In 42 countries or territories around the world, the harvest of marine turtles is legal. This amounts to more than 42,000 turtles being legally caught each year by fisheries.
These findings were discovered by Blue Ventures Conservations and staff at the University of Exeter's Centre for Ecology and Conservation and are the first comprehensive review of the number of turtles taken within the law. The team hoped to assess how this legal human threat compares to other global threats to marine turtles.
All seven marine turtle species are currently listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
"This is the first study to comprehensively review the legal take of turtles in recent years, and allows us to assess the relative fisheries threats to this group of species," said Frances Humber of Blue Ventures and a PhD student at the University of Exeter, who led the research. "Despite increased national and international protection of marine turtles, direct legal take remains a major source of mortality. However, it is likely that a fraction of current marine turtle mortality take is legal, with greater threats from illegal fisheries and bycatch."
Bycatch is the unintentional trapping of turtles in commercial fishing nets intended for other species.
Commercial capture of marine turtles is nothing new and has been going on around the world for centuries. In the late 1960s, an estimated 17,000 tons was captured globally. In 1968, Mexico alone took an estimated 380,000 turtles.
Recent increased conservational awareness has led to a greater protection of the animals, with "178 countries now signed up to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) restricting the international trade of turtle products."
Despite these protections, direct take of marine turtles continues legally in many regions around the world, usually for traditional coastal communities and small fishing operations.
For their research, the team collected data on the seven marine turtle species from more than 500 publications and 150 in-country experts worldwide.
"They estimate that currently more than 42,000 marine turtles are caught each year legally, of which over 80 percent are green turtles," according to the press release announcing the findings.
The researchers estimate that illegal fishing removes a minimum of 65,000 turtles from Mexico alone since 2000. These illegal captures add to the large number of legal operations throughout the world. More data will be needed to assess the sustainability of these current loses.
We were surprised to find that there are 42 countries with no legislation in place that prohibits the harvest of marine turtles, although for many of these countries these harvests provide important sources of protein or income. It is however important to ensure that these fisheries are operating at a sustainable level," added Annette Broderick of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.