Use of Long‐Distance Migration Patterns of an Endangered Species to Inform Conservation Planning for the World's Largest Marine Protected Area

Abstract

Large marine protected areas (MPAs), each hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, have been set up by governments around the world over the last decade as part of efforts to reduce ocean biodiversity declines, yet their efficacy is hotly debated. The Chagos Archipelago MPA (640,000 km(2) ) (Indian Ocean) lies at the heart of this debate. We conducted the first satellite tracking of a migratory species, the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), within the MPA and assessed the species' use of protected versus unprotected areas. We developed an approach to estimate length of residence within the MPA that may have utility across migratory taxa including tuna and sharks. We recorded the longest ever published migration for an adult cheloniid turtle (3979 km). Seven of 8 tracked individuals migrated to distant foraging grounds, often ≥1000 km outside the MPA. One turtle traveled to foraging grounds within the MPA. Thus, networks of small MPAs, developed synergistically with larger MPAs, may increase the amount of time migrating species spend within protected areas. The MPA will protect turtles during the breeding season and will protect some turtles on their foraging grounds within the MPA and others during the first part of their long-distance postbreeding oceanic migrations. International cooperation will be needed to develop the network of small MPAs needed to supplement the Chagos Archipelago MPA.

Conservation challenges of sharks with continental scale migrations

“…This may include the need for regulations related to the habitats in each jurisdiction where individuals spend time, as well as movement corridors (Pendoley et al, 2014). If shark movements extend beyond Australian Territorial waters international management arrangements and agreements also need to be considered as have been pointed out for several other migratory taxa (e.g., Hays et al, 2014;Lascelles et al, 2014;Pendoley et al, 2014). Therefore, the results of this study, and more extensive tracking of mobile species, are crucial to development of effective conservation and management policy.…”

“…There are a number of marine species that undertake large movements with varying levels of understanding of the timing and location of these moves. Coastal marine mammals, reptiles, and fishes can undertake extensive oceanic and continental-scale movements related to biological requirements and resource needs (e.g., Limpus et al, 1992;Block et al, 2011;Hays et al, 2014;Jaine et al, 2014;Zeh et al, 2015). Sharks and rays represent one of the most diverse groups of large marine predators, and as such represent important functional groups within marine ecosystems.…”

Post-breeding migration routes of marine turtles from Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

“…Location data for instrumented turtles were received through Argos. Studies by Argos (2013) and Hays et al ( , 2014 have shown that Argos Location Classes (LC) 3, 2, 1 are the most reliable; thus, data in LCs 0, A, and B were removed prior to the plotting of tracks. Locations (n = 134) were filtered to exclude biologically unreasonable results for travel speeds >5 km h −1 (Luschi et al 1998, Seminoff et al 2008.…”

Spatial Distribution and Residency of Green and Loggerhead Sea Turtles Using Coastal Reef Habitats in Southern Mozambique

“…Foraging habitats across the SWIO are shared by different breeding populations (stocks) of the SWIO and beyond (Dalleau, 2013;Hays et al, 2014;Bourjea et al, 2015). Typically, post-nesting green turtles migrate to neritic resident foraging areas Garnier et al, 2012) such as those tracked migrating from Vamizi Island in northern Mozambique using primarily neritic (but also some evidence of pelagic) migratory routes to foraging grounds in Kenya, Tanzania and north-west Madagascar .…”