LIMPUS ; 



ROSS: 



C. caretta in the southern Pacific was discussed. 

 Nesting is restricted to an approximately 200 mile 

 area along the Great Barrier Reef with an 

 estimated 3,000-3,500 breeding females per year. 

 Long term tagging studies have been conducted on 

 several beaches including Mon Repos and Heron 

 Island. Population models developed for southeast 

 U.S. C. caretta are generally applicable to the 

 Mon Repos population. Studies on foraging grounds 

 have allowed retagging of adults originally tagged 

 on the nesting beach. Contact with adult females 

 that do not go to the foraging grounds is lost. 

 Population models may not take into account tag 

 loss and therefore may overestimate recruitment; 

 this has serious management implications. Data 

 show that adults have high survivorship and slow 

 turnover in the population. A component of this 

 population has very long internesting intervals. 

 These data are known only because adult females 

 are recaptured on the foraging grounds. 



Nesting in Oman in the northern Indian Ocean was 

 discussed. Problems arise in applying 

 characteristics of other species to C. caretta . 

 Population estimates have a high degree of 

 uncertainty. The high degree of variation in 

 nesting levels from year to year was re- 

 emphasized, and concerns about tag loss were 

 expressed. Titanium tags may solve some tag loss 

 problems. Comments were made on the 

 representation of nesting areas on Ehrhart's 

 distribution map. 



LIMPUS ; 



DODD; 



Tag loss was discussed in relation to the 

 following: in 1978 the rate of returning females 

 was 40%, now, after changing methodologies, 75% of 

 nesters are remigrants and this figure is still 

 increasing. Tag loss results in the 

 underestimation of returning females. Tagging 

 studies established for long term data collection 

 must consider durability of tags. Researchers 

 were urged to use the best possible tags. 



The two most highly significant world populations 

 of C. caretta are in Masirah Island, Oman and in 

 the southeast United States. Secondarily 

 significant nesting areas, including Australia, 

 South Africa, southern Turkey, and Japan, were 

 discussed. 



S. MURPHY! 



Agreement with Dodd was expressed on the 

 significance of the U.S. population. 



141 



