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Fishery Bulletin 94(2). 1996 



summed over 1986-89 were highest in April and May 

 (Table 9). Monthly strandings summed over 1990- 

 93 were highest in April and July (Table 10). The 

 total number of strandings decreased from 939 in 

 1986-89 to 618 in 1990-93. 



Discussion 



Even though TED regulations were in effect during 

 1990-93, significant statistical associations contin- 

 ued to exist between sea turtle stranding rates and 

 fishing intensities in some offshore depth intervals 

 within to 20 fm. The 1990-93 period differed some- 

 what from the 1986-89 period with regard to which 

 depth intervals had significant positive correlations. 

 In 1986-89, significant positive correlations between 



ln(S + 1) and ln(£ + 1) were detected on the upper 

 coast only for the 0-5, 5-10, and 10-15 fm depth in- 

 tervals. However, in 1990-93 on the upper coast, not 

 only were there significant positive correlations for 

 the 0-5, 5-10, and 10-15 fm depth intervals, but also 

 for the 15-20 fm depth interval. On the lower coast, 

 in 1986-89, significant positive correlations occurred 

 between ln(S + 1 ) and ln(£ + 1 ) for the 5-10 and 10- 

 15 fm depth interval, but in 1990-93 only the 5-10 fm 

 depth interval had a significant positive correlation. 

 In addition, the significant positive correlations we 

 detected for the period 1986—89 were somewhat lower 

 (though not significantly) than the comparable ones 

 detected by Caillouet et al. (1991), no doubt the re- 

 sult of excluding 111 more records from the data set, 

 than they did, before conducting our analyses. 



