470 



Fishery Bulletin 100(3) 



of the total measured strandings in any year since 1986 

 (Table 3). The majority of the stranded large (wide) turtles 

 occur in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the southeast U.S. 

 Atlantic regions, areas where significant nesting occurs. 



Body depth Strandings of loggerhead turtles with body 

 depths greater than the currently required minimum 

 heights of TED openings have ranged between 33% and 

 47% of the total stranded turtles measured every year 

 since 1986 (Table 4]). From 1995 to 1997 nearly 1300 

 stranded loggerhead turtles were deeper bodied that the 

 currently required minimum TED height opening. The 

 highec!, proportion of turtles that were too deep bodied to 

 pass through TEDs was found to be in the Gulf of Mexico 

 where TED openings are smaller The greatest numbers of 

 large turtle strandings occurred on nesting beaches of the 

 eastern Gulf of Mexico and the southeast U.S. Atlantic. 



Table 2 



The total number of records, by species, for which the pre- 

 dictive regressions were applied to estimate straight line 

 carapace length or straight line carapace width for logger- 

 head, green, and Kemp's ridley sea turtles. 



Kemp's 

 Missing measurement Loggerhead Green ridley 



Straight line carapace 8340 1034 1209 



length 

 Straight line carapace 8555 1089 1261 



width 



Green sea turtles 



Carapace width Strandings of green turtles with cara- 

 pace widths greater than the currently required minimum 

 width of TED openings have not exceeded two turtles or 

 2%' of the total stranded turtles measured in any year 

 since 1986 (Table 5). 



Body depth Strandings of green turtles with body depths 

 greater than the currently required minimum height of 

 TED openings have ranged between 1% and 7% of the 

 total stranded turtles measured since 1986 (Table 6). The 

 large turtles were found sranded in the eastern Gulf of 

 Mexico and the southeast U.S. Atlantic regions, the latter 

 an area of nesting activity. 



Kemp's ridley sea turtles 



None of the nearly 3000 measured Kemp's ridley turtles 

 that stranded during 1986-97 (total stranded=3476) had 

 carapace widths or body depths greater than the currently 

 required minimum widths and heights of TED openings. 



Discussion 



All ESA-listed species of sea turtles remain below their 

 historic levels of abundance. The status of Kemp's ridley 

 and loggerhead sea turtles was recently evaluated by the 

 NMFS Turtle Expert Working Group ( 1998; 2000). Kemp's 

 ridley turtles constitute a single management unit and the 

 nesting population is increasing. If the population contin- 

 ues to grow exponentially, the recovery goal of downlisting 



