Reconciling biodiversity with fishing: A holistic strategy for Pacific sea turtle recovery

Recovery of sea turtle populations requires addressing: multiple sources of mortality; nonmarket, diffuse benefits with costs localized on the poor; and a transboundary resource with incomplete jurisprudence, markets, and institutions. Holistic recovery strategies include: beach conservation protecting nesting females, their eggs, and critical breeding habitat to maximize hatchling production; enhanced at-sea survival of turtles on the high seas and in commercial coastal fisheries; and reduced artisanal coastal fisheries mortality of turtles. The traditional approach of focusing long-term sustained conservation efforts on the nesting beaches has by itself led to increases in several sea turtle populations. However; current conservation is inadequate to reverse declines in other cases such as the critically endangered leatherback populations in the Pacific. This article discusses policy instruments comprising a holistic recovery strategy that reconciles fishing with biodiversity conservation.