Casey Key Loggerheads 2011 (aggregated per 1-degree cell)

Original provider: Tony Tucker Dataset credits: Data provider Mote Marine Laboratory Originating data center <a href=\"http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/\">Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT)</a> Project partner http://www.mote.org/seaturtles Project sponsor or sponsor description Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund supported this project though a grant to the Longlines and Loggerheads project.<a href=\"http://conservation.wdwpublicaffairs.com\">www.conservation.wdwpublicaffairs.com</a>The project Assessment of loggerhead turtle habitats that overlap with reef-fish bottom longline fisheries on the West Florida Shelf, was funded in part by a grant awarded from the Sea Turtle Grants Program proposal 11-027R. The Sea Turtle Grants Program is funded from proceeds from the sale of the Florida Sea Turtle License Plate. Learn more at<a href=\"http://www.helpingseaturtles.org\">www.helpingseaturtles.org</a>Morrison Family FoundationWooster School Field Studies Program www.woosterschool.org/Pineview School www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/pvs/Tom and Rosemary Costello Abstract: Reports from National Marine Fisheries Service (2009) recently identified a high level of estimated takes of sea turtles in the bottom longline portion of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fishery, based on onboard observer data. Mounting pressure has come from environmental groups to act immediately to protect imperiled sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. The fisheries observer data revealed that the Gulf of Mexico bottom longline fishery, which targets reef fish like grouper and tilefish, resulted in the capture of nearly 1,000 threatened and endangered sea turtles between July 2006 and the end of 2007. Coalitions of environmental groups have asked that the commercial bottom longline fishery be suspended until the National Marine Fisheries Service meets its legal obligations under the Endangered Species Act to ensure that the fishery does not imperil sea turtles and other threatened species in the Gulf of Mexico. Of particular concern for the groups are loggerhead sea turtles, which accounted for 799 of the 974 captured turtles in the government analysis. This is more than three times the number of loggerheads the Service authorized the fishery to take in 2005 and may well jeopardize the species. Loggerhead nesting populations in Florida have dropped by over 40 percent over the past 10 years. The large number of juvenile and reproductive adult turtles injured or killed by the bottom longline fishery is likely contributing to this steep decline. The Gulf of Mexico bottom longline fishery operates primarily off the west coast of Florida, an area that also provides key habitat for several sea turtle species, including loggerhead, Kemp's ridley, and green turtles. Bottom longline gear generally consists of a four- to 10-mile-long mainline made of steel cable or monofilament with up to 2,100 hooks. Sea turtles are caught on the lines when they attempt to eat the bait from hooks or become entangled when swimming near a line. Unable to surface for breath, they suffer injury or death. Even though the bottom longline fishery has far exceeded the number of turtles it is allowed to take under the Endangered Species Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service has not closed the fishery while it studies options for reducing turtle take. The fishery is also known to catch endangered smalltooth sawfish and could affect staghorn and elkhorn coral, which are