Protecting Endangered Leatherbacks
Leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea), the largest of all sea turtle species, are a flagship conservation species and a key component of healthy marine ecosystems. They migrate thousands of miles across ocean basins to feed on jellyfish, and help maintain healthy and productive fisheries around the world by preventing devastating jellyfish blooms, which can decimate the fry of commercially important fish species.
West Pacific Leatherbacks on the US West Coast
Upwell has partnered with NOAA since 2018 to monitor leatherback sea turtles in the California Current. The data Upwell and NOAA collect on West Pacific leatherbacks from aerial surveys and vessel sampling helps us better understand the importance of marine habitats off California, Oregon and Washington. We deploy satellite tags on leatherbacks to learn more about their seasonal movements, including the timing of their seasonal arrival and departure. By sharing data with fishers and resource managers, we work collaboratively to reduce threats turtles face at sea.
Upwell Researcher Derek Aoki shares his work exploring exploring the potential of passive acoustic monitoring for leatherbacks in the Northwest Atlantic.
At the beginning of June, Upwell Executive Director George Shillinger traveled to Juno and Jupiter beaches in Florida to catch the end of the leatherback nesting season monitoring conducted at Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) and participate in ongoing collaborative research projects. Read more about those projects and meet some of the leatherbacks that were monitored this season!
Northwest Atlantic Leatherbacks Beyond the Nesting Beach
To extend protections for leatherbacks beyond Florida’s nesting beaches, Upwell partners with local organizations, including Loggerhead Marinelife Center and Florida Atlantic University, to deploy satellite and acoustic trackers on nesting female leatherbacks at Juno and Jupiter Beaches. This technology allows us to collect information on leatherbacks’ movements between and after nesting events, and to follow their migrations up the Eastern Seaboard to forage on jellies. This data informs conservation measures to protect leatherbacks in waters near nesting beaches and beyond.
West Pacific Leatherbacks in Australia
Upwell is providing expertise on efforts to reduce leatherback-fisheries interactions in Australia and New Zealand. Our researchers are collecting fisheries bycatch and observer data to examine hotspots where leatherbacks most commonly encounter anthropogenic threats. We are creating population viability analysis and species distribution models for West Pacific leatherbacks foraging in the region. We also are sharing our knowledge to support development of an in-water monitoring program. By providing up-to-date data from aerial surveys and satellite tagged turtles, in-water monitoring can help to deliver meaningful protections for West Pacific leatherbacks in critical foraging habitats off Australia and New Zealand
Check out some more stories about protecting endangered leatherbacks:
A comparison of the conservations stories of California's harbor porpoises and Pacific leatherback sea turtles. Learn more about the challenges and successes in protecting California's marine environment.
Upwell works in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to satellite tag and track California's leatherback sea turtles. We provide marine managers with critical information to make strategic decisions that protect leatherbacks and other sea turtle species.
A guest blog from our partners at the New Zealand Department of Conservation about the aerial surveys over the Bay of Plenty we carried out as part of a collaborative project.
Each year, the Upwell and NOAA Fisheries team conduct aerial and vessel-based surveys for leatherback sea turtles off the US West Coast. The data from these surveys can be put into action to protect the critically endangered West Pacific leatherback population. During August and September of 2024 the collaborative team documented their efforts in an engaging web series called Looking for Leatherbacks.
Expanding efforts to monitor critically endangered West Pacific leatherbacks, Upwell is teaming up with Monash University in Australia and New Zealand’s Department of Conservation and National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, and our partners at NOAA to design and conduct aerial surveys for leatherback abundance in the Bay of Plenty. New Zealand has become a focus of attention for leatherback conservation and bycatch prevention, and these surveys will provide critical data to support these growing efforts.
Nerea Lezama-Ochoa is a marine biologist working as a UCSC project scientist at the NOAA Environmental Science Division in Monterey. Her team is producing daily projections of suitable habitat for 10 highly migratory species (including leatherback sea turtles). Read Nerea’s blog about how these projections are created with accuracy and why they are helpful to conservation efforts.
Upwell Research Project Technician Sierra Fullmer shares some of her most exciting sightings while conducting aerial surveys to look for leatherbacks off of the US West Coast.
Most sea turtle species migrate and spend large amounts of their life history in areas of the ocean considered “high seas.” The high seas are the parts of the ocean that are not under the jurisdiction of any nation. In June of 2023, after almost two decades of negotiations, UN Member states adopted the Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty (also known as the High Seas Treaty) to provide a coherent and holistic framework for protecting the high seas. Earlier this month, Upwell Executive Director Dr. George Shillinger attended the High Seas Treaty symposium to learn more about how its implementation may impact sea turtle populations and to seek opportunities to further the protection of turtles at sea.
The new publication "Incorporating multidimensional behavior into a risk management tool for a critically endangered and migratory species," takes a look at how data on leatherback diving behavior can be used to improve the South Pacific TurtleWatch tool aimed at reducing bycatch.
What does a researcher studying animal behavior do when the animal they are studying takes off into the middle of the Pacific ocean? In this post, Upwell Researcher Dr. Nicole Barbour breaks down how machine learning can be used to help researchers interpret data from tagged leatherbacks to understand their behavior at sea. Featured image by Juergen Freund.
At the beginning of June, Upwell Executive Director George Shillinger traveled to Juno and Jupiter beaches in Florida to catch the end of the leatherback nesting season monitoring conducted at Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) and participate in ongoing collaborative research projects. Read more about those projects and meet some of the leatherbacks that were monitored this season!
Since 2021, John Douglas has worked with Upwell as captain of the Sheila B. research vessel while monitoring for leatherback sea turtles in the Pacific Northwest. The Sheila B. is a boat that has been specially engineered for the research work that it carries out. In this blog, John gives us insight into its history and its evolution into the perfect vessel for leatherback sea turtle monitoring.
Emeline McMann-Chapman is an Upwell Research Assistant. She assists with collection and analysis of stranding data on cold-stunned sea turtles on the Pacific coast. She recently had the opportunity to assist Upwell and NOAA’s leatherback tagging team in Monterey Bay.
In October of 2021, Upwell and our partners from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tagged one of the largest leatherbacks ever encountered in the California Current foraging zone weighing in at 1,419 pounds! This massive male leatherback was dubbed “Bumpy” because of the distinctive bumps on the rear of his carapace, which were likely caused by a prior ship strike. Find out more about where Bumpy has traveled.