Solomon Islands Largest Hawksbill Turtle Rookery Shows Signs of Recovery after 150 Years of Excessive Exploitation

The largest rookery for hawksbill turtles in the oceanic South Pacific is the Arnavon Islands, which are located in the Manning Strait between Isabel and Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands. The history of this rookery is one of overexploitation, conflict and violence. Throughout the 1800s Roviana headhunters from New Georgia repeatedly raided the Manning Strait to collect hawksbill shell which they traded with European whalers. By the 1970s the Arnavons hawksbill population was in severe decline and the national government intervened, declaring the Arnavons a sanctuary in 1976. But this government led initiative was short lived, with traditional owners burning down the government infrastructure and resuming intensive harvesting in 1982. In 1991 routine beach monitoring and turtle tagging commenced at the Arnavons along with extensive community consultations regarding the islands’ future, and in 1995 the Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area (ACMCA) was established. Around the same time national legislation banning the sale of all turtle products was passed. This paper represents the first analysis of data from 4536 beach surveys and 845 individual turtle tagging histories obtained from the Arnavons between 1991-2012. Our results and the results of others, reveal that many of the hawksbill turtles that nest at the ACMCA forage in distant Australian waters, and that nesting on the Arnavons occurs throughout the year with peak nesting activity coinciding with the austral winter. Our results also provide the first known evidence of recovery for a western pacific hawksbill rookery, with the number of nests laid at the ACMCA and the remigration rates of turtles doubling since the establishment of the ACMCA in 1995. The Arnavons case study provides an example of how changes in policy, inclusive community-based management and long term commitment can turn the tide for one of the most charismatic and endangered species on our planet.南太平洋远洋海域最大的玳瑁海龟（hawksbill turtles）聚居地，是坐落于所罗门群岛伊莎贝尔省与乔伊索省之间曼宁海峡的阿纳冯群岛。该聚居地的历史充满过度开发、冲突与暴力：19世纪期间，来自新乔治亚地区的罗维亚纳猎头族群多次突袭曼宁海峡，采集玳瑁壳并与欧洲捕鲸者进行贸易。至20世纪70年代，阿纳冯群岛的玳瑁种群已严重衰退，所罗门群岛政府随即介入，并于1976年将阿纳冯群岛设立为庇护所。然而这项政府主导的举措并未持久——1982年，当地传统原住民烧毁了政府设施，恢复了高强度的海龟捕捞活动。1991年，阿纳冯群岛启动常规海滩监测与海龟标记项目，并就群岛的未来发展开展了广泛的社区征询；1995年，阿纳冯社区海洋保护区（Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area, ACMCA）正式成立。几乎与此同时，国家立法通过禁令，全面禁止海龟制品的售卖。本研究首次对1991年至2012年间从阿纳冯群岛收集的4536份海滩调查数据与845份个体海龟标记档案展开分析。研究结果与其他学者的成果均显示，在该保护区筑巢的多数玳瑁海龟，其觅食区域远在澳大利亚海域；阿纳冯群岛的筑巢活动全年均有发生，筑巢高峰与南半球冬季重合。本研究还首次提供了西太平洋玳瑁海龟聚居地实现种群恢复的实证证据：自1995年该保护区成立以来，保护区内的筑巢数量与海龟回迁率均实现了翻倍。阿纳冯群岛的案例证明，政策调整、基于社区的包容性管理与长期投入，能够扭转这一地球上最具魅力且最为濒危的物种之一的生存颓势。