1999 

 NATIONAL OVERVIEW 



There are sufficient long-term population data to assign trends for only 18 stocks 

 (12%), with the remaining stocks undetermined. Where reliable information is available, 3 

 are declining, 6 are stable, and 9 are increasing. Alaska has 13 of 33 stocks that are of 

 known status. The Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico have only 6 stocks of known sta- 

 tus — the harbor, gray, harp, and hooded seals, harbor porpoise, and the western North 

 Atlantic coastal stock of bottlenose dolphin. Upwards of 33 putative stocks of bottlenose 

 dolphins in Gulf of Mexico estuaries, bays, and sounds are of indeterminate status. There 

 are insufficient data to assign an abundance trend to any Pacific Ocean or Hawaiian marine 

 mammal stock. 



Sea Turtles 



Six species of sea turtles regularly spend all or part of their lives off the U.S. Atlantic 

 and Pacific Coasts and in U.S. territorial waters of the C^aribbean Sea and western Pacific 

 Ocean. All sea turtles are listed either as endangered or threatened under the ESA (Table 

 10). The Kemp's ridley, hawksbill, and leatherback are listed as endangered throughout 

 their range. The loggerhead and olive ridley are listed as threatened throughout their U.S. 

 range, as is the green turtle, except the Florida nesting population, which is listed as endan- 

 gered. 



The large Pacific green turtle pt)pulation at French Frigate Shoals in the Hawaiian 

 Islands is thought to be increasing, but there is continuing concern about fibropapilloma, 

 a tumor-associated disease. Leatherbacks are seriously declining on their major nesting 

 beaches throughout the Pacific. The collapse of these nesting populations is due to the 

 incidental mortality from fishing and direct harvest of adults and eggs. 





Loggerhead hatchling. 



Several distinct loggerhead populations have been identified for the Atlantic and Gulf 

 of Mexico. The southern Florida nesting population appears to be increasing; in contrast, 

 the population that nests north of Cape Canaveral through North C]arolina is declining. In 

 the western North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, the Kemp's ridley population appears to be 

 in the earliest stages of recovery. This can be attributed to the full protection of nesting 

 turtles and their nests in Mexico and the requirement to use turtle excluder devices in 

 shrimp trawls. 



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