Research Symposium

BIO

Gina Givens is a current senior. She has been working in the Marine Turtle Research, Ecology, and Conservation Group led by Dr. Mariana Fuentes since 2020. Her work focuses on the effects of vessel strikes on marine megafauna. She is the Co-President of the Environmental Service Program and has a passion for environmental studies. She hopes to continue her studies in conservation biology and one day achieve a PhD.

How Proper Data Collection and Delineation of Go-Slow Zones Can Lessen the Effects of Vessel Strikes on Marine Turtles

Abstract

Vessel strikes are attributed to an alarming proportion of incidents that endanger the success of marine megafauna, specifically marine turtles. Focus on conservation management skills, strengthening of educational awareness within a community, and implementation of administrative enforcement are required to lessen vessel strikes on marine sea turtles. Following these mitigation strategies, the identification of involuntary speed exclusion zones average success rate correlated with sea turtle migratory routes during the same seasons will provide insight as to how to improve the effectiveness of go-slow zones prevention of collisions caused by vessel strikes on marine sea turtles. A meta-analysis of papers was conducted to organize and identify different mitigation strategies utilized to mediate vessel strike incidents. The literature review was constructed via the utilization of the search engine Google Scholar. Key words such as vessel strikes, sea turtles, megafauna, go slow zones, and mitigation strategies were searched on the internet. We organized the information extracted from the articles and placed them into categories proposed by an advisory workshop conducted in October 2018, along theorizing other strategies not stated by this workshop. Conservation arbitrations were identified in four categories: (1) Educational outreach and public awareness, (2) speed/exclusion zones on a voluntary basis, (3) regulated speed and exclusion zones, and (4) the modification of marine vessels. The effectiveness of these approaches was measured by success rates in individual responses and surveys, along with statistics of vessel strike incidents that occurred in areas where some of the methods were utilized.

Keywords: Marine, sea turtles, conservation