Lethal Lesions Caused by Propeller Cuts on the Endangered Green Turtle Chelonia mydas on Liuchiu Island, Taiwan

Abstract

Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is the most common sea turtle species in Taiwan. The coastal waters of Taiwan are known to contain foraging grounds for green turtles. Boat strike has been identified as the most common causes of sea turtle mortality in several sea turtle habitats worldwide. However, no relevant studies have investigated wild green turtles with boat strike injuries in Taiwan. In this field study, we conducted morphometric characteristics of 6 endangered green turtles (C. mydas) with boat strike injuries in Liuchiu Island of Pingtung County, Taiwan. This is the first report of its kind on the prevalence of documented boat strike lesions on stranded wild green turtles at their near shore foraging habitat. In 2019, a total of 14 stranded green turtles were dead when first found in Liuchiu Island of Pingtung County, Taiwan. Of these 14, 6 (42.8%) turtles showing evidence of propeller impacts. Conservation strategies including speed limits in key turtle neritic foraging habitats are required to improve their survival in Taiwan.

Assessing the Relationship between Sea Turtle Strandings and Anthropogenic Impacts in Taiwan

“…Therefore, sea turtle stranding events could provide us with an opportunity to understand the potential negative impacts of anthropogenic activities (e.g., entanglement in fishing nets/lines/marine debris, ingestion of fish hooks, boat strikes, etc.) [4,8,10,22,26,[29][30][31][32][33][34] and this could serve as a reference for sea turtle conservation management. In addition, recent advances in computer processing power and statistical methods, as well as the growing availability of large amounts of high-quality environmental data have greatly improved the ability to analyze the structure of ecological systems using mathematical methods.…”

“…As a consequence of the aforementioned circumstances, data obtained from stranded sea turtles can provide insight into human activities that negatively impact sea turtle populations [2,8,9,26,27,29]. Such activities include vessel collisions or oil spills that damage feeding or swimming abilities [18,28,29].…”

“…As a consequence of the aforementioned circumstances, data obtained from stranded sea turtles can provide insight into human activities that negatively impact sea turtle populations [2,8,9,26,27,29]. Such activities include vessel collisions or oil spills that damage feeding or swimming abilities [18,28,29]. This study quantitatively analyzed the impacts that numerous human disturbances and natural effects have on sea turtles, including the potential effects of offshore wind turbines.…”