populations of this species, and in assigning each to a size 

 category. They stated that considerable uncertainty was 

 associated with many of the estimates. Table 2 was extracted 

 from Table 150 of the Groombridge/Luxmoore document and shows 

 their placement of all hawksbill nesting populations in the Wider 

 Caribbean. The first category, defined as nesting certain or 

 possible, includes countries that they considered impossible to 

 place in a size category, but in most cases were likely to have 

 low or very low nesting levels. Cuba was apparently placed in 

 this category due to the nearly complete lack of information in 

 the literature about nesting levels in that country. Based on 

 evidence that was available when this paper was written, none has 

 significant hawksbill nesting populations. 



Bermuda is listed by Groombridge and Luxmoore as the one 

 geopolitical unit within the Wider Caribbean where nesting by 

 hawksbills does not occur on any regular basis, if at all. 

 Immature hawksbills do occur in foraging habitats around the 

 island. 



In order to impart greater accuracy to their ranking system, 

 Groombridge and Luxmoore have employed "intermediate" ranks to 

 describe populations that lie between their major groupings. 

 They ranked seven geopolitical units in this first intermediate 

 category. Considerable evidence supported the placement of 

 French Guiana and the United States in this category, and 

 slightly less for Aruba, Barbados, Montserrat and the Windward 

 Netherlands Antilles. New data to be presented at this 

 conference by Venezuela may allow an adjustment of the ranking 

 assigned to the mainland of this country. 



Five countries are ranked as having up to 25 nesting 

 hawksbills per year. The parentheses around countries are those 

 of Groombridge and Luxmoore and imply that the estimates are 

 inferred from few data. Seven countries are ranked intermediate 

 between 1-25 and 25-100 nesting females per year, and five 

 countries with between 25-100 females per year. Colombia's 

 numerous islands off the Central American coast, such as San 

 Andres and Providencia, have not been treated separately, and 

 thus this estimate is inclusive. No countries are considered to 

 fall into the next intermediate category. 



For large population categories, uncertainty associated with 

 the estimates increases, as does the paucity of hard data. There 

 is considerable doubt about population levels of hawksbills in 

 Brazil. In the ad hoc national report presented for Brazil at 

 WATS I, no population estimate was given, but an estimate of more 

 than 800 annually nesting females was published in a summary 

 table of the proceedings authored by Harvey Bullis. Intensive 

 field investigations on the Brazilian coast carried out since 

 1983 by Guy Guagni dei Marcovaldi of the Marine Turtles Project 

 (TAMAR) revealed significant hawksbill nesting in only one state 



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