Leatherback turtle by-catch: entangled in the governance of luxury commodity extraction

Marina Ruiz Slater ()
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Marina Ruiz Slater: Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

No 201236, Working Papers from Latin American and Caribbean Environmental Economics Program

Abstract: Leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from the eastern Pacific (ELBT) are the most threatened population of marine turtles in the world. With a 90% population decline in just 20 years, it has been anticipated that if the status quo remains there will be no leatherback turtles swimming the eastern Pacific Ocean in the next few decades. Entanglement in fishing gear, also called bycatch, is considered the primary source of mortality of adult and juvenile individuals; therefore, the single most important driver of the drastic population decline that this species has experienced in the last thirty years. ELBT are incidentally killed in fishing gear across most of their habitat and migratory route, from small-scale coastal fisheries to industrialized pelagic freezer fleets, from fishing within nations EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) to high seas extraction, leatherbacks face constant threats crossing nine different jurisdictions. Aiming to understand the dynamics of this conflict and the patterns of resource use that have greater impact on leatherback turtle by-catch; two fisheries institutions are analyzed via case study research, trough the lenses of four dimensions or attributes that were chosen based on a review of the relevant literature. The Galician industrialized distant water fleet, targeting luxury commodities such as swordfish (Xiphias gladius) operating in the oceanic feeding habitat of ELBT; and the small-scale multi-species fleet operating in the coastal nesting habitat in Michoacan, Mexico; this approach may shed some light in how appropriation of biomass trough fisheries extraction, is guided by the governance regime in which exists, but also has a lot to do with economic specialization, industrialization & technological advance as well as global market trends, or in more specific terms; who has the power to establish the measures of exchange between -fishermen enterprises- retailers/intermediaries-leatherback turtles- that are given by the market within the global economic system.

Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2012, Revised 2012
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