Fisheries Threaten Mediterranean Loggerhead Turtle Population

Conservative biologists have found that thousands of loggerhead turtles are annually dying in the Mediterranean waters bordering North Africa, the Middle East and Cyprus, by getting get trapped in fishing nets used by small scale fishing fisheries in the region. The species migrate annually to the areas of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria in search of food and breeding ground.

Researchers at the University of Exeter in UK, who tracked the movements of female loggerhead turtles by satellite, came up with the evidence that instead of returning to the place of their birth for nesting, the water reptiles travel to other area that may sometimes be as far as 2,100 kilometers away. During breeding season, the females forage sites spread across the waters bordering North Africa, the Levant and Cyprus.

It was found that from the time they left nesting grounds in Cyprus, out of the 27 female loggerhead turtles that were being monitored through satellites for a decade, three died within a year of being tracked, owing to accidentally being caught in fishing nets. The study suggests an 11 percent mortality rate annually, which is higher than the expected life span of the species.

The findings do not a have a good implication for the future of the turtles as they need to live long enough to produce offspring, necessary for the survival of the species. Professor Brendan Godley, project leader of the research, pointed out that the future of the loggerhead turtles in the Mediterranean Sea could be secured by eliminating threats posed by fisheries as well as gas and oil related seismic activity.

Godley, furthermore, suggested that a simple and inexpensive step of introducing LED lights on the fishing nets can go a long way in significantly reducing turtle bycatch.  In fact, according to him a similar research work which was conducted elsewhere had led to positive results.