Proceedings of the 27th Annual ISTS: The disappearing eastern Pacific hawksbill turtle: A directed study to evaluate the population

Alexander R. Gaos, Ingrid L. Yañez, Wallace J. Nichols, Jeffrey A. Seminoff, Sherwood H. Peckman, and Randall M. Arauz. 2008. In: Rees, A.F., M. Frick, A. Panagopoulou and K. Williams., compilers. Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC-569, 262 p.

Although evidence suggests that hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) turtles were once abundant in the Eastern Pacific (EP), currently the population appears to be - possibly - one of the most endangered in the world. Nonetheless, the population has received virtually no attention from the sea turtle conservation community and directed, systematic studies to evaluate current status and abundance are non-existent. In 2007 a directed effort to generate information and awareness regarding this neglected population will be undertaken in the Gulf of California, Mexico, which provides a confined foraging habitat for juvenile individuals and where many of the more recent reports regarding this population have taken place. The project will include the following: 1) evaluation of historical abundance through a compilation of historical literature and interviews with fisher elders; 2) evaluation of current distribution and abundance through a regional hawksbill sighting network, interviews with fishers, in-water sampling, and satellite telemetry of 2 or more turtles; 3) stock assessment through genetic sampling; and 4) education/outreach to raise awareness of and reverse the largely unnoticed decline of this critically endangered population. The study will provide much needed information on this data deficient population of sea turtles, thus assisting in its classification, conservation and management.