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Marine turtle threats in Uruguayan waters: insights from 12 years of stranding data

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Abstract

We present the first study conducted in a wide spatio-temporal scale on marine turtles strandings (N = 1,107) over a 12-year period (1999–2010) in Uruguay. Five species were recorded Chelonia mydas (N = 643; 58.1 %), Caretta caretta (N = 329; 29.7 %), Dermochelys coriacea (N = 131; 11.8 %), Eretmochelys imbricata (N = 3; 0.3 %), and Lepidochelys olivacea (N = 1; 0.1 %). The first three species stranded throughout the Uruguayan coast, but differences in distribution patterns were detected among species. Although occurring year round, stranding records show a clear seasonal pattern with variation in monthly distribution among species, but with a peak of records in austral summer. Strandings provide indirect evidence of threats to marine turtles in Uruguayan and surrounding waters, particularly fisheries and marine debris. Our results demonstrate that Uruguayan coastal waters likely serve as a foraging or development area for at least three endangered marine turtle species in temperate waters.

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Acknowledgments

Sampling and data collection were possible thanks to all Karumbé members and volunteers who once formed part of the NGO. We would like to thank specially Gustavo Martínez, Luciana Alonso, Virginia Ferrando, Laura Berrondo, Cecilia Lezama, M. Noel Caraccio, Virginia Borrat, Carlos Romero, Alfredo Hargain and Philip Miller for their help in different parts of this work. Authors are really grateful to all the persons and institutions that collaborated in the stranding network: local fishermen, government institutions (DINARA and DINAMA), naval prefectures, lifeguard service, rangers, civil organisations (particularly SOCOBIOMA and PROFAUMA), citizens and tourist. We also thank Milagros López for valuable comments and criticisms that helped to improve the manuscript. Funding was provided by IFAW, Conservation Leadership Programme, NFWF, PTES, Rufford Small Grants, Idea Wild and PADI. Authors wish to thank to the staff of the Marine Zoology Unit of the University of Valencia in the last part of this work and also to Rafael Tosi and Ana Rubio for the English review. We are also grateful for the useful critiques offered by Dr. Lewison and 2 anonymous reviewers that greatly improved the manuscript. J.T. is supported by projects CGL2011-30413 of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, UV-INV-AE11-42960 of the University of Valencia and Prometeo (UV-CI-12-151) of the Generalitat Valenciana. This research was conducted under licence (No. 200/04, 073/08 and 323/11) from the Fauna Department-Ministry of Cattle, Agriculture and Fishing of Uruguay.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Zoology Unit, Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Valencia, Apdo. 22085, 46071, Valencia, Spain

    Gabriela M. Vélez-Rubio & Jesús Tomás

  2. Karumbé, Av. Rivera 3245, CP 11600, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Gabriela M. Vélez-Rubio, Andrés Estrades & Alejandro Fallabrino

  3. National Museum of Natural History, CC 399, CP 11000, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Andrés Estrades

Authors
  1. Gabriela M. Vélez-Rubio
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  2. Andrés Estrades
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  3. Alejandro Fallabrino
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  4. Jesús Tomás
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Correspondence to Gabriela M. Vélez-Rubio.

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Communicated by R. Lewison.

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Vélez-Rubio, G.M., Estrades, A., Fallabrino, A. et al. Marine turtle threats in Uruguayan waters: insights from 12 years of stranding data. Mar Biol 160, 2797–2811 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2272-y

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