New Study Highlights Speed in Saving Turtles from Entanglement

HYANNIS – An analysis of 15 years worth of data from state waters has shown researchers how critical urgency is in preventing sea turtle deaths from bycatch. 

The new research, led by Research Scientist in the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life Dr. Kara Dodge, suggests that leatherback turtles entangled in fishing gear have a much better chance of survival if the incident is reported to experts quickly, allowing trained responders to fully disentangle the marine animal. 

According to researchers, of the 280 confirmed sea turtle entanglements documented from 2005 to 2019 in Massachusetts waters, 272 involved leatherback turtles.

The study published in Endangered Species Research said that 88 percent of disentangled turtles had a low or intermediate risk of death based on their degree of injury.

Many of the turtles were equipped with tracking tags that confirmed them to be alive weeks to years after their entanglement. 

“This dataset gave us a unique opportunity to really dig into and understand leatherback turtle entanglement in buoy lines, which is critical to determining how entanglement happens and identifying workable solutions to solve this problem,” said Dodge.

“Bycatch of endangered species is rarely observed, so this dataset is an incredible testament to all the watchful mariners reporting these events and the disentanglement network consistently collecting high quality data for over 15 years.”  

Leatherbacks are among the largest sea turtles, weighing in at over 1000 pounds and reaching six feet in length. They are also among the most endangered sea turtle species.

Coauthor for the study Scott Landry from the Center for Coastal Studies said that the data was not unlike that seen for whales, another endangered marine animal.

“Our findings for leatherbacks mirrors what we have seen in whales. They are very likely to become entangled in whatever rope is most available to them. Reducing rope, which is not meant to mean reducing fishing, will be the best strategy for reducing entanglements,” said Landry. 

Researchers highlighted the importance of a complete and safe disentanglement, as even a partial entanglement greatly diminishes a turtle’s chances of survival. 

They added that most of the turtles studied were caught in actively fished commercial gear, rather than ghost gear or debris.

To help combat the entanglement problem, researchers highlighted replacing single fixed-gear fishing traps with trawls to reduce the number of vertical lines in habitats, and the development of technologies for “ropeless” fishing techniques. 

Other authors of the study are the Center for Coastal Study’s Bob Lynch, Doug Sandilands and Brian Sharp; New England Aquarium Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life’s Charles Innis and the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Katherine Sampson.

About Grady Culhane

Grady Culhane is a Cape Cod native from Eastham. He studied media communications at Cape Cod Community College and joined the CapeCod.com News Center in 2019.



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