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Sea Turtles in the Wake of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

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Paso Pacifico Board Member Rick Smith just forwarded the latest article from the National Parks Traveler:

Creature Feature: The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Faces an Uncertain Future

The Kemp’s ridley may be little as sea turtles go, but its got big problems. It was already the world’s most endangered marine turtle before the mammoth Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatened to wreak havoc on its vital habitat.

These are perilous times for the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempi). Having been reduced to a small fraction of its historic population, and now assailed by the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the slowly recovering L. kempi population remains too close to extinction for comfort. Much will depend on continuing efforts to save it. It’s the most sweeping campaign yet mounted in behalf of a marine turtle species.
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All of this is certainly not to say that the Kemp’s ridley is doomed. In fact, things have been looking up for the species. Over 6,000 nests were counted in 2000, and while that’s nowhere near the 40,000+ of the historic arribadas, it’s 30 times the number recorded in the 1970s and 1980s. The total population of mature Kemp’s ridleys is now thought to be in the neighborhood of 8,000. Full recovery is no longer just a dim prospect.

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From this month’s Pelican Eyes newsletter:

Stones and Waves Vet Clinic continues to thrive, under the leadership of Elvis Cortez, and the financial support of World Vets. The next clinic is scheduled for this week at the Escuela Agricultura in Rivas. In addition, great progress has been made with the animals that previously lived at the hotel. All of the dogs and the majority of cats have been adopted out to good homes, thanks to the tireless effort of Katie Horn, now with World Vets, Paso Pacifico, and Elvis of Stones and Waves Vet Clinic. The 8 spider monkeys that once resided at Pelican Eyes have all been relocated to a spacious wildlife reserve in Nandaime. The removal of cats has already cleared the way for Nicaragua’s natural wildlife to return to Pelican Eyes. Numerous bird species, butterflies, and iguanas have all begun to return to their natural habitats here among the Pelican Landscape. Hummingbird feeders have been installed throughout the property, as well.

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“In 1990, an unprecedented effort was launched to preserve the western hemisphere’s bird life.”

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of this collaborative effort to bird conservation.

Its mission:
To keep common birds common by protecting the core of avian diversity and maintaining the integrity of habitats and ecosystems across continents.

To promote partnerships for birds, habitats, and people by working together to create solutions and supporting partnerships at every level.

Watch the video.

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In today’s New York Times:

To Help Jaguars Survive, Ease Their Commute
LAS LOMAS, Costa Rica — Héctor Porras-Valverdo tried to adopt a Zen attitude when he discovered recently that jaguars had turned two of his cows into carcasses.
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“I understand cats do this because they need to survive,” said Mr. Porras-Valverdo, 41, a burly dairy farmer.

A few years ago, he acknowledged, his first reaction might have been to reach for a gun. But his farm now sits in the middle of land that Costa Rica has designated a “jaguar corridor” — a protected pathway that allows the stealthy, nocturnal animals to safely traverse areas of human civilization.

In the past few years, such corridors have been created in Africa, Asia and the Americas to help animals cope with 21st-century threats, from encroaching highways and malls to climate change.

These pathways represent an important shift in conservation strategy. Like many other nations, Costa Rica has traditionally tried to protect large mammal species like jaguars by creating sanctuaries — buying up land and giving threatened animals a home where they can safely eat, fight and breed to eternity.

But in the past decade or so, scientists have realized that connecting corridors are needed because many species rely for survival on the migration of a few animals from one region to another, to intermix gene pools and to repopulate areas devastated by natural disasters or disease. Placing animals in isolated preserves, studies have found, decreases diversity and risks dulling down a species — like preventing New Yorkers and Californians from getting together to procreate.

“It was kind of an epiphany,” said Alan Rabinowitz, a zoologist who is president of Panthera, an organization that studies and promotes conservation of large cats. “We were giving them nice land to live on when what they were doing — and what they needed — was an underground railway.”

He said critical migration routes were especially vulnerable in rapidly developing countries, where new roads, shopping malls, dams, playgrounds and subdivisions could spring up overnight, blocking the animals’ passage.

This is exactly why we employ conflict resolution, land management, and economic development strategies to do what we do, as we work toward a Central America where well-managed conservation areas are connected by viable biological corridors that span from ridge to reef, including restored tropical dry forests and marine protected areas.

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As top predators, carnivores are the keystone of any healthy ecosystem, but hunting and habitat loss threaten their survival in Nicaragua. Over the past few months, local farmers have reported numerous jaguar and puma sightings to Paso Pacifico biologists, while Paso Pacifico staff have directly observed large cat tracks and sighted smaller carnivores such as Ocelots and Jaguarundis.

This year, Paso Pacifico will be working to validate the presence of Jaguars and Pumas in the Paso del Istmo Biological Corridor through targeted interviews and field surveys. The Paso del Istmo Biological Corridor borders the Jaguar Conservation Unit, which is a high priority within the regional Jaguar Conservation Initiative. As the Paso del Istmo and Jaguar Conservation Unit are not separated by any major geographic barriers, the Conservation Unit has the potential to serve as a ‘source’ for the recovery of the jaguar population in Nicaragua.

Meanwhile, Paso Pacifico is also working to reduce the number of large cats that are killed by farmers through public awareness campaigns such as movie nights in remote villages, which bring communities together to watch educational films while learning about the negative impacts of wildlife trafficking. By rebuilding forest habitat, creating new protected areas, and educating the local communities, Paso Pacifico is building a space for the safe return of the jaguar to the Paso del Istmo.

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A new study published in Conservation Letters provides the first global perspective of fisheries bycatch for marine turtles.

According to the study, which is based on data collected across all methods of fishing around the world from 1990-2008, the total reported bycatch over the same period was approximately 85,0000 sea turtles. The authors acknowledge that, due to under reporting in smallscale fisheries, the actual number is likely higher. Smallscale fishing operations are common along the Pacific coast of Nicaragua where we do our sea turtle conservation work, presenting an opportunity for us to learn more about this threat to sea turtle populations.

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