MATOS; 



He observed that here in Puerto Rico, leatherback 

 nesting had occurred at 2 p.m. after a great 

 rainfall. How common is daytime nesting? Do 

 leatherbacks eat other sea turtles? 



PRITCHARDi 



Records of leatherbacks as carnivores of 

 vertebrates are very scarce . But an old record 

 from Mexico listed an olive ridley found in a 

 leatherback stomach. He also stated that daytime 

 nesting is very rare in Puerto Rico, and the 

 situation in Guiana is unusual. Furthermore, rain 

 falling in the nest should be no problem. He 

 conjectured that some turtles may act in the rain 

 as they would at night because of the cooling 

 effect of the rain. 



FRETEY ; 



Daytime nesting in French Guiana is very common 

 and turtles come up on the beach as a function of 

 high tides. Females may go back into the water 

 without laying. If young hatch during the 

 daytime, they die, because their skin cracks, or 

 they are attacked by insects and never make it to 

 the sea. 



PRITCHARD; 



MROVOSKY; 



BUTTON: 



PRITCHARD; 



He worked on the same beach as Fretey years ago 

 and found diurnal nesting very rare. Perhaps 

 there is a regional change in nesting activity. 



Some of the major research projects that need to 

 be done are: systematic study of nesting 

 behavior, more detailed population surveys and 

 estimates, maturation rates, and physiological 

 adaptation studies. 



Leatherbacks are perceived to have a lower 

 hatchling success with greater embryonic 

 mortality. Are eggs of this species different? 



Translocating eggs seems to depress egg fertility. 

 He doesn't believe that an undisturbed nest will 

 have lower hatchling success. 



The chair closed the panel session. 



158 



