Investigation of interactions between sea turtles and fishing gears used in the Aegean sea

Analyzes were made on the bycatch sea turtles, which were incidentally caught by the fishing gears in the Aegean Sea. The study includes 98 fishery cooperative areas in 5 provinces on the Aegean Sea coasts. Face-to-face surveys had conducted with 404 fishermen between August 2016 and October 2017. At the same time supported by survey work, informative presentations and brochures to raise awareness about sea turtles. 84.7% of the surveyed fishermen were members of cooperatives whereas 15.3% were not members. The distribution and variation of the hot spots in which the by-catch of the sea turtles are seen has been tried to be determined according to areas, seasons and types of fishing gear. At the same time, it was tried to determine the way of distribution of these living beings, which spread out in the tropikal and temperate climatic zones with the effect of global warming. Fishermen had contacted visually with sea turtles mostly in Aydın fishing area even though there wasn't bycatch and it had been estimated that the average annual encounter in the whole study area is more than 87.6%. The Aydın area is one of the hot spots especially in the summer months. When the data were analyzed, a significant difference in the rate of encounters with turtles had been found between the provinces (P = 0.004, P <0.05). In the Aegean coast-wide, 25.0% of fishermen had bycaught sea turtles at least once. This is very worrisome when considering the abundance of sea turtles in the Mediterranean. The interactions of sea turtles with fishing had occurred in places where the fishing activities overlap the living spaces of these species. Furthermore, it has been understood that the distributions of these species are trending towards the north, ie Marmara Sea, by the effect of global warming. This has been also led to the possibility that there may be nesting areas in the Aegean coasts according to the condition of the beaches in the coming time frame. Nevertheless , there is a need for scientific researches in the Aegean Sea in order to determine the availability of sufficient and suitable beaches to find new nest sites. In the future this work will contribute to the development of an effective fisheries policy for the conservation of the marine environment and for the sustainability of sea turtles.