According to a new study, leatherback turtles that become entangled in fishing gear have a higher chance of surviving if the incident is reported quickly.
Dr. Kara Dodge of the New England Aquarium and her team of researchers analyzed 15 years of data collected by disentanglement responders to understand sea turtle bycatch and mortality better.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines bycatch as the process in which fishermen catch and discard animals they don’t want, can’t sell, or are not allowed to keep. Bycatch can be fish but includes other animals, such as dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and seabirds, that get hooked or tangled in fishing gear.
The findings showed that of the 280 confirmed sea turtle entanglements in Massachusetts waters between 2005-2019, 272 involved leatherback turtles, most wrapped in rope around their necks and front flippers.
According to the study in Endangered Species Research, 88% of disentangled turtles were predicted to have a low or intermediate risk of death.
The study also found that among the turtles tagged to track their movements, many were alive weeks to years after disentangled.
“This dataset gave us a unique opportunity to really dig into and understand leatherback turtle entanglement in buoy lines, which is critical to determining how entanglement happens and identifying workable solutions to solve this problem,” Dodge said.
Leatherback turtles are among the most endangered sea turtle species, and they can reach 6 feet in length and weigh over 1,000 lbs.
“Our findings for leatherbacks mirror what we have seen in whales. They will likely become entangled in whatever rope is most available to them. Reducing rope, which is not meant to mean reducing fishing, will be the best strategy for reducing entanglements,” said study co-author Scott Landry of the Center for Coastal Studies, which leads entanglement response efforts in the region and collected the bulk of the data for the study.
Researchers stressed the importance of sea turtles being completely disentangled, as they will have a low chance of survival if they’re only partially disentangled.
The disentanglement network works with fishermen and relies on them to immediately report an entanglement and wait for a team to arrive to help.
“We really want boaters to inform us as soon as possible when they encounter an entangled turtle so that we can assess the turtle’s condition and provide medical treatment if needed,” said Dr. Charles Innis, director of animal health at the New England Aquarium and a co-author of the study.
Innis said boaters mean well when they try to help the turtles, but that can lead to a lower chance of survival and prevent teams from learning more about the effects of entanglements on the turtles.
The study showed that most of the turtles caught were tangled in commercial fishing gear and not other debris. Some potential solutions to reduce the risk of leatherback sea turtles getting tangled would be replacing single fixed-gear fishing traps with trawls to reduce the number of vertical lines.
The researchers also encourage the development of emerging technologies, particularly “ropeless” fishing.
And while the study focused on entanglements in the waters off the coast of Massachusetts, researchers said challenges facing sea turtles are not limited to that area. Other studies showed entanglements are also a problem for leatherback sea turtles in Canadian waters.
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