Sea turtles along coast face host of threats

Sea turtles along Pakistan's coast are facing a welter of anthropogenic threats, including habitat degradation, plastic pollution, and entanglement in fishing gears, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

As a result of the construction of huts along beaches in the port city of Karachi, and the southwestern Balochistan province, major nesting grounds of sea turtles are adversely affected, the study said on the eve of World Sea Turtle Day.

Since 2000, World Sea Turtle Day is observed every year on June 16 to raise awareness about the dwindling population of sea turtles and their diminishing habitat.

According to Muhammad Moazzam Khan, the technical adviser to WWF-Pakistan, plastic waste, collapsing huts, and rubble pose a serious threat to nesting females and juveniles along Pakistan's coastal areas.

In Pakistan, sea turtles are known to nest on a number of beaches, including Sandspit, Hawke's Bay, and Cape Monz along the Sindh coast, as well as Taq (Ormara), Astola Island, Gwadar Headland, and Daran along the Balochistan coast.

Thousands of female turtles visit these beaches to nest and lay eggs.

To collect data on the entanglement of turtles, the WWF-Pakistan initiated a study in 2012, which revealed that 30,000 sea turtles were annually caught in tuna gillnet fisheries of the country.

This included roughly 25,500 Olive Ridley and 4,500 Green turtles in the offshore waters of Pakistan.

Entanglement in fishing nets is the most serious threat to marine turtles.

It was estimated that about 3% of entangled turtles were dying due to drowning or mishandling onboard fishing vessels.

Protecting endangered species

To protect the endangered species, the organization has trained some 100 "skippers and crew members" to safely release the entangled sea turtles and developed a modification in the operation of the gillnets.

This, the study said, has reduced the entanglement of sea turtles by 85%.

Pollution is also another major threat to the sea turtle population in Pakistani waters. Popular beaches are littered with garbage, dominated by single-use and micro-plastics.

The study has also reported on the impact of diesel and petrol on the population of turtles, stating that exposure to these fuels results in deformation in hatchlings and so, poses a serious threat to their survival.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2022.