a five-year study to find out more about these increasingly rare creatures and inform conservation efforts.

The research, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B today, has shed new light on the little-known migration behaviour of these animals following their movement from the world's largest breeding colony in Gabon, Central Africa, as they returned to feeding grounds across the South Atlantic.

The research has been carried out with the help of Parcs Gabon, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), PTMG (Marine Turtle Partnership for Gabon), the Trans-Atlantic Leatherback Conservation Initiative (TALCIN) - a multi-partner effort coordinated by WWF, and SEATURTLE.org.

Out of 25 females studied in the new research, three migratory routes were identified including one 7,563km (4,699 mile) journey straight across the South Atlantic from Africa to South America.

Other routes still involved large distances, as they moved from Gabon to food-rich habitats in the southwest and southeast Atlantic and off the coast of Central Africa. They will stay in these areas for 2-5 years to build up the reserves to reproduce, when they will return to Gabon once again.

Dr Matthew Witt said: "Despite extensive research carried out on leatherbacks, no-one has really been sure about the journeys they take in the South Atlantic until now. What we've shown is that there are three clear migration routes as they head back to feeding grounds after breeding in Gabon, although the numbers adopting each strategy varied each year. We don't know what influences that choice yet, but we do know these are truly remarkable journeys – with one female tracked for thousands of miles travelling in a straight line right across the Atlantic."

In the Pacific ocean, leatherback turtles have seen a precipitous decline over the past three decades – with one nesting colony in Mexico declining from 70,000 in 1982 to just 250 by 1998-9*. The exact cause of the dramatic fall-off in numbers is not clear, but turtle egg harvesting, coastal gillnet fishing, and longline fishing have been identified as potential factors.

Epic Journeys of Turtles Revealed - Leatherbacks in the Atlantic

(PhysOrg.com) --1/15/11 The epic ocean-spanning journeys of the gigantic leatherback turtle in the South Atlantic have been revealed for the first time thanks to groundbreaking research using satellite tracking.

Experts at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter led a five-year study to find out more about these increasingly rare creatures and inform conservation efforts.

The research, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B today, has shed new light on the little-known migration behaviour of these animals following their movement from the world's largest breeding colony in Gabon, Central Africa, as they returned to feeding grounds across the South Atlantic.

The research has been carried out with the help of Parcs Gabon, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), PTMG (Marine Turtle Partnership for Gabon), the Trans-Atlantic Leatherback Conservation Initiative (TALCIN) - a multi-partner effort coordinated by WWF, and SEATURTLE.org.

Out of 25 females studied in the new research, three migratory routes were identified including one 7,563km (4,699 mile) journey straight across the South Atlantic from Africa to South America.

Other routes still involved large distances, as they moved from Gabon to food-rich habitats in the southwest and southeast Atlantic and off the coast of Central Africa. They will stay in these areas for 2-5 years to build up the reserves to reproduce, when they will return to Gabon once again.

Dr Matthew Witt said: "Despite extensive research carried out on leatherbacks, no-one has really been sure about the journeys they take in the South Atlantic until now. What we've shown is that there are three clear migration routes as they head back to feeding grounds after breeding in Gabon, although the numbers adopting each strategy varied each year. We don't know what influences that choice yet, but we do know these are truly remarkable journeys – with one female tracked for thousands of miles travelling in a straight line right across the Atlantic."

In the Pacific ocean, leatherback turtles have seen a precipitous decline over the past three decades – with one nesting colony in Mexico declining from 70,000 in 1982 to just 250 by 1998-9*. The exact cause of the dramatic fall-off in numbers is not clear, but turtle egg harvesting, coastal gillnet fishing, and longline fishing have been identified as potential factors.

Atlantic Leatherback turtle migration routes revealed

Epic journeys of turtles revealed

January 2011. The epic ocean-spanning journeys of the gigantic Leatherback turtle in the South Atlantic have been revealed for the first time thanks to groundbreaking research using satellite tracking.