also protected under the Endangered Species Act.Clearly there is a pressing and urgent need for studies that employ cutting edge technologies to evaluate the temporal and spatial components of overlap between fishery effort and sea turtle home ranges and foraging areas.This is a high priority for Sarasota nesting beaches are home to 40 percent of loggerhead (Caretta caretta) nests in the Gulf of Mexico. This species is protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Marine Turtle Protection Act Chapter 370.12 (Florida Administration Code), and local regulations. Internationally, it is considered “vulnerable” and is listed as a species threatened with extinction in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.Conservation efforts are hampered by lack of knowledge of the distant foraging grounds where turtles spend 99 percent of their lives. This project will use satellite technology to identify the foraging areas of adult female loggerheads as they leave the breeding beaches and enter the zones of longline bycatch in the Gulf of Mexico.Amendment 31 background: NOAA Fisheries Service implemented a rule, effective October 16, 2009, to reduce the sea turtle bycatch in the bottom longline component of the Gulf of Mexico reef fish fishery. The rule prohibits bottom longlining for Gulf reef fish east of 85o30’W longitude (near Cape San Blas, Florida) shoreward of the line approximating the 35-fathom depth contour (see map and table) with a restriction of 1,000 hooks per vessel with no more than 750 hooks being fished or rigged for fishing at any given time. For the purpose of this paragraph, “hooks rigged for fishing” means hooks attached to a line or other device capable of attaching to the mainline of the longline. During vessel transit through closed zones, no reef fish may be possessed unless bottom longline gear is appropriately stowed, meaning that a longline may be left on the drum if all gangions and hooks are disconnected and stowed below deck; hooks cannot be baited, and all buoys must be disconnected from the gear, but may remain on deck. As a reminder, in the case of the 35-fathom regulation line intersecting a marine reserve, fishermen must also adhere to the regulations for the reserve. The purpose of this rule is to balance the continued operation of the bottom longline component of the reef fish fishery while maintaining adequately protective measures for loggerhead sea turtles pending implementation of long-term mitigation measures. However, there are fundamental facets of loggerhead spatial ecology that were not addressed (including spatial, temporal, and depth overlap) in Amendment 31 that suggest the NMFS mitigation measures (collectively identified as Amendment 31) are not completely addressing early biological recommendations suggested by previous MML or FWC tracking studies (see Fig. 3, 4, 5). Specifically, the biological data already gleaned, when augmented by the proposed research project should robustly demonstrate that the measures of Amendment 31 continue to leave reproductive females at risk (Tucker 2008). The goal of this proposal is to answer some of the key management questions remaining about the extent of overlap between endangered sea turtle on the west Florida shelf and the Gulf of Mexico grouper longline fishery. Potential for sea turtle take by Gulf of Mexico grouper longliners needs review. The current take by grouper longlines appears to be low or negligible, but data are really deficient to draw firm conclusions for the purposes of management. Anecdotes suggest that on occasions, potential high levels of take can occur and in such cases, the specifics need to