Nas praias de Fortaleza tem tartaruga marinha! O que os biólogos, também, podem fazer?

Abstract

The coastal zone of the state of Ceará is characterized as feeding and resting point of the five species of sea turtles found in Brazil. The GTAR-Verdeluz project, an extension project of the Federal University of Ceará and Program of the State University of Ceará, emerged in 2014 from the perception of the existence of spawning and stranding of sea turtles on the beaches of Fortaleza / CE without the proper accompaniment of projects or public entities. From the field activities, the present work was carried out with the objective of describe the Marine Turtles situation at the coast of Fortaleza, parting from the perception od the social actor involved with them, in a way to propose preservation actions for those quelonians, at the perspective of the professional biologist. Day and night monitoring were carried out between March 2016 and April 2017, to cover at least one spawning period (October / 2016 to April / 2017), at Sabiaguaba, which shelters two Environmental Conservation Units: The Area of Environmental Protection of Sabiaguaba and the Municipal Natural Park of the Dunes of Sabiaguaba. In addition to the data obtained in the field, fishermen and local workers assisted in indicating where there were occurrences of nests and strandings. Thus, to better understand what these people, who could be potential informants, understood about the Sea Turtles topic, a semistructured questionnaire was applied with 14 people who worked on the beaches of Futuro and Sabiaguaba. Some of the 18 beached animals registered showed signs of interaction with fishing or garbage, which are possible reasons for death. The 25 spawnings occurred within the predicted period, and in some nests anthropic interaction was noted, which may have affected the birth of the pups or their sea course. It was noticed that the knowledge of the workers interviewed is empirical. Part of them understood the turtles life cycle and their conservation needs, and others revealed that they had already been fed on Turtle meat or eggs. Thus, a turtle conservation project with structure to receive the strandings is necessary. Also Environmental Education activities that encourage the population of Fortaleza to know and preserve these species. The research was permitted by a license issued by the Biodiversity Information and Authorization System (SISBIO), number 53083-2.