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The leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is a highly endangered migratory species, which is born mostly thousands of kilometres from Spanish waters, in nesting areas where great efforts are being made to ensure the increase of its depleted populations. The abundance of individuals that use Spanish Atlantic waters for their food is little known, in a region that has high maritime traffic and intense fishing effort. The lack of information at the ecological level, together with the difficulty of quantifying the pressures of human activities, makes the conservation of this transoceanic species complex to address.

Thus, according to the Chelonia Association, research and methods of obtaining and compiling information and reducing human pressures become fundamental tools to establish strategies to ensure their preservation and better management of marine resources from an ecosystem perspective.

This initiative is complementary to the LIFE INTEMARES project, as it promotes the improvement of knowledge of marine species to improve their management.

The general objective of the project has been to contribute to the improvement of the conservation status and knowledge of the leatherback turtle in the Spanish Atlantic as a contribution to the Spanish Sea Turtle Conservation Strategy .

The specific objectives were as follows:

• Update information on the abundance of leatherback turtles and other species and verify the usefulness of boat censuses.
• Update information on the conservation status of the leatherback turtle based on impact analysis and knowledge of the species by sea users.

• Carrying out leatherback turtle censuses from boats: verification and improvement of census methodologies.
• Analysis of leatherback turtle bycatch and knowledge of the species through surveys of 72 commercial fishermen associated with different fish markets in the provinces of Cádiz and Huelva, as well as different guilds in A Coruña and Pontevedra.
• Analysis of recreational fishing as a possible source of information and potential impact on leatherback turtles.
• Evaluation and updating of anthropic impacts on leatherback turtles in the Spanish Atlantic.
• Dissemination and communication of the project: talks in educational centres, conference, production of informative material, etc.

In general, the actions carried out in this project have served to maintain and meet the proposed objectives, evaluating the feasibility of carrying out leatherback turtle censuses from a boat and updating the existing information on the conservation status of the leatherback turtle based on the impact analysis and knowledge of the species by sea users.

The entity highlights that, within the framework of this project, the fishing sector has been used as an ally to obtain historical information on the interaction of this species with the different fishing gears.