Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 April 2020 | 12(5): 15668–15670
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5274.12.5.15668-15670
#5274 | Received 25 July 2019 | Final
received 13 November 2019 | Finally accepted 30 March 2020
Loss of Critically Endangered
Hawksbill Turtle nesting beach at EGA facility, Abu Dhabi, UAE
D. Adhavan
Tridel
Maritime services LLC, P.O. Box no. 94046, Abudhabi,
United Arab Emirates.
Present address: Center for
Climate Change Studies, Sathyabama Institute of
Science and Technology, Semmancheri, Chennai, Tamil
Nadu 600119, India.
Editor: Himansu Sekhar Das, Environment
Agency-Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Date of
publication: 26 April 2020 (online & print)
Citation: Adhavan, D. (2020). Loss of Critically Endangered Hawksbill Turtle nesting
beach at EGA facility, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(5): 15668–15670. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5274.12.5.15668-15670
Copyright: © Adhavan 2020. Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction,
and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to
the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Abu Dhabi Ports.
Competing interests: The author declares
no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: My sincere thanks to Mr. Sharma, Mr. Jeffery and
Khalifa Port authorities, Abu Dhabi for their funding support and Mr. Tekede, EGA field staff, Mr. Albert Saveriar,
Mr. Vaseem and Mr. Asjad
for their assistance during the survey.
The nesting beaches are critical resources for sea
turtles, most beaches around the world are disturbed by natural pressures and
direct or indirect human influence. EGA
(Emirates Global Aluminium) beach, a stretch of ~0.64km length and an average
breadth of 165m, located between 24.800°N, 54.702°E and 24.804°N, 54.705°E has
historically been visited by Hawksbill Turtles Eretmochelys
imbricata and used extensively for nesting (EAD
2016; Sharma 2018). A rapid survey was
carried out at the EGA beach during low tide on 5 February 2019 to document the
possibilities of sea turtle nesting, as a part of the environmental and
ecological monitoring survey of Abu Dhabi ports, 2019. There were no signs of sea turtle nesting
observed during the survey, however, the nesting and crawl-marks were well
documented in our previous surveys from 2012 to 2017. According to the discussion with the local
environmental surveyors, EGA points to the fact that Hawksbill Turtles Eretmochelys imbricata
were the species visiting the EGA beach, which was corroborated by the
dimensions of the observed crawl-marks during 2012 to 2017. During the survey, three old sea turtle nests
(Image 1a–c) of 2016–2017 were recorded and it was marked and protected with
fishing cages by the EGA environmental team.
Further, a reconnaissance survey was carried out in the entire EGA beach
area (~0.64km) to record the trail of sea turtle nesting. This survey revealed there were no recent
traces of sea turtle in the beach area.
It was found that the beach is not any more conducive for sea turtle
nesting as the shoreline was completely covered with mounds of dead seagrasses
(Image 1d,e) which would restrict the access of sea turtle to the beach. In addition, the hatchlings must be able to
return to the sea and the nest must not have any visual obstructions (Godfrey &
Barreto 1995). Debris on the beach would
also prevent successful nesting as the beach was completely covered with
fragments including plastic and oyster shells (Image 1f–h). This sometimes causes a phenomenon called
‘false crawl’ where the females emerge from the water but do not lay eggs
(Fujisaki & Lamont 2016) due to unfavorable
conditions. There was one ‘false crawl’
(Image 1i) and one nest recorded during 2017, and this was the last evidence of
sea turtles on EGA beach. Since then,
there has been no nesting or crawl signs recorded. Additionally, artificial lighting from the
industries might also have a negative impact on the nesting processes of
nesting females (Weishampel et al. 2016).
With reference to that, a set of scientists worked closely with the
community to minimize disturbance to nesting females by avoiding bright lights
and loud noise in the nesting area (Gulf News 2017). The turtle nesting status was comparatively
reduced from 2016 onwards (Marine Ecological Monitoring Project Survey
(2012–2018). The trend of nesting status from 2012 to 2018
is graphically shown in Figure 1. It is
also predicted, if there is no aid to protect the sea turtle nesting beaches,
this magnitude of beach loss could literally be the point of no return for the
nesting populations of the sea turtles to EGA beach. This would eventually affect seagrass meadows
and coral reefs, and in turn, there would be an impact on the marine ecosystem.
For figure
& image - - click here
References
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