Abstract
This is the first assessment of catch rates for the legal, artisanal green turtle, Chelonia mydas, fishery in Caribbean Nicaragua. Data were collected by community members, monitoring up to 14 landing sites from 1991 to 2011. We examined take levels, and temporal and spatial variability in catch rates for the overall fishery, by region, and community using General Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs). More than 171,556 green turtles were killed during the period, with a mean estimated minimum 8,169±2,182 annually. There was a statistically significant decline in catch rates overall. Catch rates peaked in 1997 and 2002, followed by a downward trend, particularly from mid-2008 to the end of the study period. Similar downward trends were evident in both study regions. Community specific catch rate trends also indicated declines with decreases ranging from 21% to 90%. Decrease in catch rates in Nicaragua is cause for concern even though the principal source rookery at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, shows an increase in nesting activity. Explanations for the apparent discrepancy between the increasing trend at Tortuguero and decreasing catch rate trends in Nicaragua include: i) an increase in reproductive output, ii) insufficient time has passed to observe the impact of the fishery on the rookery due to a time lag, iii) changes in other segments of the population have not been detected since only nesting activity is monitored, iv) the expansive northern Nicaragua foraging ground may provide a refuge for a sufficient portion of the Tortuguero rookery, and/or v) a larger than expected contribution of non-Tortuguero rookeries occurring in Nicaragua turtle fishing areas. Our results highlight the need for close monitoring of rookeries and in-water aggregations in the Caribbean. Where consumptive use still occurs, nations sharing this resource should implement scientifically based limits on exploitation to ensure sustainability and mitigate impacts to regional population diversity.
Highlights
The abundance of sea turtles in the Caribbean at the onset of European arrival to the New World, as well as subsequent skirmishes to conquer and control the lands and resources of the region have been well described by Dampier [1]; Columbus; and Exquemelin [3]
In this paper we present the first analysis of take levels and catch rate trends of the Caribbean Nicaragua green turtle fishery
Ethics Statement All necessary permits were obtained for the described study from the Nicaragua Ministerio del Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales (MARENA), and data collection complied with all relevant regulations
Summary
The abundance of sea turtles in the Caribbean at the onset of European arrival to the New World, as well as subsequent skirmishes to conquer and control the lands and resources of the region have been well described by Dampier [1]; Columbus (cited in Lewis [2]); and Exquemelin [3]. Seagrass beds found on the expansive continental shelf off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua are thought to be among the largest in the Caribbean, if not the world [8,9,10], and are the principal forage of green turtles [11] Marine turtles and their eggs have been exploited for at least 500 years from Nicaragua’s coastal waters and beaches by indigenous and ethnic coastal inhabitants, and by foreign fleets [1,4,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] (Fig. 1). Despite this long and extensive history of exploitation, Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast continues to provide foraging, developmental, and nesting habitats [19,20], and a reproductive migratory corridor for what has been suggested as the largest green turtle foraging aggregation in the Atlantic [21]
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