Premium
Is a small sea turtles rookery doomed to local extinction? Decreasing nesting trends at the Paria Gulf, Venezuela
Author(s) -
Balladares Clemente,
QuinteroTorres Enrique
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
marine ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.668
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1439-0485
pISSN - 0173-9565
DOI - 10.1111/maec.12562
Subject(s) - rookery , fishery , geography , nest (protein structural motif) , population , nesting season , nesting (process) , critically endangered , sea turtle , endangered species , ecology , predation , oceanography , biology , turtle (robot) , habitat , geology , demography , biochemistry , materials science , sociology , metallurgy
Small rookeries are rarely evaluated for marine turtles worldwide. Two species of sea turtles (Hawksbill, Eretmochelys imbricata ; Leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea ) nest on five main beaches of the northeast coast of the Paria Gulf in Venezuela. Population trends using generalized linear models at this rookery were assessed and compared with other small rookeries. Both species showed significant negative nesting trends: Nesting by critically endangered hawksbills decreased over nine seasons 2009–2017 (64–142 nests per year, General Linear Model Slope Value = −0.061; data pooled for five beaches); similarly, vulnerable leatherback nests decreased across the same period in the main beach Los Garzos (0–69 nests/year; GLMSV = −0.34). Besides human and natural predation of the nests, no significant environmental impacts affect the beaches except probably on Obispo Isthmus where a gas pipeline installation interrupted the nesting activity in 2014. Observed changes to the nesting trends in these small rookeries have a collective impact on broader conservation concerns for sea turtles in the region.