Why Are French Guiana Leatherbacks Declining?
By Michel A. Nalovic, Laurent Kelle, Audrey Chevalier, Benoit de Thoisy, Mathilde Lasfargue, Ronald Wongsopawiro, and Damien Chevallier
A leatherback turtle comes ashore to nest in Remire-Montjoly, French Guiana. Leatherback turtles have declined dramatically in French Guiana since 2001. © Guillaume Feuillet
Understanding the decrease in leatherbacks nesting in the Guianas, particularly in French Guiana’s once booming population at Awala-Yalimapo, is an ongoing challenge to turtle conservation efforts. With the exception of a slight rise over the past two years, the number of nesting leatherbacks has plummeted since the mid-1990s.
Although many imperfectly quantified threats are to blame, the most significant and intractable threat is the sheer level of fishing effort occurring in all the world’s oceans, and the collateral toll fishing extracts in the form of bycatch. From high seas industrial fleets to coastal artisanal vessels, there are more boats, hooks, floats, ropes, and nets operating simultaneously than ever before.
Complicating the matter for leatherbacks navigating the waters of the Guianas is the high degree of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity. Such IUU fishing effort in French Guianese waters was estimated in 2012 to be twice that of legal fisheries, thereby negating all of the well-intentioned advances made by regional, national, and international authorities to minimize fishery impacts through gear improvements, time or area closures, stock management schemes, and other efforts.
Threats posed by feral dog predation of eggs and by cyclical beach erosion have also been underestimated in the past. A recent study by Damien Chevalier suggests that up to 40 percent of leatherback nests were lost to erosion at Awala-Yalimapo between 2012 and 2014 alone, something that undoubtedly added to the nesting declines observed there from 2001–2018.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the French Guiana Regional Fisheries Committee (CRPM Guyane), and their Guiana Shield partners have begun work to prevent the further expansion of IUU fisheries, as well as to address the issue of nesting beach erosion. Much work is left to be done— and must be done—to eliminate IUU activities and to reduce fishery bycatch if we humans are to ensure the long-term survival of the majestic leatherbacks in the Guianas.
Graph showing leatherback nests recorded on French Guiana’s eastern (light blue line) and western (dark blue line) beaches from 2001 to 2021. Figure courtesy of the authors.
This article originally appeared in SWOT Report, vol. 17 (2022) as part of the article “Precipitous Declines in Caribbean Leatherbacks.” Click here to download the complete article as a PDF.
Author Affiliations
MICHEL A. NALOVIC, French Guiana Regional Fisheries Committee, Port of Larivot, French Guiana
LAURENT KELLE, WWF France – World Wide Fund for Nature, French Guiana
AUDREY CHEVALIER, WWF France – World Wide Fund for Nature, French Guiana
BENOIT DE THOISY, Association Kwata, Cayenne, French Guiana
MATHILDE LASFARGUE, L'Office français de la biodiversité (OFB), French Guiana
RONALD WONGSOPAWIRO, RNA – Reserve Naturel de l'Amana, Awala, French Guiana
DAMIEN CHEVALIER, CNRS BOREA Research Unit – Laboratoire de Biologie des Organismes et des Écosystèmes Aquatiques, Martinique, France