Download Marine Turtles - The Australian Fisheries Management Authority

Threatened, Endangered,
and Protected (TEP) Species
Management Fact Sheet
No. 7
Marine Turtles
Species: Turtles are marine reptiles, so despite the fact that they spend most of their time
There are six species of Marine
turtle found within the Australian
fishing zone, predominantly in
the temperate and tropical
waters around the northern half
of Australia.
Loggerhead turtle
Caretta caretta
Leathery (leatherback) turtle
Dermochelys coriacea
Olive ridley turtle
Lepidochelys olivacea
Flatback turtle
Natator depressus
Hawksbill turtle
Eretmochelys imbricata
Green turtle
Chelonia mydas
swimming and diving, they must regularly surface to breathe. Young turtles drift and feed
in the open ocean but when 5-10 years old they settle near inshore feeding grounds.
Some species are carnivorous, feeding on shellfish, crabs and jellyfish; while others are
herbivores, eating seaweeds, sea grasses, sponges and soft corals. Every 2-8 years,
adult turtles undertake a breeding migration which can involve travelling hundreds of
kilometres and crossing country borders. This means that management of turtle
populations is subject to varying laws and conservation measures.
Species conservation status
All marine turtles are protected in Australia under the Environment Protection and
Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) in the provisions for marine species. All
six species are additionally listed; the green, hawksbill and flatback turtles as vulnerable
and the loggerhead, leatherback and olive ridley turtles as endangered.
Most turtle species have low population levels, with the main threats being marine
pollution (particularly debris which is mistaken for food) and changes to habitats. Other
threats are accidental drowning in fishing gear,
strikes by boat propellers, over-harvesting of
turtles and eggs (allowed in some countries
outside Australia, and under Aboriginal or Islander
custom within Australia) and predation of eggs and
hatchlings by introduced predators. Marine turtles
grow slowly, taking about 30-50 years to reach
sexual maturity, which means that populations are
unable to recover quickly from setbacks.
© Craig Allen
Conservation and recovery actions
Marine turtles are managed under various plans of
action including the:
Ç Green turtle, Chelonia mydas
•
National Recovery Plan for Marine Turtles in Australia; and
•
Indian Ocean South-East Asian Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding.
AFMA’s environment programs
AFMA runs a number of programs to reduce the impact of fishing on the environment and
on threatened, endangered and protected (TEP) species. Ecological risk assessments
(ERAs) identify the risks that fishing may pose to the ecological sustainability of the
marine environment, including TEP species. In response to this assessment, all
reasonable steps are taken to minimise interactions with those species. More information
on ERM, and copies of ERM reports, are on AFMA’s website.
AFMA also runs a bycatch and discard program aimed, among other things, at assisting
fisheries to minimise interactions with TEP species. Bycatch refers to any species, other
than the target species, caught or affected by interacting with fishing gear. Bycatch and
discard work plans for each fishery are on AFMA’s website.
Interactions between marine turtles and fishing gear
An "interaction" is any physical contact a person, boat or fishing gear has with a protected
species. An individual does not need to be landed on the deck for an interaction to have
taken place.
Turtles can interact with fishers using trawl methods when they swim into nets and get entangled. They can also
interact with longline fishers when they get hooked or tangled in the
lines.
Fishery management plans require all reasonable measures to be
taken to avoid interactions with protected species. As long as
operators are fishing in accordance with these plans it is not an
offence to interact with a protected species. It is, however, an offence
not to report these interactions in the fishing logbook.
Mitigation measures to reduce incidental catch
Turtles trapped in a trawl net cannot reach the surface to breathe and
may drown. Turtle excluder devices (TEDs) consist of a grid across
part of the net which allow turtles out without the catch escaping.
© AFMA
Ç A turtle escaping unharmed through a turtle
excluder device (TED)
TEDs became mandatory in the Northern Prawn and Torres Strait Prawn fisheries some years ago and since then
the number of interactions reported has decreased.
In longline operations, fishers use dehookers and line cutters to quickly, easily and safely remove hooks and line
from turtles that are incidentally caught on the hooks or tangled in the lines.
In some fisheries (tuna and prawn fisheries), voluntary industry codes of practice have been adopted by
industry to minimise the level of interactions with turtles. The guidelines include not trawling near major nesting
beaches, limiting trawl shots in areas of high turtle numbers, applying recovery procedures when required, and
participating in research and trials. Some purse seine fishing
operations have modified nets (e.g. release gates on tuna tow
cages) to allow live removal of large animals.
AFMA runs a Crew Awareness Program (CAP) to educate crew
about turtle handling techniques, identifying and reporting turtle
species, marine debris, bycatch limits/size limits, and closures. A
number of fisheries run this program, including the Northern Prawn
fishery.
Research and data collection
© AFMA
Good fisheries management depends on having the best quality
information available. This means collecting and providing
information which is relevant, accurate and timely to our fisheries managers and researchers. AFMA establishes
research priorities for Commonwealth managed fisheries and
Ç Careful release of a turtle using a de-hooker
and line cutting tool
arranges for research to be undertaken to address these priorities.
Relevant research projects in which AFMA co-invested and
administered can be found on AFMA’s website.
AFMA collects data on fishing practices, fish stocks and the broader ecosystems on which they depend. Much of
this data is collected through catch and effort logbooks from fishers. AFMA also places observers on vessels
fishing within the Australian Fishing Zone (AFZ) to collect biological data and make environmental observations.
Observer requirements and priorities for each fishery are determined by AFMA management.
References
For more information on fishery
interactions with protected
species contact:
Protected Species Officer
Environment & Research
Section
AFMA
Box 7051, CBC
Canberra ACT 2610 Australia
1300 723 621 or
[email protected]
• Marine Turtles in Australia leaflet (1995) produced by the Endangered
Species Unit of the Australian Nature Conservation Agency.
• Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage (1994). A Matter of
Time – Sea Turtles of Queensland.
• C M Robins, E J Bradshaw, and D C Kreutz (2007). Marine Turtle Mitigation
in Australia’s Pelagic Longline Fisheries, Fisheries Research and
Development Corporation project no. 2003/013, September 2007.
• Australian Tuna and Billfish longline fisheries – Bycatch and discarding
workplan (2008)
http://www.afma.gov.au/information/publications/fishery/baps/docs/afma_tun
a_bap.pdf
• Tuna Purse Seine – Bycatch Action Plan (2005)
http://www.afma.gov.au/information/publications/fishery/baps/docs/purse_sei
ne_bap_final.pdf