http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1235001749

Serious injury and mortality determinations for sea turtles in US northeast and Mid-Atlantic fishing gear, 2006-2010

"The NMFS Northeast Sea Turtle Serious Injury Workgroup reviewed all sea turtle interactions recorded by the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program from 2006 to 2010 (n=145). The workgroup first determined if each interaction was fresh and then placed the affected turtle into one of three injury categories with associated postrelease mortality rates or provided justification for a 100% mortality determination according to the 'Technical Working Guidelines for Assessing Injuries of Sea Turtles Observed in Northeast Region Fishing Gear' (Upite 2011). Sea turtle records were subsequently delineated by major gear type, resulting in 97 trawl records, 29 gillnet records, and 11 dredge records for which injury determinations were made. In addition, three cases had insufficient information to make a determination, two records described moderately to severely decomposed animals not attributable to the observed fishery, and three records were excluded because of confidentiality issues. Considering the 137 records with injury determinations, the resulting mortality rate for observable interactions in trawl gear is 47%, for gillnet gear is 58%, and for dredge gear is 80%. Additional factors that may influence sea turtle serious injury and mortality were considered, such as specific fishery (within an encompassing gear type), geographical area, sea turtle species, and life stage"--Executive summary.

Open All Close All