ESR 53:295-326 (2024) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01305
Vulnerability of the Critically Endangered leatherback turtle to fisheries bycatch in the eastern Pacific Ocean. II. Assessment of mitigation measures
Shane P. Griffiths1,*,#, Bryan P. Wallace2,3,4,#, Verónica Cáceres2, Luz Helena Rodríguez2, Jon Lopez1, Marino Abrego5, Joanna Alfaro-Shigueto6,7,8, Sandra Andraka9, María José Brito10, Leslie Camila Bustos11, Ilia Cari12, José Miguel Carvajal13, Ljubitza Clavijo12, Luis Cocas11, Nelly de Paz14, Marco Herrera10, Ann Marie Lauritsen15, Jeffrey C. Mangel7,8, Miguel Pérez-Huaripata16, Rotney Piedra17, Javier Antonio Quiñones Dávila16, Liliana Rendón9, Juan M. Rguez-Baron18,19, Heriberto Santana20, Brian Stacy21, Jenifer Suárez22, Yonat Swimmer23, Callie Veelenturf24, Rodrigo Vega12, Patricia Zárate12
#Joint lead authors
ABSTRACT: Industrial tuna and artisanal fisheries targeting multiple species in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) interact with the Critically Endangered East Pacific (EP) leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea. In 2021, a revised Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) resolution on sea turtles aimed to reduce sea turtle bycatch in EPO industrial tuna fisheries and ensure their safe handling and release. A new ecological risk assessment approach—Ecological Assessment for the Sustainable Impacts of Fisheries (EASI-Fish)—was used to assess vulnerability status and to better understand the potential efficacy of 70 scenarios that compared simulated conservation and management measures (CMMs) for EPO industrial (purse-seine and longline) and artisanal (longline and gillnet) fisheries to the status quo in 2019. In 2019, a fishing mortality proxy (F̃2019) and the breeding stock biomass per recruit (BSR2019) exceeded precautionary biological reference points (F80% and BSR80%), classifying the stock as ‘most vulnerable’. Industrial and artisanal longline fisheries had the highest impacts because they had the highest areal overlap with the modelled EP leatherback distribution. Of the 70 CMM scenarios, 42 resulted in significant improvements in vulnerability status (i.e. to ‘least vulnerable’). The use of large circle hooks, finfish bait, and best handling and release practices each decreased vulnerability; however, the most effective scenarios involved using these 3 measures in concert. The benefits predicted from EASI-Fish for CMM scenarios assume full compliance and attaining the modelled levels of efficacy, our modelling provides stakeholders with evidence-based recommendations to address key threats to EP leatherback turtles to improve their conservation status by reducing fishing impacts.
KEY WORDS: Ecological risk assessment · Longline · Artisanal fisheries · Tuna · Sea turtle · Dermochelys coriacea · Fisheries bycatch
Full text in pdf format  Supplementary material | Cite this article as: Griffiths SP, Wallace BP, Cáceres V, Rodríguez LH and others (2024) Vulnerability of the Critically Endangered leatherback turtle to fisheries bycatch in the eastern Pacific Ocean. II. Assessment of mitigation measures. Endang Species Res 53:295-326. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01305
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