Abstract:
Bycatch in fisheries is one of the greatest threats to marine megafauna such as sea turtles, and the Biodiversity Impact Mitigation Hierarchy (BIMH) has been proposedas an improved and holistic approach for integrating fisheries management with seaturtle conservation. The first three BIMH steps – avoid, minimize, and remediate – takeplace at sea where fishing activity is taking place. However, these at-sea measures arecostly and difficult to effectively implement across the vast range of a highly migratoryspecies. As such, some level of mortality continues, even when the first three steps ofthe BIMH are implemented as extensively as possible. These remaining negative impactsneed to be addressed by compensatory conservation actions elsewhere, e.g., at seaturtle nesting beaches. As a case study, we use the critically endangered leather backsea turtle nesting population in Papua Barat, Indonesia, to illustrate the opportunity forconservatory offsets to fisheries bycatch across the Pacific. We describe the community empowerment and nest protection programs that have been enhanced by the voluntary offsets from the tuna industry. While improved nest protection measures have helpedoptimize hatchling production, the engagement of the local communities, throughactivities that empower and enhance quality of life, has been a critical componentto the successful increase in hatchlings. This momentum needs to be sustained andscaled-up to protect the majority of threatened nests over a consistent number of yearsto successfully provide the recruitment boost needed at the population level. Thesecompensatory off-site conservation measures are also the most cost-effective meansof achieving increases in leatherback populations, and perhaps one of the most criticalcomponents of the recovery strategy for Pacific leatherbacks.
