Leatherback Sea Turtle Could Be Extinct Within 20 Years at Last Stronghold in the Pacific Ocean

[PETRUS]

Feb. 26, 2013 — An international team led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has documented a 78 percent decline in the number of nests of the critically endangered leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) at the turtle's last stronghold in the Pacific Ocean.

The study, published online Feb. 26 in the Ecological Society of America's scientific online journal Ecosphere, reveals leatherback nests at Jamursba Medi Beach in Papua Barat, Indonesia -- which accounts for 75 percent of the total leatherback nesting in the western Pacific -- have fallen from a peak of 14,455 in 1984 to a low of 1,532 in 2011. Less than 500 leatherbacks now nest at this site annually.

Thane Wibbels, Ph.D., a professor of reproductive biology at UAB and member of a research team that includes scientists from State University of Papua (UNIPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia, says the largest marine turtle in the world could soon vanish.

"If the decline continues, within 20 years it will be difficult if not impossible for the leatherback to avoid extinction," said Wibbels, who has studied marine turtles since 1980. "That means the number of turtles would be so low that the species could not make a comeback.

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Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130226141233.htm

[dipsydoodle]

1. Extensive beach management

looks to be the only factor which is practical. That and some sort of holding area for the hatchlings while they grow to sufficient size to gives them more than half a chance against predators.

[GliderGuider]

2. A young woman I knew went to Costa Rica to work on sea turtle protection

She spent 3 or 4 months running around on beaches at night with a headlamp, collecting eggs as they were laid. The eggs were transferred to a protected hatchery. The biggest predator threat was human poachers.

Sad stuff.

[limpyhobbler]

3. very sad indeed

[daeron]

4. Indonesian not Papuan poaching

Turtles are a victim of a US scheme in 1962 to mine West Papua, along with the rain forests as the Papuan people are replaced by millions (yes millions) of Indonesians. There have been 100,000's of people killed to silence their plead for freedom. People are fighting for their lives, the Papuan to live and the Indonesians to remove the Papuans; little wonder turtle eggs have joined the victims during the fifty year scheme

The US businessman Robert Lovett and his friend McGeorge Bundy tricked President Kennedy into the deal, a plan to force the Dutch to sign a UN trusteeship agreement which the public was not told was a trusteeship agreement.

Today America has its gold & copper mine and the Papuan people are being ethnically replaced by Indonesians. It is tragic that Chapter XII of the UN Charter does not force lawyers to use the word “trusteeship” in a trusteeship agreement, but article 85 of the UN Charter is the only way that the General Assembly in resolution 1752 (XVII) instead of the Security Council was able to direct UN forces to occupy the colony.

Little wonder France and others refused to vote and Senegal pleaded for its vote to be recorded as opposing res. 1752 (XVII) but the deal was done and for fifty years people as well as turtles have been dying…

[PETRUS]

6. Thanks for chiming in.

I was only dimly aware of what you're describing. Your post prompted me to do a little further reading. Wow...

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Just to clarify -- there are Atlantic populations of leatherbacks as well ...

but it is important for genetic diversity for populations to be maintained in as many locales as possible.