All the recent news on leatherbacks seems to be good lately for a change. A group of scientists has estimated the Gabon nesting population somewhere between 15, 000 to 41,000 females, a huge number considering the most recent estimate of worldwide females in 2004 was only roughly 35,000 total! That makes this population larger than both the Suriname and Trinidad populations, long considered the world's largest.
This news comes on the heels of a large new leatherback nesting beach in southern Panama, just north of the border with Costa Rica. Ocean Revolution's Tim Dykman recently visited one of these beaches, located in the territory of the Kuna Indigenous community. The Kuna have a long tradition of respect for the leatherback and do not eat their eggs or meat. See photo below.
Add those new studies to evidence that leatherback numbers are increasing dramatically in places like Trinidad and that 2009 is looking like a great year along Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, things are looking bright for this species in the Atlantic. Now we just need some good news for the Pacific leatherbacks...
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