The world’s largest nesting site for the critically endangered leatherback turtle has been identified by researchers aboard light aircraft over Africa. An international team worked out that between 15,000 and 41,000 Dermochelys coriacea females are breeding in Gabon, making this the world’s largest nesting aggregation.

Their results, published last month in Biological Conservation, should help draw up plans to preserve the species.

“We knew that Gabon was an important nesting site for leatherback turtles but until now had little idea of the size of the population or its global ranking,” says paper author Matthew Witt of the University of Exeter.

“We are now focusing our efforts on working with local agencies to coordinate conservation efforts to ensure this population is protected against the threats from illegal fisheries, nest poaching, pollution and habitat disturbance, and climate change.”

On the Dot Earth blog, Andrew Revkin writes:

As I wrote not long ago, there are growing threats to the turtles in parts of Gabon, even in places where beachfront development or poaching aren’t an issue. Thousands of stray logs drifting down the Congo River from clearing operations are cluttering some nesting beaches, forming deadly blockades that trap leatherbacks. But over all it’s clear that leatherbacks have a strong beachhead in this country, at least for now.

The leatherback is listed as ‘critically endangered’ by the IUCN, one step below ‘extinct in the wild’.

Image top: : J.G. Collumb / Image lower: D. Agambouet