High mortality rates of Chelonia mydas in a small‐scale bottom gillnet fishery in the south‐west Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

1. In Brazil, five species of sea turtles use the region for feeding and reproduction. For these endangered species, one of the biggest impacts on their populations is incidental catches in fishing gear. 2. In the state of Santa Catarina (SC)-Brazil, fishing is an important economic activity, with distinct and numerous industrial and artisanal fleets. These fleets incidentally capture all five species of sea turtle. 3. In the Canoa beach fishing community in the municipality of Barra Velha (SC), gillnet fishing holds great economic and cultural importance. The four main gillnet fisheries in this community are whitemouth croaker, leatherjacket/mackerel, hake, and grouper/catfish/flounder, the latter of which is carried out on rocky bottoms and is locally called 'malhão'. In this fishery, fishermen have reported catching sea turtles over the years, especially the green turtle Chelonia mydas. 4. In the present study, 1,998 sets were monitored between September 2010 and April 2011, of which 104 (5.2%) were of gillnets for whitemouth croaker Micropogonias furnieri; 324 (16.2%) were for leatherjackets Oligoplites spp. and mackerel Scomberomorus spp.; 1,261 (63.1%) were for hake Cynoscion spp.; and 309 (15.5%) were for grouper Epinephelus spp., catfish Genidens spp., and flounder Paralichthys spp. 5. Considering all fisheries, the incidental capture of sea turtles occurred in only 3% of the monitored sets. In all, 87 sea turtles were captured, 78 (89.6%) of which were recorded in the 'malhão'. Of these captures, 68 (87.2%) were C. mydas, eight (10.2%) were loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta and two (2.6%) were 'hard-shelled' turtles. 6. The direct mortality rate observed for C. mydas in the 'malhão' was 73.5%, which is the highest rate recorded in similar fisheries of the southwest Atlantic, thus raising concern for the protection of this species in the Atlantic Ocean.

Tartarugas Marinhas E Fibropapilomatose: Um Estudo Cienciométrico No Brasil

“…Esse perfil demonstra que ainda existem poucos trabalhos dedicados exclusivamente aos estudos sobre FP no contexto nacional. No Brasil, a maioria dos estudos com tartarugas marinhas estão focados em ameaças de diferentes tipos de pesca ocorrentes em áreas costeiras e as capturas incidentais causadas pela prática, além de foco em estudos sobre as ameaças que a ingestão de detritos marinhos de origem antropogênica tem causado à sobrevivência dessas espécies (Tourinho et al, 2010;Mendes et al, 2015;Colferai et al, 2017;Guimarães et al, 2018;Duarte et al, 2019;Rizzi et al, 2019;Silva-Júnior et al, 2019;Fiedler et al, 2020;Fuentes et al, 2020;Petry et al, 2021).…”

Greenhouse gas emissions, consumption, and fuel use intensity by an artisanal double-rig trawl fleet in southern Brazil

“…Since this fishery involves a wide variety of environments and species, its impacts are a growing cause for concern, especially in terms of stock reduction (Garcia and Grainger 2005), changes in ecosystem structure and functioning (Pauly et al 1998(Pauly et al , 2005Kelleher 2008), changes in the ocean floor (Kaiser et al 2006;Kaiser 2019), mortality of endangered species (Sales et al 2010;Fiedler et al 2012Fiedler et al , 2017Fiedler et al , 2020, consumption of fossil fuels in navigation and fishing operations (Tyedmers 2004;Tyedmers et al 2005;Suuronen et al 2012), and greenhouse gas emissions (Ziegler and Hansson 2003;Fulton 2010;Port et al 2016). In the last two decades alone, the impact of the two latter factors has served to assess the sustainability of fishing (Tyedmers 2004;Tyedmers and Parker 2012;Jha and Edwin 2019), especially large-scale fisheries in developed countries given the scarcity of data on small-scale or artisanal fisheries in developing countries (Parker et al 2018).…”