Impacts of the traditional baited basket fishing trap "gargoor" on green sea turtles Chelonia mydas (Testudines: Cheloniidae) Linnaeus, 1758 from two case reports in the United Arab Emirates.

Abstract The United Arab Emirates fisheries consist of highly diverse fish communities, and the most popular equipment used by fishermen to harvest them is a traditional baited basket fishing trap known locally as "gargoor". Gargoors are dome-shaped traps made from galvanized steel; they have a circular supporting base and a funnel-like entrance. Unintended impacts of gargoors on marine fauna include bycatch of non-target species and, when lost, ghost fishing. However, there is very little information on sea turtle interaction with gargoors. In this paper we present two case reports from the eastern coast of the UAE of green sea turtle strandings associated with gargoor interactions. The first case report describes a turtle that was discovered trapped inside a lost or abandoned gargoor. The second case report describes another turtle that suffered from extensive perforation of the gastrointestinal tract resulting from the ingestion of 32 pieces of rusty gargoor fragments. Highlights • Gargoors are dome-shaped fishing traps that are used throughout the waters of the Arabian Peninsula. • We examined two green sea turtle mortalities in the United Arab Emirates that resulted from gargoor interactions. • One specimen drowned from entrapment inside a gargoor • The other specimen suffered from perforations in the gastrointestinal tract from ingesting rusty gargoor fragments. • Our study present two cases of green sea turtle interactions with a regionally popular fishing equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]