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Fishery Bulletin 97(1), 1999 



in the northeast distant (area 7). The overall CPUE 

 for leatherback sea turtles caught by longline ves- 

 sels using chemical light sticks was higher than the 

 CPUE with vessels not using light sticks (Table 3), 

 suggesting that the chemical light sticks might simu- 

 late bioluminescent gelatinous prey and attract 

 leatherback sea turtles to the branchlines. Fortu- 

 nately, these turtles tend to become entangled in the 

 branchlines rather than consume baited hooks. 



Leatherback sea turtles inhabit coastal and off- 

 shore pelagic waters in the North Atlantic Ocean 

 (Pritchard, 1971). Morreale et al. (1994) speculated 

 that they migrated along specific bathymetric con- 

 tours outside the 200-m isobath, and Lutcavage 

 (1996) proposed that they seek high concentrations 

 of gelatinous prey along the oceanic fronts and me- 

 anders of the Gulf Stream. Shoopand Kenney (1992) 

 reported that most were scattered along the conti- 

 nental shelf, except off Rhode Island in 1978, when 

 a number of individuals were observed in associa- 

 tion with a large concentration of Cyanea. Pelagic 

 longline data, however, suggest that large numbers 

 of leatherback sea turtles apparently also inhabit 

 deep waters extending over the edge of the continen- 

 tal shelf outside the 200-m isobath from Cape 

 Hatteras, North Carolina, to Georges Bank and the 

 Grand Banks in the summer and fall months. 



Loggerhead sea turtles 



A total of 1337 loggerhead sea turtle captures were re- 

 corded in NMFS pelagic logbooks, 1992-95 (Table 1). 



Total numbers of individual turtles caught are un- 

 known because observer data indicate that some 

 turtles may have been captured more than once. Year- 

 round loggerhead sea turtle captures averaged 334 

 individuals per year (range: 127-714); June through 

 November was the most productive period with 1174 

 (87.8%) captures. The mid-Atlantic Bight, northeast 

 coast, and northeast distant waters (areas 5-7) were 

 the most productive with a combined total of 1187 

 (88.7%) loggerhead sea turtle captures. Of these, the 

 northeast distant area (7) accounted for 936 (70.0%) 

 of the captures. Like leatherback sea turtles, logger- 



