Title

Encouraging Outlook For Recovery Of A Once Severely Exploited Marine Megaherbivore

Keywords

Chelonia mydas; Conservation; Green sea turtle; Marine; Stock recovery

Abstract

Aim: To critically review the status of the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) using the best available scientific studies as there is a prevailing view that this species is globally endangered and its marine ecosystem functions compromised. Location: Ogasawara (Japan), Hawaii (USA), Great Barrier Reef (Australia), Florida (USA), Tortuguero (Costa Rica). Methods: We compiled seasonal nesting activity data from all reliable continuous long-term studies (>.25 years), which comprised data series for six of the world's major green turtle rookeries. We estimated the underlying time-specific trend in these six rookery-specific nester or nest abundance series using a generalized smoothing spline regression approach. Results: Estimated rates of nesting population increase ranged from c. 4-14% per annum over the past two to three decades. These rates varied considerably among the rookeries, reflecting the level of historical exploitation. Similar increases in nesting population were also evident for many other green turtle stocks that have been monitored for shorter durations than the long-term studies presented here. Main conclusions: We show that six of the major green turtle nesting populations in the world have been increasing over the past two to three decades following protection from human hazards such as exploitation of eggs and turtles. This population recovery or rebound capacity is encouraging and suggests that the green turtle is not on the brink of global extinction even though some stocks have been seriously depleted and are still below historical abundance levels. This demonstrates that relatively simple conservation strategies can have a profound effect on the recovery of once-depleted green turtle stocks and presumably the restoration of their ecological function as major marine consumers. © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Publication Date

3-1-2008

Publication Title

Global Ecology and Biogeography

Volume

17

Issue

2

Number of Pages

297-304

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2007.00367.x

Socpus ID

39049158387 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/39049158387

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