Poster abstracts and manuscripts from the Third International ...

Baba, Norihisa
29
SESSION II POSTERS
Impacts of Marine Debris
Characteristics of Northern Fur Seals Callorhinus ursinus
Entangled in Marine Debris in the Western North Pacific and in
the Okhotsk Sea from 1971 to 1987 and 1993
National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Fisheries
Agency, Shizuoka, Japan
(Presented in the Manuscripts section.)
Bjorndal, Karen A. and Alan B. Bolten
Effects of Marine Debris on Sea Turtles
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Our studies of the interactions of sea turtles and persistent
marine debris began in 1989 and have been funded by the NMFS
Marine Entanglement Research Program. We have taken three
approaches: evaluation of interaction of pelagic-stage
loggerheads (Caretta caretta) and marine debris in the eastern
Atlantic; establishment of a network of observers on vessels to
report at-sea observations of sea turtles; and quantification of
debris interactions with sea turtles stranded along the Florida
coast.
Our work with pelagic-stage loggerheads in the eastern Atlantic
is based on the theory that the earliest developmental habitats
of sea turtle hatchlings, once they leave the nesting beach, are
oceanic convergence zones. These convergence zones provide both
physical refuge and food resource to the turtles. However,
because the physical factors responsible 'for establishing these
convergence zone communities also concentrate marine debris,
turtles inhabiting convergence zones have high exposure levels to
marine debris.
We have been studying a pelagic loggerhead population in the
Azores Archipelago in close collaboration with the Department of
Oceanography and Fisheries, University of the Azores, Horta.
These loggerheads are believed to be derived from the
southeastern U.S. breeding population. We have established a
cooperative program with the tuna fleet in the Azores. While
crews of tuna vessels search the ocean surface for evidence of
tuna, they see loggerheads and can easily capture them in
dipnets. The fishermen tag and measure each turtle and note any