A rebuttal to the claim natural beaches confer fitness benefits to nesting marine turtles

Abstract

Survival rates of early life stages (eggs/hatchlings) in marine turtle populations critically influence adult recruitment rate and thus population persistence (Mazaris et al. 2005, 2006). Therefore, for conservation and management purposes, it is particularly important to understand how marine turtle hatching success (percentage of eggs that produce hatchlings) may be affected by human disturbance. Coastal development at nesting habitats is a key issue. Recently, in Biology Letters, Pike (2008) has drawn attention to a critical issue; he investigated whether coastal development (permanent development, e.g. houses) negatively influences hatchling production, and concluded that hatching success is significantly lower at developed beaches. In this article, we discuss some of the concerns we have with Pike’s study, focusing on misconceptions about factors that underlie hatching success and the dataset used. We also explore whether Pike’s conclusions have the conservation merits claimed.