World's Largest Nesting Population Of Leatherbacks Discovered
An international team of scientists has identified a nesting population of leatherback sea turtles in Gabon, West Africa as the world's largest. The research, published in the May issue of Biological Conservation, involved country-wide land and aerial surveys that estimated a population of between 15,730 and 41,373 female turtles using the nesting beaches.
The study highlights the importance of conservation work to manage key sites and protected areas in Gabon.
Leatherbacks are of profound conservation concern around the world
after populations in the Indo-Pacific crashed by more than 90 percent
in the 1980s and 1990s. The International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) lists leatherback turtles as critically endangered
globally, but detailed population assessments in much of the Atlantic,
especially Africa, are lacking.
The research was led by the University of Exeter working in
collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) which
spearheads the Gabon Sea Turtle Partnership, a network of organisations
concerned with the protection of marine turtles in Gabon
