individuals. On the other hand, one can consider that before 

 1966, recruitment was near zero as a result of commercial catch, 

 predation and contraband, these being the main causes for the 

 aging of the population and consequently the tendency to produce 

 more eggs per individual. Between 1975 and 1978, a fall in the 

 nximber of eggs per nest has been observed, even though not very 

 clearly. This could be indicative of recruitment to the 

 population of neophytes, between 10 and 12 years of age, coming 

 from the first years of the program (1966-1968) . This situation 

 is more obvious if we use the averages between 1966 to 1977 and 

 from 1977 to 1986: the average was high at 108.3 eggs per nest 

 for the first period versus 102.8 for the second period. Another 

 observation that may be related with the lower fecundity of 

 neophytes can be drawn from the results of individuals tagged in 

 previous years: those without tags would probably be new 

 turtles, since the older ones in 1986 nested 9 to 11.4% more 

 times than those considered as new. This information is being 

 presently analyzed, and these considerations should be taken as 

 preliminary. 



Fisheries and Regulations 



The commercial exploitation of the species stopped in the 

 first half of the 1960s and the taking of eggs was stopped by 

 establishing the first camp in 1966. A series of laws and 

 regulations has been in effect since 1922 (Marquez, WATS II 

 National Report; Marquez, in prep) that prohibited the taking of 

 eggs. However, the capture of Kemp's ridley was not prohibited 

 until 1971. At that time a regulation was passed that stopped 

 all fishing during 1972. This regulation included all sea turtle 

 species. In July 13, 1973, a complete ban was declared for the 

 Kemp's ridley, the hawksbill and the leatherback (Marquez et al. 

 1985a) inside Mexican territorial waters. Presently, the 

 capture of the Kemp's ridley throughout its geographic 

 distribution is prohibited. However, Mexican incidental catch of 

 tagged turtles does occur and has been reported, providing 

 information of the capture techniques and the localities within 

 the Gulf of Mexico (Marquez and Fritts 1987) . With respect to 

 tagging, the results have provided interesting information as to 

 the behavior of the turtles during nesting and their distribution 

 after the nesting season. This has been deduced from results of 

 22 years of tagging and recapture. Up to 1986, 3,629 adult 

 female turtles have been tagged at the beaches in Rancho Nuevo 

 and in to that period 142 tagged turtles had been recaptured away 

 from their nesting beaches (Marquez and Fritts 1987) . 



The preliminary results of the number of tag returns in 

 relation to method of capture shows that the greatest proportion 

 is represented by shrimp trawling (AC in Figure 2) . It must be 

 clarified that with the exception, perhaps, of sport fishing (PD) 

 2.11%, and turning the turtle over on the beach while nesting 



163 



