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Escalle L, Scutt Phillips J, Lopez J, Lynch JM, Murua H, Royer SJ, Swimmer Y, Murua J, Sen Gupta A, Restrepo V, Moreno G. Simulating drifting fish aggregating device trajectories to identify potential interactions with endangered sea turtles. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2024:e14295. [PMID: 38766922 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2023] [Revised: 01/23/2024] [Accepted: 03/05/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
Purse-seine fishers using drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs), mainly built with bamboo, plastic buoys, and plastic netting, to aggregate and catch tropical tuna, deploy 46,000-65,000 dFADs per year in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the major concerns associated with this widespread fishing device are potential entanglement of sea turtles and other marine fauna in dFAD netting; marine debris and pollution; and potential ecological damage via stranding on coral reefs, beaches, and other essential habitats for marine fauna. To assess and quantify the potential connectivity (number of dFADs deployed in an area and arriving in another area) between dFAD deployment areas and important oceanic or coastal habitat of critically endangered leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean, we conducted passive-drift Lagrangian experiments with simulated dFAD drift profiles and compared them with known important sea turtle areas. Up to 60% of dFADs from equatorial areas were arriving in essential sea turtle habitats. Connectivity was less when only areas where dFADs are currently deployed were used. Our simulations identified potential regions of dFAD interactions with migration and feeding habitats of the east Pacific leatherback turtle in the tropical southeastern Pacific Ocean; coastal habitats of leatherback and hawksbill in the western Pacific (e.g., archipelagic zones of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands); and foraging habitat of leatherback in a large equatorial area south of Hawaii. Additional research is needed to estimate entanglements of sea turtles with dFADs at sea and to quantify the likely changes in connectivity and distribution of dFADs under new management measures, such as use of alternative nonentangling dFAD designs that biodegrade, or changes in deployment strategies, such as shifting locations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauriane Escalle
- Oceanic Fisheries Programme, The Pacific Community (SPC), Nouméa, New Caledonia
| | - J Scutt Phillips
- Oceanic Fisheries Programme, The Pacific Community (SPC), Nouméa, New Caledonia
| | - J Lopez
- Ecosystem and Bycatch Program, Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), La Jolla, California, USA
| | - J M Lynch
- Center for Marine Debris Research (CMDR), Hawaii Pacific University (HPU), Waimanalo, Hawaii, USA
- Chemical Sciences Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Waimanalo, Hawaii, USA
| | - H Murua
- International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - S J Royer
- Center for Marine Debris Research (CMDR), Hawaii Pacific University (HPU), Waimanalo, Hawaii, USA
- The Ocean Cleanup, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Y Swimmer
- NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
| | - J Murua
- AZTI Tecnalia, Sukarrieta, Spain
| | - Alex Sen Gupta
- Climate Change Research Centre and ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - V Restrepo
- International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - G Moreno
- International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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