the other hand, sea turtles most often nest just one season in a 

 lifetime, as was suggested at WATS I, then we could harvest the 

 adults at the end of the nesting season and not affect our 

 population replacement rate, as was also suggested at WATS I. 

 Such idle speculation is dangerous, for it can become the 

 foundation for counterproductive laws. We are the scientists, 

 but we still do not know how many nesting seasons are contained 

 in the lifetime of an average sea turtle. 



I have been pleased to hear from most of the national 

 representatives at this WATS II gathering a desire for 

 conservative fisheries laws where the adequate supporting data 

 are not yet available. I sense a desire to protect the eggs, to 

 protect the adults, and, if necessary, to harvest a few young 

 animals that appear to offer the shortest replacement time. This 

 is a good conservation management plan to set in place, while the 

 research needs are being met. We must move forward with the 

 research so that a management schedule can be maintained. 



There are other facts associated with nesting behavior about 

 which we have more to learn. How many times on the average must 

 a turtle visit a beach before she nests successfully? Does this 

 average remain constant for a given beach or for a given species? 

 These questions are directly related to stock assessment 

 questions. 



Research needed to perfect stock assessment methodology for 

 sea turtles of all species is always a high priority. 

 Surprisingly, we still have much to learn about the nesting 

 season itself. By this, I do not mean when nesting occurs, for 

 an occasional hawksbill or other species may appear at any time 

 of the year. I mean how much nesting, or what proportion of the 

 season's nesting females are active at a given time. Much is 

 said about turtles shifting their nesting season, but no one has 

 quantified such a shift. Let me give you an example of the value 

 of accurate seasonal nesting data. Antigua and Barbuda fisheries 

 law permits the taking of adult turtles after 30 September. 

 Based on our studies this year, we predict that 75 percent of 

 this season's hawksbills nesting at Pasture Bay, Antigua, will 

 have appeared during the first ten days of October. Virtually 

 all of these animals could be taken legally in front of the 

 nesting beach with tangle nets during this short period of time. 

 Certainly, we must have knowledge of nesting rates and nesting 

 seasons with considerable accuracy to support needed changes in 

 harvest seasons and harvest rate regulations. 



Before I move on, I would like to digress for a moment on 

 the subject of tagging. The research needs that I have been 

 discussing require the tagging of adult females on the nesting 

 beach. Several of us are convinced that aggressive tagging 

 programs can and already have, in some instances, affected the 

 behavior and, hence, our understanding of the population biology 



277 



