feasible for directed fisheries such as those operating on olive 

 ridleys in Mexico and Surinam and green turtles in Costa Rica. 

 Intercept programs wherein port agents interview fishermen at the 

 dock could yield data on sea turtle catch (bycatch) and fishing 

 effort leading to estimates of Fjjj and Fy at less expense than 

 those deploying onboard observers. 



Additional data on fishing mortality among sea turtle stocks 

 at sea can be gained through stranding survey techniques. 

 Systematic beach surveys provide spatial and temporal mortality 

 statistics, permit comparisons between stranding rates and 

 measured fishing pressure, and enable collection of other 

 valuable life history data such as species distribution and size 

 compostion. The National Marine Fisheries Service is currently 

 deploying an extensive stranding survey program to quantify sea 

 turtles mortality along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of 

 the U.S. and to identify probably causes of these deaths (E. 

 Klima, pers. comm.). Similar methodology has been used to 

 investigate the relationship between turtle mortality and fishing 

 along Cumberland Island, Georgia, and to evaluate the impact of 

 these losses on stock dynamics (Ruckdeschel and Zug 1982) . 

 Stranding surveys also quantify incidental fishing mortality 

 through the documentation of turtle carcasses entangled in lost 

 or discarded fishing nets, pot gears and monofilament line. 



Use of stranding data to estimate Fjjt and Fy may create 

 controversy because of the difficulty in distinguishing between 

 fishing and natural mortality. Questions also arise as to the 

 applicability of using stranding surveys in countries where 

 fishermen utilize bycatch, especially sea turtles. Despite these 

 drawbacks, stranding surveys provide the only source of 

 information other than that from incidental catch data on 

 intermediate life history stages and their associated fishing 

 mortality (Fjjj) . At sea observer programs provide excellent 

 research opportunities to test the validity of using stranding 

 data to estimate Fjjj and Fy within incidental sea turtle 

 catches. Tagging and releasing all incidentally caught turtles 

 (both live and dead) would allow the observer to generate data 

 (from stranding surveys) on percentage of live-tagged and dead- 

 tagged turtles which subsequently strand, range of times required 

 for dead-tagged carcasses to reach shore and percent composition 

 of incidentally caught turtles within the stranding population. 

 Size composition data from stranded carcasses could be used to 

 estimate age composition, based on growth curves; thence 

 producing "catch curves" for strandings as a means of estimating 

 total mortality rates (C. Caillouet, pers. comm.). 



Transfer of turtle excluder device technology (i.e., TEDs) 

 to shrimp fisheries inside and outside the U.S. will permit 

 additional research quantifying reductions in incidental fishing 

 mortality rates among sea turtle stocks. Not only should 

 implementation of this technology lessen incidental sea turtle 



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