Tortuguero National Park; tourists; beach-river development 

 problems — pollution, erosion, poaching, squatters; Dr. Archie 

 Carr's inspiration and legacy — what does the future hold? 



A discussion on the current status of the species and 

 trends, if discernible, of the three major rookeries in the Wider 

 Caribbean area follows. 



Tortucfuero. Costa Rica. Colony 



Approximately 30,000 females have been tagged since the 

 project was started in 1955. About 2,000 tags have been returned 

 by turtle fishermen on foraging grounds throughout the Caribbean. 

 The majority of returns are from Nicaragua and Colombia, where 

 extensive seagrass meadows and important artisnal fisheries co- 

 exist. Over 50% of the tags returned either came from remigrants 

 to the nesting beach and fishermen, or were accountable by tag 

 loss estimates. No females have been reported nesting elsewhere. 

 Data from the study area, miles 0-5, is more precise for making 

 population estimates and providing trend information than are 

 data from the entire 22 mile long nesting beach. The estimated 

 number of nesting females recorded in the study area since WATS I 

 are as follows (K. Bjorndal, pers. comm.): 



Year Number of females/season on miles 0-5 



These results are typical for previous years in that the 

 Tortuguero population continues to fluctuate widely between 

 seasons, or periods of about three years. No statistically 

 significant trends in size have been described for this colony 

 from existing data thus far. The nesting population does not 

 appear to be decreasing or increasing over the last seventeen 

 years. The long-term effects of the earlier intensive 

 exploitation at the nesting beach and on the foraging grounds in 

 Nicaragua remain to be seen, as well as the continuing legal take 

 of breeding adults offshore of the nesting beach. Costa Rica has 

 no choice in selecting maximum size limits — it is either eggs or 

 adults. Placed in the situation of allowing local fishermen some 

 level of take of this seemingly abundant turtle, a seasonal quota 

 of 1,800 turtles has been allowed since 1983. Enforcement has 

 been difficult as it is everywhere, and quotas were exceeded in 

 early years (Chaves, WATS II National Report) . Therefore, 

 population assessments may be difficult to determine because of 

 the yearly fluctuations in the size of the nesting assemblage; it 

 continues to be an enigma. Carr et al. (1982) stated in regard 

 to this problem, that a clearer understanding of large magnitude 



90 



