Research helps protect turtles’ feeding areas
MEDITERRANEAN-wide tracking and science are piecing together the puzzle of turtle habits to protect their feeding areas and save them from fishermen’s nets.
The Society for the Protection of Turtles and University of Exeter tracked loggerhead turtles from North Cyprus to new destinations ranging from Italy, Spain, Albania and Turkey over the past three years following similar two-year studies of 20 green turtles.
Marine by-catch researcher, turtle expert and project coordinator Robin Snape said: “We now have stacks of data for stable isotope analysis (SIA) to understand our turtles’ spatial, reproductive and foraging ecology.”
He was speaking to Cyprus Today from Switzerland this week during successful meetings for second-stage funding for the bi-communal onboard observer ‘by-catch’ project, which has been running for the past two years.
“Thanks to our project funders, the Mava Foundation, our by-catch work continues and Exeter PhD student Josie Palmer will be back to continue SIA and tracking data studies,” Dr Snape said.
University of Exeter SIA studies, led by Julia Haywood, were published in the Marine Ecology journal this year and a second paper on SIA and Alagadi loggerheads will follow.
Tissue samples taken from turtles are matched to signature elements to identify foraging grounds in the same way that archaeologists identify ancient diets by analysing bone or tooth samples.
“Two adult males rescued ‘by-catch’ turtles were also tracked to Tunisia and Egypt but other rescued juvenile greens, the first youngsters to be tracked, remained in Famagusta Bay,” he said.
All ‘by-catch’ victims and most of the juvenile greens are fitted with state-of-the-art tracking devices and dive recorders to “establish how large a Marine Protection Area (MPA) must be closed to fisheries to save them,” Dr Snape added.
“Another male loggerhead went to Karpaz, possibly to mate, and returned, while a fourth, he is [named] Derin, recently moved to an over-wintering site off Limassol.”
As reports emerged this week of two adult turtles washed up off Paphos this week drowned in fishermen’s nets, with estimates of 50-70 strandings per year, Dr Snape said that the true annual tally of South Cyprus fisheries was estimated at 4,000.
The first five female green turtles were tracked from Alagadi in 2015.
They are [named] Frankie, Toby, Samannie, Waddy and Sim all migrated through the Levantine Sea, south of Cyprus, passing the waters of Lebanon, Israel and Gaza to the Bardawil lagoon, northern Sinai, Egypt.
Seventy per cent of studied Dipkarpaz green turtles also headed to forage in Bardawil as the remainder were tracked to a new site in Tunisia and two previously identified sites in Libya.
“Science can help put the pieces of the puzzle together,” said Phil Bradshaw, manager of the research project for the Marine Turtle Research Group, University of Exeter.