Origins of green turtle fishery bycatch in the central pacific revealed by mixed genetic markers

Frontiers in Marine Science

Marine Science

George H. Balazs¹  T. Todd Jones²  Shawn Murakawa²  Shandell Brunson²  Summer L. Martin²  Peter H. Dutton³  Amy Frey³  Erin L. LaCasella³  Suzanne E. Roden³  John B. Horne⁴ 

[1] Golden Honu Services of Oceania, Honolulu, HI, United States;Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Marine Turtle Biology and Assessment Program, NOAA Fisheries, Honolulu, HI, United States;Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Marine Mammal and Turtle Division, NOAA Fisheries, La Jolla, CA, United States;Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Marine Mammal and Turtle Division, National Research Council, NOAA Fisheries, La Jolla, CA, United States;

关键词: sea turtles;    conservation genetics;    population assignment;    lost years;    Pacific Ocean;    longline fisheries;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmars.2023.1112842

 received in 2022-11-30, accepted in 2023-03-21,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Longline fishing vessels, such as those that target tuna or billfish, also unintentionally catch endangered marine turtle species on the high seas. The stock composition of this bycatch is often unknown but potentially complex, with individuals coming from many possible origins on an ocean-basin scale. To better understand the stock composition of green turtle (Chelonia mydas) bycatch we obtained 46 turtles, 27-91 cm in curved carapace length, caught by Hawaii- and American Samoa-based pelagic longline fishing vessels across large areas of the North- and South-central Pacific. We genotyped these at nine microsatellite loci and one mitochondrial DNA marker, and used a baseline of 1,043 nesting female green turtles from beaches across the Pacific for population assignment and mixed-stock analysis. By analyzing both marker types jointly we were able to increase power and genetically resolve ten baseline stocks of nesting females with mean self-assignment and simulated accuracies of 75-97%. Above the Equator, green turtle bycatch was composed mostly of individuals from Hawaiian and Eastern Pacific stocks, with a small number from the Western Pacific. Below the Equator, the most common stocks in the bycatch were from Australia and the Coral Sea, American Samoa and French Polynesia, and the Galápagos Islands. Overall, turtles originating from East, West, and Central Pacific breeding populations were major components of the bycatch, suggesting that the geographic ranges of these populations overlap across large tracts of ocean during the pelagic life history stages.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 At least a portion of this work is authored by John B. Horne, Suzanne E. Roden, Erin L. LaCasella, Amy Frey, T.Todd Jones, Shawn Murakawa, Shandell Brunson and Peter H. Dutton on behalf of the U.S. Government and as regards Dr. Horne, Ms. Roden, Ms. LaCasella, Ms. Frey, Dr. Jones, Ms. Murakawa, Ms. Brunson and Dr. Dutton and the U.S. Government, is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Foreign and other copyrights may apply