factor reflective of the normal adult sex ratio, so as to include 

 adult males. However, so little is known about adult sex ratios 

 and about adult males, in general, that it seems more reasonable 

 to focus on estimates of adult female population size and assume 

 that trends seen there are reflective of conditions in the adult 

 population as a whole. 



Population Size and Stability by Region 



Figure 1 attempts to show the foraging and nesting 

 distributions of western Atlantic loggerheads. It includes 

 information from the published WATS I National Reports and verbal 

 presentations at WATS II. A cursory consideration of this map 

 could give one the impression that loggerhead nesting is 

 uniformly distributed through the region, but that is definitely 

 not the case. In the "Summary of Nximerical and Other 

 Quantitative Data Derived from Descriptive Materials in the WATS 

 (1) National Reports for Fisheries, Foraging and Nesting, by 

 Species," compiled by Bullis, only two countries, Brazil and the 

 U.S., are seen to have high or very high levels qf loggerhead 

 nesting activity, 2,000+ and 28,448 nesting females, 

 respectively. Because the U.S. clearly supports a very high 

 level of nesting activity, and because most of the information 

 developed since WATS I is from the U.S., my review deals 

 predominately with the status of Caretta caretta in the U.S. 

 That is not to say, however, that populations associated with 

 nesting beaches elsewhere in the region are not important. 

 Undoubtedly more nesting occurs in some areas than we know about 

 and loggerheads are exploited to some extent in 18 of the 40 

 coiyitries/regions that participated in WATS I. They undoubtedly 

 play important, albeit poorly understood, roles in marine and 

 estuarine ecosystems and contribute to region-wide population 

 stasis on geological/evolutionary time scales. 



Gulf. Qftribbean and South Atlantic Aggregations 



Considering Brazil first (please note that the base map does 

 not extend as far south as Brazil) , one finds that some 

 loggerhead nesting occurs in the states of Rio Grande do Norte 

 and Bahia. Bullis inferred from the Ad Hoc Data Report to WATS I 

 that in excess of 2,000 females are in the nesting aggregation. 

 That was apparently an over-estimate in light of the National 

 Report of Brazil, given at WATS II, which indicates only about 

 200. No data are available upon which a trend in population 

 stability can be based, but significantly, sea turtles have been 

 fully protected by law in Brazil since 1978. 



Table 1 provides a summary of those countries/regions that 

 support low to moderate loggerhead nesting activity. For a 

 number of them, nesting aggregations are so small or information 

 so sketchy that little needs to be said. Several, however, 

 deserve comment. 



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