Turtle Conservation and Management in East African Reserves Eli Baginksi , Sasha Bishop, and Eva Ramey ENVS 220 Lewis a

1. Turtle Conservation and Management in East African Reserves Eli Baginksi, Sasha Bishop, and Eva Ramey ENVS 220 Lewis and Clark College (8) (7) Question: What is the comparative effectiveness of a government established, cash-motivated reserve versus a locally established, capacity building reserve in protecting East African turtle populations and meeting the needs of community resource users? Background: Removal of fishing pressure through marine protected areas (MPA) has been shown to increase biodiversity and abundance of species. The coast of Tanzania has thirteen established marine protected areas. Two of Tanzania’s most established island marine reserves are Mafia Island and Misali Island. Mafia Island Marine Protected Area is governmentally managed, and provides cash payment incentives to local fisherman to not fish within its boundaries. Misali Island on the other hand, is primarily managed by a local fishing village (Abdullah 1998). Their main incentive and conservation goal is for the park to increase the fishing capacity of the surrounding region.        While there are five main turtles species in Mafia and Misali island that play an important role in marine environment, only the hawksbill and green turtle nest in the reserves. The main threats to these species are the poaching and bycatch of adults and the raiding of nests.  MPAs have a dual goal of ecological protection and economic viability for fishing communities, and different management systems have approached the balancing of these goals from varied perspectives.  Our proposed study evaluates the impacts a local versus governmental management system has on the biological success of preserving turtle populations as well as measuring the social response to and compliance with reserve restrictions.   Methods: We will take a biological survey of the number of turtle nests that are successful (intact) and unsuccessful (abandoned or poached). Successful nests and failed nest locations will be documented using global GPS. Our second census will count the number of boats present and actively fishing within and outside of the reserve boundaries. We will also interview local fishermen about their perspectives on the reserve, their general compliance, the occurrence rate of accidental bycatch of sea turtles, and how many fishermen are using illegal fishing technologies. This compliance data will be supplemented by observations of the number of turtles brought in to the docks on fishing boats. We will then use GIS spatial analysis to determine where protected areas, turtle nesting, and fishing are all occurring in order to determine effectiveness and provide suggestions for further protection. Figure 1: Map of Marine Conservation Sites in Tanzania5 Timeline: • Week 4  through 23 – Carry out data collection of hawksbill and green turtle nests, interview locals and count the number of boats. Continue tagging turtles • Week 24 through 36 – Continue carrying out data collection of turtle nests and tagging turtles, analyze interviews and begin spatial mapping • Week 1 through 3 – Arrive at Mafia and Misali Island: start tagging female turtles • Week 37 –Analyze interviews and start analyzing nests and boat data References: 1. Abdullah, A., A. S. Hamad, A. M. Ali, and R. G. Wild. 2000. “Constituting the Commons: Crafting Sustainable Commons in the New Millennium. 8 Th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property (IASCP).” http://gridnairobi.unep.org/chm/eafdocuments/tanzania/indiana_elya041300.pdf. 7. “Stock photo of Endangered green sea turtle,Cheloniamydas, being cleaned by Yellow Tang.” Sea Pics. Marine Wildlife Photography. http://seapics.com/gallery/Reptilia/Testudines/Cryptodira/Chelonioidea.html 2. Brechin, Steven R. 2012. “Protecting East Africa’s Marine and Coastal Biodiversity.” Accessed December 5. http://www.academia.edu/782246/Protecting_East_Africas_marine_and_coastal_biodiversity. 8. “Sea Turtles Saved from Drowning in Fishing Nets.” Gulf of Mexico Foundation. Center for Biological Diversity. http://www.gulfmex.org/7187/sea-turtles-saved-from-drowning-in-fishing-nets/ 3. Cambiè, Giulia, Juan Antonio Camiñas, Ramón Franquesa, and Toni Mingozzi. 2010. “Fishing Activity and Impacts Along the Main Nesting Area of Loggerhead Sea Turtle CarettaCaretta in Italy: Overwhelming Discrepancy with the Official Data.” Scientia Marina 74 (2) (March 15): 275–285. doi:10.3989/scimar.2010.74n2275. 4. Chiappone, Mark, and Kathleen M. Sullivan Sealey. 2000. “Marine Reserve Design Criteria and Measures of Success: Lessons Learned from the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, Bahamas.” Bulletin of Marine Science 66 (3): 691–705. 5. Muir, Catharine. 2005. “The Status of Marine Turtles in United Republic of Tanzania, East Africa.” Sea Sense (March). http://www.bornfree.org.uk/seasense/seasensesite/turtlesintzreport.pdf. 6. Reina, Richard D., Philippe A. Mayor, James R. Spotila, RotneyPiedra, and Frank V. Paladino. 2002. “Nesting Ecology of the Leatherback Turtle, DermochelysCoriacea, at ParqueNacional Marino Las Baulas, Costa Rica: 1988-1989 to 1999-2000.” Copeia 2002 (3) (August 15): 653–664. doi:10.2307/1448147.