this work to the experts and focus within the Caribbean more on 

 research needed for developing short-term management options and 

 recovery of sea turtles. 



Home Range and the Movement of Turtles 



We must know where turtles go, where they spend their time. 

 We need to know the areal requirements of foraging territory for 

 a species, a population, an individual. We need to know the 

 routes taken by individuals between foraging and nesting/mating 

 habitat. The classic work with tagged Chelonia mydas by Dr. Carr 

 over the last three decades has shown us what can be done and how 

 useful for management are the results. We still have much to 

 learn along these lines (for all the sea turtle species) by 

 tagging juveniles and non-nesting adults in the water and by 

 tagging nesting females on large, remote beaches. However, 

 please remember my word of caution about driving local groups of 

 nesting turtles from safe beaches into adjacent areas where the 

 turtle and their eggs will be taken. 



What about alternative tagging methods? The PIT tag 

 mentioned earlier may have a more immediate application for the 

 larger turtles. The coded chip, inserted into the leading edge 

 of the carapace, could permit the shell of a butchered turtle to 

 be traced to its origin. 



There is a wide variety of remote sensing devices, most of 

 them costly and very difficult to follow at sea. The documented 

 wandering of a few turtles does not tell us much about the 

 population, so be prepared to tag and follow a lot of turtles. 

 Perhaps the international travels of a single turtle might prove 

 useful for stimulating cooperative efforts among nations. 

 Whatever your choice of research might be, please remember this: 

 tags of any kind and remote sensing devices, in particular, are 

 tools for answering questions. The act of tagging a sea turtle 

 must not become an end in and of itself. If we do not have a 

 specific, well-considered question in mind which requires tags 

 for an answer, then perhaps the tagging project is not in the 

 best interest of the endangered turtle species or the individual 

 animal that was persuaded to carry the device. 



Biochemical Identification of Stocks 



If I am not mistaken, we promised among ouselves at the 

 termination of WATS I to work toward defining sea turtle 

 populations. I don't think we have achieved much on this task. 

 Should we consider Montserrat and Guadeloupe juvenile hawksbills 

 to be from the same population? Are U. S. Virgin Islands (USVI) 

 and Trinidad leatherbacks from the same population? If the Aves 

 Island green turtles are lost, does it really matter for the 

 Wider Caribbean, so long as the green turtles at Tortuguero, 

 Costa Rica, continue to nest in good numbers? If we have 28,000 



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