Migramar members Randall Arauz and Ilena Zanela attended the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain, to guarantee the approval of Resolution 4.111.

Barceloona, Spain

The species is critically endangered, and has been pushed to the verge of extinction due to mortality induced by industrial fishing. A migratory corridor has been defined through which leatherback sea turtles migrate, between Cocos Island (Costa Rica) and Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), waters which are heavily fished by industrial longliners.

For years, Pretoma has been working for nations of the region to appropriately address the Eastern Pacific leatherback crisis, through temporary closures in areas of high interaction of leatherback sea turtles with fisheries. Though has not yet been attained, Randall and Ilena hope that the information produced by Migramar regarding the migratory movements of hammerhead sharks, will add yet another element of pressure for the nations of the region to take concrete actions.

Sea turtles, just as sharks, posses certain biological traits that make them very susceptible to mortality induced by industrial fisheries, such as longevity, slow maturation, production of very few young, and low natural mortality. Furthermore, an obvious policy must be the reduction of mortality of these species in areas of high interaction with fisheries, which Migramar has determined occurs precisely along the same leatherback turtle migratory corridor between Cocos and Galapagos. “It makes a lot of sense to combine leatherback sea turtle and hammerhead shark conservation policy in the Eastern Pacific”, explained Randall Arauz. “Both species will greatly benefit from the same conservation policies in their shared biological corridor”.

The resolution was finally passed by majority (Chamber of Governments, 79 yes, 0 no, 35 abstentions / Chamber of NGOs, 217 yes, 1 no, 63 abstentions). Click here to download the resolution. Now, it’s up to the NGOs of the region to foster the implementation of this resolution.