The Mayumba National Park is approximately 900 km2 with a 15km offshore-protected area, which extends 60km from the border of Congo towards the town of Mayumba, and is the only marine protected area in Gabon.
The park is incorporates one of the world most sensitive leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriaceahe) nesting beaches. Studies using satellite telemetry was conducted on leatherback turtles nesting in the park, and results showed interestingly that the turtles spent a mean of 62 -SD 26% of tracking time outside the confines of the National Park (Witt et al. 2008). This brings about questions two questions with regards to the effectiveness of the park: 1) is the park effective in leatherback turtle conservation? 2) Is the park providing a safe refuge for important fish stocks?
Integral to both questions is that of fishing; Gabon at present is trying to build capacity in with respect to fisheries compliance. Presently the navy patrol vessel stationed at Mayumba has left for Libreville indefinitely. The park therefore has no government based monitoring or at sea fisheries control, and relies solely on the chase boat of WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). This has allowed an increase in fishing effort in Mayumba and particularly in the marine park.
Of particular concern is incidental capture of turtles by illegal gill-netters who come from a Chinese fishing company based in Point Noire, Congo and local inshore trawlers, who continually disrespect the 6nm ‘no trawl zone’ and national park boundries. Vessels arrive in Mayumba National Park at night, as turtles move towards the beach to lay their eggs, and leave by the early hours of the morning. Monofilament gillnets deployed by the Congolese fleets are strategically placed close to shore and/or in close proximity to the oil installations in areas that are particular sensitive not only to leatherbacks but also nesting olive ridley turtles. The most likely hypothesis to explain the majority of turtle deaths observed on Mayumba’s beaches during routine patrols is incidental capture and subsequent mutilation by fishermen (Parnell et al. 2007). Gabon is lacking an on board observer program to accurately determine the numbers of turtles captured in either the pelagic or the coastal trawler fishery. As a precautionary measure, Gabon is currently considering the deployment of turtle excluder devices turtle exclusion devices (TEDS) for its shrimp industry, and it is hoped that reductions in by-catch in this sector will lead to the adoption of TEDS throughout the trawler fleet (Parnell et al. 2007).
The Marine Resource Expedition arrived in Mayumba Gabon on the 1st of November. We joined a scientist Sara Maxwell who was placing satellite tags onto Olive Ridley turtles. The first night we were treated to 10 illegal gillnetting vessels approximately 1km off shore. Two Gabonese inshore trawlers then joined these vessels. The vessels disappeared as day broke, thus hiding their identity. It was hard for me to see the scale of illegal fishing in the park after all the hard work fighting the problem in 2007. Subsequently there were no nesting turtles on the beach, neither leatherback nor olive ridley. After 5 weeks of combing the beaches only 10 out of the 21 tags were deployed in what was described as a late turtle season. What was interesting was that there were only 27 olive ridley turtles observed nesting, of which 90% were observed between the 5th and the 17th of November. In 2007 in excess of 100 olive ridleys were recorded in their supposed peak nesting months of October and November. After 3 days in the turtle camp looking for turtles and not having any luck, the expedition headed the 50 odd kilometers to Mayumba town.