be better identified.Projected outcomes: rigorous estimates of spatial and temporal habitat use by sea turtles that will produce management information that is critical to the conservation of sea turtles and which can be incorporated to refine Amendment 31. Supplemental information: <a href=\"http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?project_id=602\">Visit STAT's project page</a> for additional information. This dataset is a summarized representation of the telemetry locations aggregated per species per 1-degree cell.Original provider: 托尼·塔克（Tony Tucker） Dataset credits: Data provider 莫特海洋实验室（Mote Marine Laboratory） Originating data center <a href="http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/">卫星跟踪与分析工具（STAT）</a> Project partner http://www.mote.org/seaturtles Project sponsor or sponsor description 迪士尼全球保护基金（Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund）通过向“延绳钓与蠵龟项目”提供资助支持了本项目，相关信息可访问<a href="http://conservation.wdwpublicaffairs.com">www.conservation.wdwpublicaffairs.com</a>。本项目“西佛罗里达陆架上与礁鱼底层延绳钓渔业重叠的蠵龟栖息地评估”，部分资助来自海龟资助项目（Sea Turtle Grants Program）的11-027R号提案拨款。海龟资助项目的资金来源于佛罗里达海龟牌照的销售收入，更多信息可访问<a href="http://www.helpingseaturtles.org">www.helpingseaturtles.org</a>。此外资助方还包括莫里森家庭基金会（Morrison Family Foundation）、伍斯特学校野外研究项目（Wooster School Field Studies Program，网址：www.woosterschool.org）、派因维尤学校（Pineview School，网址：www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/pvs）以及汤姆与罗斯玛丽·科斯特洛（Tom and Rosemary Costello） Abstract: 摘要：美国国家海洋渔业局（National Marine Fisheries Service, NMFS）2009年的报告基于船上观察员数据，近期指出墨西哥湾礁鱼渔业的底层延绳钓作业部分对海龟的预估捕获量极高。环保组织不断施压，要求立即采取行动保护墨西哥湾受威胁的海龟。渔业观察员数据显示，2006年7月至2007年底期间，以石斑鱼、方头鱼等礁鱼为目标物种的墨西哥湾底层延绳钓渔业，共捕获近1000只受威胁和濒危海龟。多个环保组织联名要求暂停商业底层延绳钓渔业，直至美国国家海洋渔业局履行《濒危物种法》（Endangered Species Act）规定的法定义务，确保该渔业不会威胁墨西哥湾的海龟及其他受威胁物种。 其中尤其令环保组织担忧的是蠵龟（loggerhead sea turtle）：在政府分析的974只捕获海龟中，蠵龟占799只，这一数量是该局2005年授权该渔业可捕获蠵龟数量的三倍多，极有可能危及该物种。过去十年间，佛罗里达的蠵龟筑巢种群数量下降了40%以上，底层延绳钓渔业造成的大量幼龟和繁殖成年海龟死伤，很可能是这一急剧下降的诱因之一。 墨西哥湾底层延绳钓渔业主要在佛罗里达西海岸作业，而该区域同时是多种海龟的关键栖息地，包括蠵龟、肯氏丽龟（Kemp's ridley）与绿海龟（green turtles）。底层延绳钓渔具通常由4至10英里长的主缆（钢丝绳或单丝纤维制成）组成，搭配多达2100个钓钩。海龟在试图啄食钓饵时会被钓线缠住，或在游经钓线附近时被缠绕，无法上浮呼吸，最终受伤或死亡。 尽管该底层延绳钓渔业的海龟捕获量已远超《濒危物种法》规定的许可限额，美国国家海洋渔业局仍未关停该渔业，而是在研究减少海龟捕获的解决方案。该渔业还会兼捕濒危的小齿锯鳐（smalltooth sawfish），并可能对同样受《濒危物种法》保护的鹿角珊瑚（staghorn coral）和埃尔克霍恩珊瑚（elkhorn coral）造成影响。 显然，当前亟需采用前沿技术开展研究，以评估渔业作业与海龟活动范围、觅食区域重叠的时空特征。这一研究优先级极高，原因在于萨拉索塔的筑巢海滩承载了墨西哥湾40%的蠵龟（Caretta caretta）巢穴。该物种受《1973年美国濒危物种法》、《海洋海龟保护法》第370.12章（佛罗里达行政法典）以及当地法规保护。在国际上，蠵龟被列为“易危”物种，并被列入《濒危野生动植物种国际贸易公约》（Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora）附录I，属于濒临灭绝的受威胁物种。 由于缺乏对海龟一生中99%时间所处的远洋觅食地的了解，保护工作推进受阻。本项目将利用卫星技术，确定成年雌性蠵龟离开繁殖海滩后，进入墨西哥湾延绳钓兼捕区域的觅食区域。 第31号修正案背景：美国国家海洋渔业局于2009年10月16日实施一项新规，以减少墨西哥湾礁鱼渔业底层延绳钓作业的海龟兼捕量。该禁令禁止在西经85°30′以东（靠近佛罗里达州圣布拉斯角）、近似35英寻深度等深线向岸一侧的海域开展墨西哥湾礁鱼底层延绳钓作业（详见地图与表格），同时限制单船钓钩数量不超过1000个，且任何时段作业或挂载的钓钩不得超过750个。本段中“用于作业的挂载钓钩”指连接至钓线或其他可连接至延绳钓主缆的装置的钓钩。船舶在封闭区域航行期间，除非底层延绳钓渔具已妥善收纳，否则不得携带礁鱼。妥善收纳指：延绳缆可保留在卷筒上，但所有支绳与钓钩均需拆卸并收纳至甲板下方；钓钩不得挂饵，且所有浮标需与渔具分离，但可保留在甲板上。特此提醒：若35英寻等深管制线与海洋保护区相交，渔民还需遵守保护区相关规定。该新规的目的是在维持礁鱼渔业底层延绳钓作业持续运营的同时，在长期缓解措施实施前，为蠵龟提供充分的保护。然而，第31号修正案未涵盖蠵龟空间生态学的若干核心方面（包括空间、时间与深度重叠），这表明该局的缓解措施（统称为第31号修正案）未能完全落实此前莫特海洋实验室或佛罗里达鱼类与野生动物保护委员会（FWC）跟踪研究提出的早期生物学建议（详见图3、4、5）。具体而言，现有已收集的生物学数据结合本拟议研究项目，将有力证明第31号修正案的措施仍会使繁殖雌性蠵龟面临被捕捞风险（Tucker 2008）。本提案的目标是解答若干关键管理问题，即西佛罗里达陆架上濒危海龟与墨西哥湾石斑鱼延绳钓渔业的重叠范围。墨西哥湾石斑鱼延绳钓作业对海龟的捕获潜力有待评估。当前石斑鱼延绳钓的海龟捕获量看似较低或可忽略，但管理层面所需的结论性数据严重不足。坊间传闻显示，部分时段捕获量可能极高，此类情况下需进一步明确具体细节。 Projected outcomes: 预期成果：获取海龟栖息地利用的严格时空估算数据，为海龟保护提供关键管理信息，并可用于优化第31号修正案。 Supplemental information: 补充信息：可访问<a href="http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?project_id=602">卫星跟踪与分析工具项目页面</a>获取更多信息。 本数据集为按物种、按1度网格单元聚合的遥测（telemetry）位置汇总数据。