Ortega Anna A, Mitchell Nicola J, Marn Nina, Shillinger George L
The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia.
Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, 54, Fairway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia.
Environ Evid. 2024 Nov 29;13(1):27. doi: 10.1186/s13750-024-00352-3.
The Pacific Ocean supports two leatherback sea turtle populations, each of which is Critically Endangered primarily as a result of ongoing incidental bycatch within small-scale and industrial fisheries. Conservation planning has included population viability analysis (PVA), which depends on accurate data on mortality and morbidity (sublethal effects) rates to yield realistic results that can inform management decision-making. Existing leatherback PVAs are based on best available data, however, estimates of mortality and morbidity rates are heavily influenced by estimates of bycatch. These, in turn, are based on unknown levels of observer coverage in many fisheries, estimated to be less than 1% coverage in some artisanal and industrial fleets. Leatherback population recovery depends on bycatch reduction. It is vital to understand the source, scope, and scale of leatherback bycatch wherever and whenever leatherbacks occur. Here, we outline a protocol for a systematic review to aggregate existing estimates of leatherback bycatch within the Pacific Ocean, on a population- and basin-level. These results will generate the first comprehensive estimate of leatherback turtle bycatch for any ocean basin and will be incorporated into future conservation planning for Pacific Ocean populations.
A Boolean search string will be input into several bibliographic databases to yield articles and grey literature (governmental, business, and industry information not controlled by commercial publishing) related to the research question. Additional grey literature searches, snowball sampling and expert elicitation will be used to create as robust and comprehensive a pool of literature and/or databases as possible. Retrieved articles will be reviewed for eligibility using the SPIDER search strategy tool (Sample- Phenomenon of Interest-Design-Evaluation -Research type; 7). Articles which meet the criteria will be included in the systematic review, and their data will be collated into comprehensive estimates of leatherback sea turtle bycatch within the Pacific Ocean, one for each population. These data will be further teased apart by fishery size, fishing gear type, fishing nation, fishery region, and fishery target species, to target management more directly. This information will be published and provided directly to stakeholders for use in conservation management.
太平洋中有两个棱皮龟种群，每个种群都极度濒危，主要原因是在小规模和工业化渔业中持续发生的意外兼捕。保护规划包括种群生存力分析（PVA），这依赖于关于死亡率和发病率（亚致死效应）率的准确数据，以得出可用于为管理决策提供信息的现实结果。现有的棱皮龟种群生存力分析基于可获得的最佳数据，然而，死亡率和发病率的估计受到兼捕估计的严重影响。反过来，这些估计又基于许多渔业中未知水平的观察员覆盖率，据估计在一些手工和工业船队中覆盖率不到1%。棱皮龟种群的恢复依赖于减少兼捕。无论棱皮龟出现在何时何地，了解棱皮龟兼捕的来源、范围和规模至关重要。在这里，我们概述了一项系统综述方案，以汇总太平洋内种群和流域层面上棱皮龟兼捕的现有估计。这些结果将产生对任何海洋流域棱皮龟兼捕的首次全面估计，并将纳入未来太平洋种群的保护规划。
将布尔搜索字符串输入到几个文献数据库中，以获取与研究问题相关的文章和灰色文献（不受商业出版控制的政府、商业和行业信息）。将使用额外的灰色文献搜索、滚雪球抽样和专家征询，以创建尽可能强大和全面的文献和/或数据库库。将使用SPIDER搜索策略工具（样本 - 感兴趣现象 - 设计 - 评估 - 研究类型；7）对检索到的文章进行资格审查。符合标准的文章将纳入系统综述，其数据将整理成太平洋内棱皮龟兼捕的综合估计，每个种群一个。这些数据将进一步按渔业规模、渔具类型、捕鱼国家、渔区和渔业目标物种进行分类，以便更直接地针对管理。此信息将发布并直接提供给利益相关者，供其用于保护管理。