Experts at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter led a five-year study to find out more about these increasingly rare creatures and inform conservation efforts.

The research has shed new light on the little-known migration behaviour of these animals - following their movement from the world's largest breeding colony in Gabon, Central Africa, as they returned to feeding grounds across the South Atlantic.

3 migratory routes identified
Out of 25 females studied in the new research, three migratory routes were identified - including one 7,563km (4,699 mile) journey straight across the South Atlantic from Africa to South America.

Other routes still involved large distances, as they moved from Gabon to food-rich habitats in the southwest and southeast Atlantic and off the coast of Central Africa. They will stay in these areas for 2-5 years to build up the reserves to reproduce, when they will return to Gabon once again.

Dr Matthew Witt said: "Despite extensive research carried out on Leatherbacks, no-one has really been sure about the journeys they take in the South Atlantic until now. What we've shown is that there are three clear migration routes as they head back to feeding grounds after breeding in Gabon, although the numbers adopting each strategy varied each year. We don't know what influences that choice yet, but we do know these are truly remarkable journeys - with one female tracked for thousands of miles travelling in a straight line right across the Atlantic."


Pacific Leatherback turtle numbers decimated
In the Pacific Ocean, Leatherback turtles have seen a precipitous decline over the past three decades - with one nesting colony in Mexico declining from 70,000 in 1982 to just 250 by 1998-9. The exact cause of the dramatic fall-off in numbers is not clear, but turtle egg harvesting, coastal gillnet fishing, and longline fishing have been identified as potential factors.

In the Atlantic, population levels have been more robust but, due to variations in numbers at nesting sites each year, it's not clear whether they are in decline. Conservationists are keen to take action now to avoid a repeat of the Pacific story.

High risk migration routes
Dr Brendan Godley said the new research would be vital for informing this conservation strategy: "All of the routes we've identified take the Leatherbacks through areas of high risk from fisheries, so there's a very real danger to the Atlantic population. Knowing the routes has also helped us identify at least 11 nations who should be involved in conservation efforts, as well as those with long-distance fishing fleets. There's a concern that the turtles we tracked spent a long time on the High Seas, where it's very difficult to implement and manage conservation efforts, but hopefully this research will help inform future efforts to safeguard these fantastic creatures."

Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Ocean Giants Program, said: "This important work shows that protecting Leatherback turtles-the ancient mariners of our oceans-requires research and conservation on important nesting beaches, foraging areas and important areas of the high seas. Armed with a better understanding of migration patterns and preferences for particular areas of the ocean, the conservation community can now work toward protecting Leatherbacks at sea, which has been previously difficult."

The research was carried out with the financial support of a range of donors, including the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, UK), the Darwin Initiative, the Large Pelagics Research Center (LPRC, USA) Competitive Grants Program, and the European Association of Zoos & Aquaria (EAZA) Shellshock Campaign.

The research has been carried out with the help of Parcs Gabon, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), PTMG (Marine Turtle Partnership for Gabon), the Trans-Atlantic Leatherback Conservation Initiative (TALCIN) - a multi-partner effort coordinated by WWF, and SEATURTLE.org

The paper, called Tracking Leatherback turtles from the world's largest rookery: assessing threats across the South Atlantic, can be viewed online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/atlantic-leatherback.html

Atlantic Leatherback turtle migration routes revealed

Epic journeys of turtles revealed

January 2011. The epic ocean-spanning journeys of the gigantic Leatherback turtle in the South Atlantic have been revealed for the first time thanks to groundbreaking research using satellite tracking.

Experts at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter led a five-year study to find out more about these increasingly rare creatures and inform conservation efforts.

The research has shed new light on the little-known migration behaviour of these animals - following their movement from the world's largest breeding colony in Gabon, Central Africa, as they returned to feeding grounds across the South Atlantic.

