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  • Tags / Keywords hawksbill turtles
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Freedivers harvest thousands of sea turtles a year in the Solomon Islands
Island and Ocean Ecosystems
Available Online

Hamilton, Richard

2023
1. 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. 2. 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 geo-reference 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. 3. 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). 4. 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.
Destination Revealed: Post-Nesting Migrations of Hawksbill Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) from Moso Island, Republic of Vanuatu.
Island and Ocean Ecosystems
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Balazs, George H.

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Hickey, Francis R.

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Jim, Laura M. R

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Rice, Marc R.

2022
Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) nesting populations and behaviors in the Republic of Vanuatu are poorly understood. In an effort to evaluate their internesting home range, post-nesting migration and foraging habitat home ranges, 7 post-nesting hawksbill turtles were satellite tagged at Moso Island, Republic of Vanuatu between January 2018 and January 2020. The mean internesting home ranges of two turtles was 0.8 km2 proximal to their nesting beach indicating possible value in establishing a marine protected area along the north coast of Moso Island during the nesting season. The Great Barrier Reef, Australia and New Caledonia were the two major post-nesting destinations. Hawksbill turtles are legally protected by law in both countries. Foraging home ranges for 4 hawksbill turtles in New Caledonia and Aneityum Island, Vanuatu ranged from 1.7 to 28.9 km2. It will be important to continue this study to better determine the total area of habitat utilization of the internesting hawksbills at Moso Island in order to facilitate the implementation of community-based conservation measures and to illuminate home range location and size.