Plea to save turtle from fishing threat
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Your support makes all the difference.The leatherback turtle, which survived the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, is under threat of eradication within 20 years from the demand for swordfish steaks. Marine scientists have launched an international initiative to save the species.
The number of nesting female leatherbacks - one of the oldest and most far-ranging marine animals - has declined by more than 95 per cent over the past 22 years, largely because they have drowned in fishing nets and the long lines used to catch swordfish, the meeting in Denver, Colorado, was told.
Larry Crowder of Duke University, North Carolina, said a study had shown sea turtles were 10 times more likely to be caught on the long lines used to capture swordfish than those intended for tuna. "So simply choosing to consume less swordfish could reduce market demand and reduce the impact on critically endangered leatherbacks," Dr Crowder said.
"Leatherbacks survived over 100 million years, through climate change and asteroid impacts, but they could become extinct in the next 10 to 20 years unless sufficient international co-operation is mounted,"he said.
"The humbling thing about humans having this effect is that leatherbacks have been around on Earth 25 times longer than humans but we're the cause of their decline."
Once their numbers could be counted in their hundreds of thousands but now there are fewer than 1,500 females nesting throughout the Pacific Rim, including 900 in Indonesia where turtles are still caught for food.
Leatherbacks grow to 9ft long and 6ft wide, can weigh up to a ton and dive as deep as half a mile. They have remained largely unchanged for millions of year, having swum with the pleiosaurs, an extinct marine reptile.
Dr Crowder said measures designed to protect Kemp's ridley turtle had shown progress was possible. Kemp's ridley declined to about 300 nesting females before numbers started to rise by about 12 per cent a year thanks to the introduction of rules designed to reduce the risk of them drowning in fishing nets.
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