3 migratory routes identified
Out of 25 females studied in the new research, three migratory routes were identified - including one 7,563km (4,699 mile) journey straight across the South Atlantic from Africa to South America.

Other routes still involved large distances, as they moved from Gabon to food-rich habitats in the southwest and southeast Atlantic and off the coast of Central Africa. They will stay in these areas for 2-5 years to build up the reserves to reproduce, when they will return to Gabon once again.

Dr Matthew Witt said: "Despite extensive research carried out on Leatherbacks, no-one has really been sure about the journeys they take in the South Atlantic until now. What we've shown is that there are three clear migration routes as they head back to feeding grounds after breeding in Gabon, although the numbers adopting each strategy varied each year. We don't know what influences that choice yet, but we do know these are truly remarkable journeys - with one female tracked for thousands of miles travelling in a straight line right across the Atlantic."


Pacific Leatherback turtle numbers decimated
In the Pacific Ocean, Leatherback turtles have seen a precipitous decline over the past three decades - with one nesting colony in Mexico declining from 70,000 in 1982 to just 250 by 1998-9. The exact cause of the dramatic fall-off in numbers is not clear, but turtle egg harvesting, coastal gillnet fishing, and longline fishing have been identified as potential factors.

In the Atlantic, population levels have been more robust but, due to variations in numbers at nesting sites each year, it's not clear whether they are in decline. Conservationists are keen to take action now to avoid a repeat of the Pacific story.

High risk migration routes
Dr Brendan Godley said the new research would be vital for informing this conservation strategy: "All of the routes we've identified take the Leatherbacks through areas of high risk from fisheries, so there's a very real danger to the Atlantic population. Knowing the routes has also helped us identify at least 11 nations who should be involved in conservation efforts, as well as those with long-distance fishing fleets. There's a concern that the turtles we tracked spent a long time on the High Seas, where it's very difficult to implement and manage conservation efforts, but hopefully this research will help inform future efforts to safeguard these fantastic creatures."

Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Ocean Giants Program, said: "This important work shows that protecting Leatherback turtles-the ancient mariners of our oceans-requires research and conservation on important nesting beaches, foraging areas and important areas of the high seas. Armed with a better understanding of migration patterns and preferences for particular areas of the ocean, the conservation community can now work toward protecting Leatherbacks at sea, which has been previously difficult."

The research was carried out with the financial support of a range of donors, including the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, UK), the Darwin Initiative, the Large Pelagics Research Center (LPRC, USA) Competitive Grants Program, and the European Association of Zoos & Aquaria (EAZA) Shellshock Campaign.

The research has been carried out with the help of Parcs Gabon, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), PTMG (Marine Turtle Partnership for Gabon), the Trans-Atlantic Leatherback Conservation Initiative (TALCIN) - a multi-partner effort coordinated by WWF, and SEATURTLE.org

The paper, called Tracking Leatherback turtles from the world's largest rookery: assessing threats across the South Atlantic, can be viewed online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/atlantic-leatherback.html

Leatherback turtles breathe in for buoyancy

Leatherback turtles, the ocean's deepest-diving reptiles, control their buoyancy simply by breathing in, scientists have found.


Researchers describe in the Journal of Experimental Biology how the turtles regulate their dives through the volume of air in their lungs.

This allows them to glide and forage for food at a variety of depths.

Scientists believed that the animals would exhale before diving, to avoid gas bubbles forming in their bodies.

US and UK scientists monitored the turtles' diving by attaching small data loggers to the animals' backs.

Sabrina Fossette from the University of Swansea in Wales led the study.


She and her colleagues attached the data loggers to five female leatherbacks in a wildlife refuge in the Caribbean.

"In addition to the depth, we could measure their acceleration," Dr Fossette told BBC News. "So we were able to model each dive in 3-D.

The researchers saw that the leatherbacks started their dives by actively swimming as they descended.

"Then, at some point during the dive they started gliding," said Dr Fossette.

