Leatherback Conservation Efforts Inspire Hope Across the Pacific

Scott R. Benson and Peter H. Dutton
NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center

August 19, 2009 — The endangered Pacific leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) arrives in late summer and fall to feed on large groups of jellyfish. Unfortunately, the poaching of eggs and breeding females, and accidental capture by fishing nets, have led to the demise of leatherback populations around the Pacific. The turtles have become a conservation priority for both NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Leatherbacks nest on tropical beaches, and it was long thought that these seasonal visitors to California originated from nearby colonies in Mexico and Costa Rica. However, during the 1990s and early 2000s, research yielded a surprising result: leatherbacks off central California originate from western Pacific beaches where they nest.

The results also revealed that leatherbacks originating from the western Pacific region, although considered the same genetically, are comprised of multiple feeding populations, including those along the U.S. West Coast. The combined results have fundamentally changed the scope of conservation efforts for Pacific leatherbacks.

"To help protect the leatherbacks, we have expanded our central California work to include a variety of conservation and research initiatives in western Pacific island nations," said Jeff Seminoff, head of the SWFSC’s Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessment Team. "We recently conducted aerial surveys in Papua New Guinea, Papua (Indonesia) and the Solomon Islands, confirming that large numbers of nesting leatherbacks remain only on a few beaches in Papua. This underscores the need to protect these last remaining rookeries [colony of breeding animals] before it is too late."

Efforts to establish coordinated and sustained nesting beach conservation are now underway in Papua and throughout the western Pacific. With the help of local community-based organizations, government and university biologists, World Wildlife Fund researchers and fishery management organizations, NOAA is training local villagers to monitor the nesting beaches and evaluate hatching success. This has inspired cautious optimism about the future of the western Pacific leatherback.

Known by different names throughout beaches in the western Pacific — trousel, penyu-belimbing, leddebak, tabob —  the leatherback has long been an important part of local cultures and traditions. With new awareness that the turtles travel to other locations near and far across the Pacific, our western Pacific partners (both inside and outside of NOAA) are now working with a broad international community to ensure the survival of the leatherback for future generations.

Similarly, the turtles will remain at risk unless we are able to expand our understanding of the entire region inhabited by these highly mobile marine reptiles. Leatherbacks move freely across the entire Pacific Ocean, nearly one third of the way around the globe. Successful conservation efforts involve a broad-scale approach that includes restoring feeding grounds, nesting beaches and the migratory routes that connect them.

“As leatherbacks journey from one edge of the Pacific to another, these gentle marine ambassadors are bringing governments, communities and people together to share a common cause of vibrant marine ecosystems for future generations,” Seminoff said.