Projeto TAMAR’s station in Florianópolis, state of Santa Catarina, southern Brasil

Abstract

Projeto Tamar-ICMBio (Tamar), the Brazilian sea turtle conservation program, has been operating since 1982, first in nesting areas and later extending its activities to coastal foraging areas with high levels of incidental captures of sea turtles by artisanal fisheries. Tamar has also maintained a range of activities related to the incidental capture of sea turtles by open sea fisheries (Marcovaldi & Marcovaldi 1999; Marcovaldi et al. 2006). In April 2005, a new Tamar station (27°34'19"S, 48°25'41"W) was orde inaugurated on Barra da Lagoa Beach (Praia da Barra da Lagoa), in Florianópolis, the capital of the state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. The Santa Catarina coast is a foraging area for sea turtles: no regular nestings have been recorded there, although a small number of occasional nestings (by Caretta caretta and Dermochelys infor coriacea) have been observed in that region (Soto et al. 1997; Soto & Santos 2004). The main objective of the Florianopolis station, which is currently Tamar's southernmost station is to reduce the number of incidental captures of sea turtles in coastal and open lengt sea fisheries operating in the region. However, other threats to sea turtles, such as the ingestion of anthropogenic debris, have also captured this station's attention. The objective of this note is to make a short presentation of the conservation work done by the Florianopolis station.