Research Released Today Reports Almost 3,000 Endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtles Washed Up Dead on Baja California Sur Beaches Over Five-Year Period

For Immediate Release: October 13th, 2008

Media Contacts:

S. Hoyt Peckham (hoyt@biology.ucsc.edu; 831.566.0510)
Wallace J. Nichols, PhD (wallacejnichols@me.com; 831.426.0337)

Conservation efforts needed to protect endangered species from accidental and deliberate capture; SEE Turtles conservation tourism offers one solution to high death toll

Santa Cruz, CA - Wallace J. Nichols of California Academy of Sciences and University of California Santa Cruz researcher Hoyt Peckham have been counting endangered sea turtle carcasses; one part of their work to assess and eliminate threats to endangered loggerhead sea turtle populations in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Their co-authored research, which was published today, yielded shocking results - almost 3,000 sea turtles were found dead along a 27-mile stretch of coast during a five-year period from 2003 to 2007.   The full report can be accessed freely online in the open access journal Endangered Species Research [http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/bycatch/bycatchpp13/].

"We have counted so many dead turtles.  We have piles of data on thousands of carcasses.  What we need now are conservation actions, viable solutions and real alternatives for these fishermen," said Wallace J. Nichols, co-author and Research Associate with California Academy of Sciences.

With publication of their findings, the scientists are increasing awareness of the problems facing sea turtles in this area, which are accidental capture during fishing operations, known as "bycatch", and illegal fishing for turtles, or "poaching". Along with their Mexican coauthors and colleagues, they hope this report will encourage Mexico's government agencies to finalize creation of a refuge that protects turtles and encourages sustainable fishing in the area.

The study underscores that bycatch, and to a lesser degree poaching, are significantly impacting this endangered animal's chances for survival.

"We're seeing what are apparently the highest documented bycatch and stranding rates in the world," commented lead author Hoyt Peckham of UC Santa Cruz. "But the high bycatch rates offer us all an unexpected conservation opportunity. By working with just a handful of fishermen to diminish their bycatch we can save hundreds of turtles," added Peckham.

The authors partnered with local fishermen not only to assess bycatch but also to increase awareness of its far-reaching effects and work towards ending the threat. "Once aware of the ocean-wide impacts of their local bycatch," commented Hoyt Peckham, "fishermen strive to fish more cleanly by switching to different techniques, target species or areas – as a result, bycatch levels were down in 2008." Additionally, local fishermen are calling on the Mexican government to designate a sea turtle refuge that would officially protect the turtle bycatch "hotspot".

One of the best solutions to these problems is to increase awareness among fishermen about the consequences of their actions and to offer an alternative livelihood.  Conservation tourism can help provide an alternative for Baja California's fishermen.  Some fishermen look to turtle conservation tourism as an alternative to dwindling, inefficient fisheries.

Through training and a steady tourism market, many fishermen and former poachers have come to value sea turtles more alive than dead, as giving eco-safe tours can yield more income than fishing.

SEE Turtles is a conservation tourism program that highlights communities protecting sea turtles.  SEE Turtles helps by bringing much needed income tocommunity-based sea turtle conservation efforts, providing economic alternatives to fishermen and poachers, and inspiring travelers to take a more active role in protecting sea turtles.

The program links travelers with critical sea turtle conservation sites so that vacation dollars make a difference for sea turtles and for the livelihood of community residents who protect them.

North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles travel more than 7,000 miles from Japan to Baja California Sur to feed and grow in nearshore waters, spending up to 30 years there before returning to Japan to breed.  The number of nesting females in Japan has declined by 50 to 80 percent  over the past 10 years.

For more information about sea turtle conservation tourism opportunities and how to book a trip, visit www.seeturtles.org  or contact Brad Nahill (brad@oceanrevolution.org)

Are 'microplastics' marine pollutants? 
Experts start to ask if tiny particles might be clogging ocean food chain 
By Jessica Marshall Discovery Channel 
We've all heard about sea turtles, dolphins or seabirds dying from entanglement in six-pack rings, plastic bags or other detritus - or from bellies full of mistakenly swallowed plastic. But some marine researchers are concerned about the effect that much smaller bits of plastic may be having on the seas. 
So-called "microplastics" may concentrate pollutants, be ingestible by the ocean's tiny denizens - from zooplankton to filter feeders like clams and mussels - and move up the food chain.  
A group of scientists gathered this month to identify what's known about this problem and where more research is needed.  
"We know that stuff breaks down, and as it breaks down, it forms smaller and smaller pieces of plastic," said workshop organizer Joel Baker of the University of Washington, Tacoma. "But there's another story, and that is that there are some processes that either purposefully or inadvertently create microplastic particles in their own right."   One such source is nurdles, the little plastic pellets used as the raw material that's molded or extruded into plastic products.  
A growing source is tiny plastic spheres - less than a millimeter across, and in some cases just microns in diameter - used in new industrial abrasives or in cosmetics as exfoliants, Baker said.  
"Because they're used as abrasives, presumably they're pretty hard and pretty resilient to breakup," he said. "The general rule of thumb is, if it doesn't break down pretty quickly, it ends up in the ocean. We don't have any way of monitoring for them. We have no idea, really, if they're having any impact on any organisms."  
Estimates of exactly how many particles are in the ocean give a wide range.  
"You tend to have numbers that are much less than one per cubic meter," Baker said. "But if you do that in terms of the number of pieces per square kilometer of sea surface, it's tens of thousands."   Amphipods, lugworms, barnacles and mussels take up microplastic in aquarium experiments. Fish and birds in the wild have been found with microplastic pieces in their bodies. But the extent and effect of this ingestion is not yet known.   Plastic specks in the oceans appear to adsorb poorly water-soluble pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and persistant pesticides like DDT. This might give creatures that ingest pellets a superdose of toxins that can accumulate up the food chain.   "There's some indication that when the animal ingests those, they not only get the physical damage to the gut, but those pollutants can desorb into the animal," said workshop participant Douglas Helton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program, in Silver Spring, Md.   On the other hand, the pellets might act like pollutant sponges that mop up the contaminants and sequester them out of harm's way, Baker said.   One study presented at the meeting suggested that the amount of pollutant accumulated by one type of marine worm decreased when more plastic was added to sediment in an aquarium, suggesting the latter mechanism may work in that case.   One of the outcomes of the workshop was to identify areas where the greatest effects are likely to be seen.   "There are probably areas where it floats on the surface, and those are lagoons and marshes," Baker said. "The other place is coastal urban sediments, where it has settled to the bottom."   These are good starting points for additional research, because if microplastics are causing problems, such locations should show the effects most directly, he added. In the meantime, taking steps to reduce plastic debris - large and small - is a good idea, Helton said. "I don't think there's any right amount of plastic to dump in the ocean."   (c) 2008 Discovery Channel URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26994478/