Andrés Estrades

NGO Karumbe · Area de Educacion Ambiental y Museologia

Plastic pollution is now considered to be one of the main threats to the marine environment. Plastics are ubiquitous and persistent pollutants that tend to undergo fragmentation and be concentrated in oceanic gyres and coastal fronts by the combined actions of winds and currents. When these garbage patches overlap with key habitats for sea turtles,...

Priority setting approaches for widely distributed and long-lived species can be challenging. This is especially true for sea turtles, which are species of conservation concern. The aim of this study was to conduct a detailed analysis of threats to identify, quantify and prioritize the main impacts to the loggerhead (Caretta caretta) population in...

Suplementary data of Green turtle Marine debris ingestions studies worldwide

Red Listing Assessment of Phrynops williamsi, William's Side-necked turtle

Anthropogenic debris ingestion has been reported for green turtles in all their life stages worldwide. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the marine debris ingestion by green turtles stranded in Uruguayan coast between 2005 and 2013. Debris items were categorized and quantified by frequency of occurrence, relative weight, volume and number...

Chelonia mydas in temperate areas exhibits behavioral changes for adapting to sea temperature fluctuations; however, prolonged exposure to cold temperatures can lead to hypothermia and thus hypothermic stunning events. Here we report an unusual stranding event of 90 green turtles recorded in a 12-d period in July 2012 in southeastern Uruguay, analy...

We report 8 new records of Lepidochelys olivacea marine turtle in the Uruguayan waters, indicating this area as the southernmost limit of distribution for this species in the western Atlantic Ocean. In addition, 1 specimen was subjected to genetic analysis, revealing its population origin in the western Atlantic nesting colonies (Surinam, French Gu...

Somatic growth is an integrated, individual-based response to environmental conditions, especially in ectotherms. Growth dynamics of large, mobile animals are particularly useful as bio-indicators of environmental change at regional scales. We assembled growth rate data from throughout the West Atlantic for green turtles, Chelonia mydas, which are...

The hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) is the most threatened sea turtle species in the world. An important aspect of the biology of sea turtles is the study of colonizing fauna, i.e., their epibiota. The aim of this study is a taxonomic determination on the epibiota found on 4 hawksbills turtles stranded in 2009 and 2011 on the coast of Roc...

Marine Protected Areas are increasingly considered in coastal areas as an instrument to preserve threatened fauna and fragile habitats from the detrimental effects of human activities. For this reason baseline data are of utmost importance for the evaluation of the outcomes of ongoing conservation efforts. Along the Uruguayan coast, the area of Cer...

Marine wildlife faces a growing number of threats across the globe, and the survival of many species and populations will be dependent on conservation action. One threat in particular that has emerged over the last 4 decades is the pollution of oceanic and coastal habitats with plastic debris. The increased occurrence of plastics in marine ecosyste...

Marine wildlife faces a growing number of threats across the globe, and the survival of many species and populations will be dependent on conservation action. One threat in particular that has emerged over the last 4 decades is the pollution of oceanic and coastal habitats with plastic debris. The increased occurrence of plastics in marine ecosyste...

We present the first study conducted in a wide spatio-temporal scale on marine turtles strandings (N = 1,107) over a 12-year period (1999–2010) in Uru-guay. Five species were recorded Chelonia mydas (N = 643; 58.1 %), Caretta caretta (N = 329; 29.7 %), Dermochelys coriacea (N = 131; 11.8 %), Eretmochelys imbricata (N = 3; 0.3 %), and Lepidochelys o...

Incidental catch of sea turtles in fisheries has been recognized worldwide as one of the main mortality causes for these endangered species. The Uruguayan coast constitutes a foraging and development area for juveniles of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) that come from different breeding zones. Thus, mortality due to fishing activities may be depleti...

Here we report the first observations of the rapa whelk Rapana venosa massively bio-fouling immature green turtles Chelonia mydas. From November 2004 to July 2011, we examined 33 green turtles with rapa whelks attached to their carapaces in Uruguayan waters. The number of attached rapa whelks ranged from 1 to 49 individuals, representing up to 20 %...

Here we report the first observations of loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta preying on a conspicuous molluscan invader, the rapa whelk Rapana venosa. An average number of 136 opercula were found in stomach contents of five turtles, the curved carapace length ranging in from 51 to 112 cm. No other alimentary items were found in the turtles analyzed....

The native species of amphibians and reptiles of Uruguay were categorized according to the IUCN Red List criteria. Out of 47 amphibian species, seven are listed as Critically Endangered (CR), five as Endangered (EN), one as Vulnerable (VU), three as Near Threatened (NT), and two as Data Deficient (DD); the remaining species are considered to be Lea...

The barnacle Conchoderma virgatum (Spengler, 1790) is reported as an epibiont of Chelonia mydas from Uruguay for the first time. This study pr ovides the first available data on the sizes of C. virgatum for the southwestern Atlantic Ocean.

Pelagic longlines are widely known to interact with several species of sea turtles, and there is an increasing concern about the by-catch of turtles in commercial fisheries and its impact on their populations. However, information on sea turtle by-catch in the South Atlantic Ocean is scarce, and there are no quantitative by-catch data available on...

ACTIVIDADES DE KARUMBÉ ENTRE EL 2004 Y 2005

Al igual que las otras especies de tortugas marinas, la tortuga verde (Chelonia mydas) es muy susceptible a las actividades pesqueras. Estas prácticas han sido reconocidas por muchos años como una causa seria de mortalidad en tortugas marinas, como resultado de su captura incidental en las artes de pesca (Oravetz 2000). En Uruguay un importante núm...

Conservation status of the turtles and terrapins (Reptilia, Testudines) of Uruguay. Based on the index proposed by Reca et al. (1994), the conservation status of Uruguayan turtles was evaluated. The categories Endangered, Vulnerable, and Low Concern were applied. Nine species were analyzed, of which Dermochelys coriacea, Lepidochelys olivacea, Phry...