Preliminary survey of incidental capture of sea turtles in Jamaican fisheries

Participants: Rhema Bjorkland (lead)¹, Charlene Thomas², John Hutchinson², and Larry Crowder¹

1 Duke University Marine Lab, 135 Duke University Marine Lab Road, Beaufort, NC 28516
2 Fisheries Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Marcus Garvey Dr., Kingston, Jamaica

Project GloBAL is a Duke University and Blue Ocean Institute initiative to globally assess sea turtle, marine mammal and seabird bycatch In the Caribbean. Project GloBAL is collaborating with national governments and organizations such as WIDECAST (the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network) to undertake the regional assessment. An initial step in this undertaking is a review of the state of knowledge of fisheries and bycatch of the air-breathing taxa. While there is extensive bibliography and data collection on Jamaican fisheries, there is no information on bycatch of the aforementioned taxa in fishing gear. Between August and September 2006, Project GloBAL’s regional coordinator and the staff of the Fisheries Division (Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Jamaica) collaborated on a survey of fishers regarding sea turtle, marine mammal and seabird bycatch. Our objectives were:
1) To collect preliminary information on gear types involved in interactions with sea turtles, marine mammal and seabird bycatch
2) To assist in narrowing and prioritizing research to define the nature and extent of bycatch sources of mortality in Jamaican waters. We report here on the information obtained for sea turtles.