HIRTH, KLIKOFF, and HARPER: SEA GRASSES AT KHOR UMAIRA 



adult green turtles have eaten invertebrates 

 (viz. Crustacea, snails, jellyfish, sponges). The 

 importance of these animals to the nutrition of 

 green turtles has yet to be determined. Studies 

 on the effect of different intensities of turtle 

 grazing on the sea grass community are also 

 needed, especially if under high grazing pres- 

 sure the entire plant is pulled up. In regards to 

 the regrow^th of sea grass, Phillips (1960) has 

 demonstrated that T. testudinum off the Florida 

 coast will regrow to normal height in about 3 

 mo after being cut to ground level. Taylor, Salo- 

 man and Prest (1973) have recently shown that 

 T. testudinum suffered no damage when the 

 leaves were harvested twice during a 6 mo grow- 

 ing season in Tampa Bay, Fla., and they postu- 

 lated that in deeper or warmer waters where 

 the growing season is protracted three or more 

 cuttings per year may be possible. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



We gratefully acknowledge the following 

 scientists for aid in identification of plants: 

 John Parham (Agriculture Department, Suva), 

 Maxwell Doty (University of Hawaii) and C. 

 den Hartog (Rijksherbarium, Leiden). Robert 

 Stone and Val Hinds helped Hirth collect plants 

 in the South Pacific and Khazed Hariri provided 

 logistic support in Aden. We are indebted to 

 Stan Hollingworth for analyses of water 

 samples under monsoon conditions at Khor 

 Umaira. We thank Joseph Branham and David 

 Gillespie for their helpful comments during the 

 preparation of this paper. 



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