CONTRIBUTION
Bycatch or accidental capture is among the most significant threats facing sea turtles, with particular impact on the loggerhead turtles that inhabit and transit the Mediterranean Sea. Over 70 percent of those caught by the Spanish fishing fleet come from the continental shelf between the Ebro Delta and the town of Castellón, the Delta being the site with by far the greatest interaction. In 2017 Fundación CRAM launched the campaign: “Fishers for the Sea: Actions for the Recovery and Conservation of Sea Turtles” in a bid to minimize the impact of bycatch. The Award for Biodiversity Conservation in Spain recognizes the excellent results achieved by this initiative to protect the species.
In the early 1990s, a viral epidemic affected hundreds of striped dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea. While leading the campaign to help, veterinarian Ferrán Alegre saw clearly that a new human and technical infrastructure was needed to assist this type of wildlife, at a time when there were barely any recovery centers in place for either marine or terrestrial animals. He himself began providing care, first to the dolphins and subsequently sea turtles, and discovered that their greatest danger came from interaction with fishing nets, an authentic death trap for the species. Initially a citizens’ initiative, the group shortly garnered the support of the Municipal Council of Premià de Mar (Barcelona), which lent them premises where they could get to work on an animal recovery scheme.
Parallel to the development of legislation to protect marine fauna, in 1996 the promoters of the movement decided to adopt the legal structure of a private foundation – Fundación para la Conservación y Recuperación de Animales Marinos (CRAM) – with a public service mission and the stated resolve to work hand in hand with the public authorities. The rescue program for sea turtles affected by bycatch arose from the confluence of three factors. The first was the geographical location of the turtles’ feeding grounds in the Ebro Delta, coincidentally exacerbated by a second factor: that the law allows trawling there at shallower depths, of less than 50 meters, resulting in more individuals being caught.
The third factor was a 2014 scientific paper that offered the first description of decompression syndrome in sea turtles. This acute pathology – never before reported in diving animals, but studied extensively in human medicine – can be lethal or leave serious after-effects. “That paper convinced us to review the procedure we had followed till then, which was that if a trapped turtle was able to move, it was immediately released back into the sea. And what we found was that over half the turtles had the syndrome and were in no condition to return to their habitat,” explains the director of Fundación CRAM, Elsa Jiménez.
The syndrome causes symptoms in turtles that range from disorientation, lack of coordination and ataxia to coma. If returned to the sea, their chances of survival are slim. To get round this problem, Fundación CRAM has worked with fishers’ guilds and given them a leading role. “We talk about fishers as the first line of rescue, because it is they who activate the protocol on detecting bycatch and carry the turtles to port, where we collect them. Their ownership of the scheme has been built up through small gestures, like allowing them to name individual specimens, keeping them informed of the recovery process and, when the time comes to reintroduce the animal, inviting them and their families, their children, to share in the experience.”
The region’s Rural Agents corps is responsible for issuing portside reports in which captures are recorded, and a note made of the animals’ delivery to CRAM for the purposes of rehabilitation.
Over the years, bycatch has been found to occur far more frequently in the winter months: “It’s high season for us. We know from experience that this is the period when most turtles get entangled in nets. Our theory is that because turtles are cold-blooded creatures, they become more lethargic as the water temperature drops. They don’t hibernate, they are not a hibernating species, but they become less active and presumably likelier to get caught in trawling nets as a result. When summer comes, the exact opposite happens, the incidence of catches falls off sharply, even though the trawler fleet is still fishing.”
Currently, 79 percent of the trawlers in La Ràpita and 100 percent in Les Cases d’Alcanar (Tarragona) – the two hot spots of the deltaic platform – are actively collaborating in the project. “There was some reluctance at first,” Jiménez admits, “but now cooperation is the norm and more and more fishers are coming on board, especially now we have ensured them legal security: an agreement with the regional government whereby each boat has a permit to rescue, transport and land sea turtles. As we have progressed with the project, more and more boats have signed up. In fact many are grateful for the chance to do their bit to alleviate the damage human beings are doing to these protected species.”
The successful record of the loggerhead turtle program has also encouraged fishers’ guilds to get involved in other CRAM campaigns focusing on other Mediterranean ecosystem species like cetaceans and birds.
Among the project’s key resources is the veterinary care provided at the Foundation’s Recovery Center in Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona). “The clinical side is important to us,” says Jiménez, “so the award money will go to improve the center’s facilities and help us be faster and more efficient in our interventions.” Each turtle recovered and diagnosed with decompression sickness spends a month and a half to two months at the center, where the Foundation has a hyperbaric chamber of its own manufacture.
The hospital’s goal, Jiménez explains, is to rehabilitate the animals so they can be reintroduced to their natural environment in the shortest time possible. “Like any reptile, they have a slow metabolism, but we try to speed up the recovery process by raising the temperature of the water in the tanks where they are kept, so any drugs we administer take effect more quickly.”
The Foundation also uses the time the animals spend in the clinic to mount education and awareness activities: “For as long as they are at the center, they are our patients, so in some cases visits are restricted. But, whenever possible, we try to let people in to see our work first hand, as a way to teach society about the plight of the species. We accordingly organize visits by schools and other groups where we talk them through the recovery process and explain about our partnership with the fishing industry.”
After seven years of work, 355 sea turtles have been treated in Tarragona province for bycatch-related issues. Of this number, 329 have been successfully rehabilitated, representing a 93 percent recovery rate. Besides fishers’ guilds, the Foundation has received support from the Catalonian Government’s Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Affairs, and its Rural Agents corps. The regional government indeed has delegated powers to Fundación CRAM for the rescue and recovery not just of turtles but other endangered marine species, like cetaceans and seabirds, that appear along the Catalonian coast. The Foundation’s team, made up of 24 people, reinforced by some 250 volunteers each year, provides 24-hour service, 365 days a year, allowing it to maintain an immediate and permanent response system.
From the outset, it has also maintained close ties with the university sector, with over 30 students a year completing internships in the Foundation. Indeed many of the professionals working in marine animal recovery centers throughout Europe have passed through its facilities.