There are also many important nesting and feeding grounds on the east Pacific coast from as far north as Canada to as far south as southern Peru. Nesting occurs at low frequency throughout much of its range, with the highest concentrations of the olive ridley found on the coast of Orissa state, India. The principal beaches are Garhimatha, Ruchikulya and Devi River mouths. Populations in northern Australia and south-east Asia are known to be different genetic stock to the Orissa turtles.
Populations of olive ridleys are reported to have declined in Pakistan, Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand, and possibly on the east coast of India, south of Orissa and in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Olive Ridley turtle. What are the main threats? The main threats which affect marine turtles are: Habitat loss and degradation Wildlife trade Collection of eggs and meat for consumption Incidental capture bycatch Climate change Pollution The belief that turtle eggs have aphrodisiac properties is a major threat to olive ridley populations in Central and South America. The illegal nature of the turtle egg trade makes it difficult to estimate the impact on olive ridley populations but seizures of eggs are not uncommon.
The largest on record occurred in October in Mexico City, when a lorry was seized containing over , olive ridley eggs, taken from a single beach. The size of this haul indicates a large demand for eggs in Central America and the Hispanic communities of California and Florida.
Olive ridleys were once killed in large numbers for meat and leather. There were many economically important slaughterhouses on Mexico's Pacific coast, where officially over 1 million turtles were killed each year during the s.
This slaughter was reduced when legal quotas were introduced, although a smaller illegal industry persists. Why is this species important? What is WWF doing? WWF works to protect marine turtles throughout the world through specialist programmes and regional projects devoted to the conservation of marine turtles. This includes: Action to address the impacts of climate change. Monitoring the migration patterns of marine turtles.
Though international trade in these turtles and their products is banned under CITES Appendix I, they are still extensively poached for their meat, shell and leather, and their eggs, though illegal to harvest, have a significantly large market around the coastal regions. However, the most severe threat they face is the accidental killing of adult turtles through entanglement in trawl nets and gill nets due to uncontrolled fishing during their mating season around nesting beaches.
To reduce accidental killing in India, the Orissa government has made it mandatory for trawls to use Turtle Excluder Devices TEDs , a net specially designed with an exit cover which allows the turtles to escape while retaining the catch.
However, this has been strongly opposed by the fishing communities as they believe TEDs result in loss of considerable amount of the catch along with the turtle.
WWF-India, along with its partners, disproved this theory by conducting a study to measure the loss of catch through TEDs, revealing the loss to be a very small percentage of the total catch. This result, along with regular meetings with the fishing communities, is slowly helping to change their mindset and encourage use of TEDs, thereby aiding the conservation of Olive ridley turtles. References: 1. Abreu-Grobois, A.
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