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In 2000, countries bordering the Western Indian Ocean requested assistance in the management of the living resources and associated habitats of their shared marine ecosystems. In response, the World Bank initiated under the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) the development of a multi-national fisheries management and development programme called the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Project (SWIOFP).
This regional project which includes nine countries – Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, South Africa, and La Réunion (France) – officially started in July 2008. One of its components, number 5, is related to non-consumptive resources such as marine turtles in the WIO.
Even if marine turtle behaviour is well known locally during feeding and reproduction, the lack of an overview of the displacement of individuals between successive habitats and of their interaction with fisheries hinders the application of appropriate conservation measures at the regional level. For this reason, France proposed to the SWIOFP to develop an activity related to the study of the open sea movement of marine turtles in the WIO using a modelling approach based on telemetry tagging. The final objective of this so-called “Component 5” is to assess interactions with open sea fisheries within an ecosystem approach.
The first meeting of the national coordinators of Component 5 took place in Mauritius in August 2009. The aim was to conduct a gap analysis of mainstreaming biodiversity in national and regional fisheries management policies, and to validate the five main objectives that have to be followed under the SWIOFP-C5.
One of these objectives is: To identify and assess the main marine turtle and marine mammal hotspots in the WIO; to initiate or improve long-term monitoring of such sites including genetic identification of stock structure and management units; to identify migration routes of nesting individuals using satellite tagging; and to provide insight to the correlation between fishing activities and main migration routes of individual turtle species. This objective is focussed towards identifying high-risk areas and classifying them according to opportunities for local and regional mitigation measures. The process will make a significant contribution towards implementation of the IOSEA Marine Turtle MoU and will be conducted in synergy with the Western Indian Ocean - Marine Turtle Task Force (MTTF) established under the Nairobi Convention and CMS/IOSEA.
Another meeting planned for February 2010 will define the countries that will be part of projects, such as the one proposed by France, and that will respond to at least to one of the five objectives. Implementation of the project during the course of 2010 will also be discussed. Comoros, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Tanzania have already asked to be part of the marine turtle project.
The next step of the SWIOFP-C5 will be a regional training course on standardized marine turtle monitoring procedures, satellite tagging, and programme development monitoring planned for April 2010. More on this in the next months …
The French part of the SWIOFP-C5 has already begun!
The French part of the SWIOFP-C5 officially started in July 2008. Based on a broad satellite telemetry approach and large-scale modelling – including population dynamics, genetic structure, environment data and open sea fisheries data – the objective of the French project is to increase regional knowledge of turtle migration and interactions with open sea fisheries for management purposes.
The French proposal will focus on marine turtle populations of the following French territories (Eparses Islands – Europa, Juan de Nova, Glorieuses and Tromelin; Mayotte and La Réunion) according to the following approach:
- Europa, Juan de Nova, Glorieuses, Tromelin and Mayotte: deployment of 20 satellite transmitters per site on female green turtles during and out of the reproductive season (total of 100 transmitters)
- French EEZ in the Mozambique Channel: Deployment of 10 satellite transmitters on immature green and hawksbill turtles by-caught by oceanic purse seiners in cooperation with the TAAF observation programme.
- La Réunion: deployment of 20 satellite transmitters on loggerhead and olive ridley turltles by-caught by French longliners.
The French part of the SWIOFP is funded by the FFEM (French GEF), DIREN / La Réunion, Région Réunion, EU-RUNSeaScience, DAF-Mayotte, Crédit Agricole, Kélonia and IFREMER.
The satellite transmitter deployment phase has already started in La Réunion with four loggerhead turtles by-caught off the coast of La Réunion and released from almost the same locations. Some 15 transmitters were also deployed on green turtles nesting in the peak of the season at Glorieuses Island in 2008 and 2009. More recently, since December 2009, the staff of Kelonia (Rémy, Fabien, Mayeul, Lauranne, Marie and Claire) did a fantastic job organising the deployment of 10 satellite transmitters on turtle nesting on Tromelin island.
All past and live tracks can be followed up on the website: http://www.ifremer.fr/lareunion/
Finally, to manage the modelling approach, Mayeul Dalleau started his PhD in November 2009 at the University of La Réunion, under the supervision of IFREMER, Kélonia and the CNRS of Montpellier. We wish him a lot of work and great field time under this French component of the SWIOFP-C5!
This feature was kindly contributed by:
Jérôme Bourjea, IFREMER
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