Incidental capture of marine turtles by the Italian trawl fishery in the north Adriatic Sea |
| |
Authors: | Paolo Casale Luc Laurent |
| |
Institution: | a via Antonio Calderara 29, I-00125 Roma, Italy b BioInsight, Biologie de la Conservation, B.P. 2132, F-69603 Villeurbanne, France c Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Animal Health and Welfare, University of Bari, Str. Prov. Casamassima km 3, I-70010 Valenzano, Italy |
| |
Abstract: | In the north Adriatic Sea on-board observations on midwater and bottom trawlers were carried out during years 1999 and 2000. Results indicate that the north Adriatic Sea, and especially the north-east part, is a very important foraging and overwintering habitat for loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta). Since the distribution of fishing effort in the area is not known, the total turtle catch by the Italian bottom trawl fleet was conservatively estimated from the lower catch rate observed in the south-west sub-area: 4273 turtle captures/year (95% C.I.=2186-8546). The actual total catch in the whole north Adriatic is likely to be much higher, due both to an unknown Italian trawling effort in the south-west part with multi-gear vessels and to the Italian and Croatian trawling efforts in the north-east part, where catch rate was 15 times greater than in the south-west part. In the south-west sub-area 9.4% of captured turtles were dead and potential mortality (assuming that all comatose turtles would die too) was 43.8%. Hence, trawling in the north Adriatic is likely to represent a serious threat to the populations, and possible conservation measures are discussed. |
| |
Keywords: | Caretta caretta Fishery interaction Trawl Overwintering Mediterranean Sea |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|