ESR prepress abstract - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01385
Updated global conservation status and priorities for marine turtles
Bryan P. Wallace*, Ashleigh N. Bandimere, Alberto Abreu-Grobois, Hector Acosta, Jacques Akiti, Mensah Akomedi, Joanna Alfaro-Shigueto, Camryn D. Allen, David Angenda, Isidore Ayissi, Julia Azanza Ricardo, Karla G. Barrientos-Muñoz, Hector Barrios-Garrido, Karen A. Bjorndal, Emmanuel Bretón Vargas, Annette C. Broderick, Randy Calderón Peña, Carlos Carreras, Simona A. Ceriani, Liliana Colman, Adriana Cortés-Gómez, Luis Crespo, Eduardo Cuevas, Alexandre Dah, Arjan de Groene, Carlos Delgado Trejo, Simon Demetropoulos, Ashley Dias, Carlos Diez, Natalie Aida Dos Santos, Josea S. Dossou Bodjrenou, Michelle María Early Capistrán, Karen L. Eckert, Christophe Eizaguirre, Lalith Ekanayake, Maribel Escobedo Mondragón, Nicole Esteban, Deborah Feliciano, Raquel dos Santos Fernandes, Betania Ferreira-Airaud, Allen Foley, Luis G. Fonseca, Sabrina Fossette, Mariana M. P. B. Fuentes, John Gaglo, Alexander Gaos, Daniele Gidsicki, Bruno Guffoni, Alexandre Girard, Marc Girondot, Matthew H. Godfrey, Brendan J. Godley, Raúl de Jesús González Díaz Mirón, Mark Hamann, Joana Madeira Hancock, Catherine E. Hart, Graeme C. Hays, Roberto Herrera, Sandra Hochscheid, Shaun Hoekstra, Patricia Huerta-Rodríguez, Gelica Inteca,, Takashi Ishihara,, Michael P. Jensen,, Imed Jribi, Nupur Kale, Yakup Kaska, Shaleyla Keléz, Irene Kinan Kelly, Stephanie Köhnk, Paolo Lara, Mathilde Lasfargue, Ann Marie Lauritsen, Diane Z. M. Le Gouvello, Alphinah Liusamoa, Martha López, Melania C. López-Castro, Milagros Lopez-Mendilaharsu, Cristina M. M. Louro, Teresa Luna, Christine Anne Madden, David Mahabir, Agnese Mancini, Muralidharan Manoharakrishnan, Maria Angela Marcovaldi, Yaneth Martín, Rosa Ciria Martínez-Portugal, Angela Mastrogiacomo, Estrela Isabel Oliveira Pereira Matilde, Bright Mawunyo Adzagba, Samuel Mbungu, Cristina Miranda, Félix Moncada, B. Alejandra Morales-Mérida,, Jeanne A. Mortimer,, Shawn KK Murakawa, Michel A. Nalovic, Ronel Nel, Rodrigue Ngafack, Hideaki Nishizawa, Maixent Ogou, Aliki Panagopoulou, Ana Rita Patricio, Erika Peralta Buendía, Andrea D. Phillott, Nicolas J. Pilcher,, Maximilian M. R. Polyak,, Robert I. T. Prince, Ebiegberi Henry Raynus, Richard D. Reina, Juan Manuel Rguez-Baron,, Amanda E. Robbins, Alexsandro Santana dos Santos, Adriana Laura Sarti-Martínez, Gail Schofield, Jeffrey A. Seminoff, Irmaury Serrano, Brian M. Shamblin, Kartik Shanker,, Brian A. Stacy, Gustavo Stahelin, Marylou K. Staman, Martin Stelfox, Kelly R. Stewart, Albert Taxonera, Anton D. Tucker, Oguz Turkozan, Robert P. van Dam, Casper Harmen van de Geer, Sara Viera,, Lindsey West, Andrea U. Whiting, Scott D. Whiting, Lauren Wienand, Soraya R. Wijntuin, Natalie Wildermann, Patricia M Zárate, Paolo Casale, Andrew DiMatteo,, Brendan J. Hurley, Brian J. Hutchinson, Sara M. Maxwell, Zach A. Posnik, Isabel Rodriguez, Roderic B. Mast
ABSTRACT: Assessing conservation status and pursuing applicable management priorities for marine megafauna across multiple scales pose significant challenges. Because marine turtles exemplify these challenges, the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG) developed the ‘conservation priorities portfolio’ (CPP) framework in 2011 to evaluate population risk and threats for regional management units (RMUs). Here, the MTSG updated the 2011 CPP framework through an inclusive assessment process. Expert elicitation results involving 145 individuals from 50 countries suggested that marine turtle conservation status appears to be improving, but significant challenges remain. Since the previous assessment, long-term abundance trends increased on average, and threat impact scores improved for nearly twice as many RMUs (53%) as worsened (28%) (≥ 10% threshold for changes in numeric scores). While expert-assessed threat impacts have generally decreased, fisheries bycatch remains the highest scored threat across regions and species. Risk-Threat categories improved for most (54%) RMUs. Over 40% of RMUs were scored as Low Risk-Low Threats, eight of which were green turtles Chelonia mydas. Less than 20% of RMUs were scored as High Risk-High Threats, four of which were leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea. Most High Risk-High Threats RMUs were in the Pacific Ocean, while most Low Risk-Low Threats RMUs were in the Atlantic Ocean. Eleven RMUs were evaluated as critical data needs. Our results—also provided through an interactive data dashboard—underscore the importance of context-specific planning to effectively target limited conservation resources. Future assessments should further prioritize inclusion of under-represented topics, researchers, and regions to better address multi-faceted conservation challenges.