"The turtles started gliding at deeper depths during deeper dives, suggesting they regulate the amount of air they inhale before diving."

This enables them to use their lungs as buoyancy aids to precisely counteract their weight.

The ability to glide at a variety of depths allows leatherbacks to conserve energy; it also means they are more flexible in terms of where in the ocean they can feed.

"Leatherbacks forage on gelatinous plankton," said Dr Fossette, "which can be found either at the surface or really deep in the ocean."

'The bends'
Many other diving animals, including hard-shelled turtles and penguins also inhale before they dive, but the researchers we were surprised to see the same behaviour in leatherbacks because the creatures are such deep divers.


Scientists have recorded the animals reaching depths of up to 1,000m - the deepest leatherback dive ever recorded was more than 1,200m.

So the researchers expected that the animals would exhale before a dive, in order to avoid decompression sickness.


Otherwise known as the bends, this can occur when dissolved gases in an animal's (or human's) blood form bubbles inside their bodies.

"Many deep divers - notably deep-diving mammals - exhale before diving to minimise the effects of decompression," said Dr Fossette.

"Leatherback turtles share many physiological and physical features with deep-diving mammals and therefore we would expect them to exhale."

It seems that the turtles' body temperature increases the solubility of the gases and therefore decreases the risks of bubbles forming.

This tagging experiment was designed by Rory Wilson, also from the University of Swansea, and Molly Lutcavage from the University of New Hampshire, US.

By Victoria Gill

Science and nature reporter, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9180000/9180979.stm

Leatherback turtles breathe in for buoyancy

Leatherback turtles, the ocean's deepest-diving reptiles, control their buoyancy simply by breathing in, scientists have found.


Researchers describe in the Journal of Experimental Biology how the turtles regulate their dives through the volume of air in their lungs.

This allows them to glide and forage for food at a variety of depths.

Scientists believed that the animals would exhale before diving, to avoid gas bubbles forming in their bodies.

US and UK scientists monitored the turtles' diving by attaching small data loggers to the animals' backs.

Sabrina Fossette from the University of Swansea in Wales led the study.


She and her colleagues attached the data loggers to five female leatherbacks in a wildlife refuge in the Caribbean.

"In addition to the depth, we could measure their acceleration," Dr Fossette told BBC News. "So we were able to model each dive in 3-D.

The researchers saw that the leatherbacks started their dives by actively swimming as they descended.

"Then, at some point during the dive they started gliding," said Dr Fossette.

"The turtles started gliding at deeper depths during deeper dives, suggesting they regulate the amount of air they inhale before diving."

This enables them to use their lungs as buoyancy aids to precisely counteract their weight.

The ability to glide at a variety of depths allows leatherbacks to conserve energy; it also means they are more flexible in terms of where in the ocean they can feed.

"Leatherbacks forage on gelatinous plankton," said Dr Fossette, "which can be found either at the surface or really deep in the ocean."

'The bends'
Many other diving animals, including hard-shelled turtles and penguins also inhale before they dive, but the researchers we were surprised to see the same behaviour in leatherbacks because the creatures are such deep divers.


Scientists have recorded the animals reaching depths of up to 1,000m - the deepest leatherback dive ever recorded was more than 1,200m.

So the researchers expected that the animals would exhale before a dive, in order to avoid decompression sickness.


Otherwise known as the bends, this can occur when dissolved gases in an animal's (or human's) blood form bubbles inside their bodies.

"Many deep divers - notably deep-diving mammals - exhale before diving to minimise the effects of decompression," said Dr Fossette.

"Leatherback turtles share many physiological and physical features with deep-diving mammals and therefore we would expect them to exhale."

It seems that the turtles' body temperature increases the solubility of the gases and therefore decreases the risks of bubbles forming.

This tagging experiment was designed by Rory Wilson, also from the University of Swansea, and Molly Lutcavage from the University of New Hampshire, US.

By Victoria Gill

Science and nature reporter, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9180000/9180979.stm