Freedivers harvest thousands of sea turtles a year in the Solomon Islands

Abstract

Abstract Sea turtles are harvested in many small‐scale fisheries (SSFs), but few nations have quantified the impacts that SSFs are having on their sea turtle stocks. This study provides the first assessment on the catch composition, national harvest rates, and long‐term trends in sea turtle catches in the Solomon Islands SSFs. Between October 2016 and May 2018, 10 community monitors located in eight of the nine provinces of the Solomon Islands were trained and employed to work alongside fishers in their respective communities to document, photograph, and georeference the reefs where sea turtles were harvested. Local ecological knowledge (LEK) surveys were then conducted with 32 experienced fishers to infer whether the harvest rates of sea turtles had changed in recent decades. Community monitors recorded information on 1,132 sea turtles that were harvested on 529 fishing trips: 1,119 sea turtles were identified to species level, with harvests consisting of 73.3% (n = 818) green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), 25.7% hawksbill sea turtles (n = 291) (Eretmochelys imbricata), and 0.9% (n = 10) olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea). The great majority (92.6%) of sea turtles were captured by night‐time and daytime freedivers who use masks, snorkels, fins, hooks, spears, and underwater flashlights to target a wide range of fauna that inhabit coral reefs. A methodology that accounts for spatial heterogeneity in sea turtle catch rates was used to estimate that the SSFs of the Solomon Islands harvested 11,184 sea turtles per year, with a 95% confidence interval of 5,862–23,717 sea turtles. Experienced freedivers reported a 4.9‐fold decline in sea turtle harvest rates over the past 30 years, indicating that the sea turtle stocks of the Solomon Islands are being overfished. The results and recommendations from this study were integrated into the Solomon Islands National Plan of Action for Marine Turtles 2023–2027.