World's most endangered sea turtle species in even more trouble than we thought
World's most endangered sea turtle species in even more trouble than we thought
Date:March 28, 2016
Source:University of Alabama at Birmingham
Newly examined video of Kemp's ridley sea turtles, which are found primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, shows that the species' recovery from endangerment has stalled at less than one-tenth of historic nesting levels.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham came to that conclusion after being tasked with identifying the qualifying measure of endangerment for the species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN.
Kemp's ridley turtles are currently classified as critically endangered on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. The species was on the brink of extinction in the 1980s, but a Mexico-U.S. bi-national conservation program initiated in 1978 was able to reverse its decline.
The decades of intense conservation efforts were evident by 2009, with the Kemp's ridley exhibiting an exponential recovery rate that was expected to continue for many years. However, an unanticipated downturn occurred in 2010 when the amount of nesting dropped significantly, and since that time, the species has not regained an upward trajectory to recovery.
How many Kemp's ridley turtles should there be in the Gulf? Scientists and conservationists weren't sure; there was a lack of data between 1880, when the species was discovered, and the start of the conservation efforts in 1978.
UAB's study, led by Thane Wibbels, Ph.D., a biology professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and doctoral student Elizabeth Bevan, set out to answer that question through the evaluation of a historic film recorded in 1947 by Andres Herrera, a Mexican sportsman, on the Kemp's ridley's primary nesting beach in the western Gulf of Mexico near Rancho Nuevo, Mexico.
The film captured a mass-nesting event known as an arribada, involving tens of thousands of nesting turtles on a single day in 1947. It would help provide a rare benchmark for evaluating the historic population size of a species prior to its becoming endangered, which is usually not available for endangered species.
More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160328121231.htm
