Encalhes de tartarugas marinhas no litoral oeste do Ceará

Abstract

Five species of sea turtles occur along the Brazilian coast. All these five species are known occur along the coast of the state of Ceará and are endangered of extinction. In Ceará, most of the records for sea turtles strandings are from the east coast, resulting in lack of knowledge about the west coast. In this study, data were collected on the occurrence of sea turtles on the beaches of the west coast, aiming to identify the species and the maturation level of stranded animals, in addition to characterizing anthropic interactions. Beach monitoring was used as a data collection tool due to its low cost and ease of implementation. Strandings of sea turtles on the coast of Camocim-CE were recorded from December 2020 to December 2021, along of 17 km of litoral. Chelonia mydas is the most stranded species in the region, followed by Caretta caretta. One in three stranded sea turtles show evidence of negative human interaction, which suggests there is a high incidence of this problem for this population.