sexually mature female from a stock's reproductive products 

 should be addressed initially. Estimating Fj may be accomplished 

 by the method outlined earlier (see earlier section on Fishing 

 Mortality Model) as long as appropriate data are available. Most 

 realistic estimates of Fj will be generated at beaches that are 

 well studied or where egg harvest is controlled. For example, 

 Rancho Nuevo is patrolled for the majority of the nesting season 

 and the number of Kemp's ridley eggs produced by the breeding 

 stock is known. Because egg production depends on number and 

 size of nesters, it can be measured or estimated. These data and 

 the relatively controlled conditions under which they are 

 collected are conducive to research determining the role of Fj in 

 stock dynamics as well as providing useful information on nesting 

 frequency, clutch size and natural mortality. 



Fj also can be determined at nesting beaches with or having 

 the potential for, controlled egg harvest. Costa Rica's Ostional 

 beach is a federally protected site of large olive ridley 

 ( Lepidochelys olivacea) arribadas and subsequent egg harvest 

 (Cornelius 1986) . Recent legislation will permit legal 

 exploitation of these eggs under controlled monitoring by Costa 

 Rican federal and university personnel during very early phases 

 of an arribada (S. Cornelius, pers. comm.). Monitoring programs 

 such as this are needed to provide data for Fj estimation and to 

 determine how it affects hatchling production. Subsequent 

 management recommendations can then be guided by these results 

 and, perhaps, applied to other sea turtle stocks as well. This 

 is particularly true for nesting beaches with limited or 

 controlled access, where monitoring stations could be established 

 to quantify egg harvest. 



Hatchincf mortality ; Little attention has been focused on 

 the need to estimate fishing mortality among hatchlings (Fjj) . 

 For the most part, many researchers see little cause for concern 

 about loss of hatchlings to exploitation and would probably agree 

 with setting Fjj4tji=0. This philosophy is often based on the 

 theory that the hatchling 's "lost-year" or years is spent in 

 association with Sarqassum or other flotsam (Carr 1985) where 

 susceptability to harvest by most fishing gears is minimal. In 

 any case, estimates of Fjj at sea would be difficult to obtain 

 unless at sea observer programs were implemented for this 

 purpose. Such programs obviously would receive little priority 

 in view of much more critical research needs for this life 

 history stage such as quantifying at sea mortality among 

 hatchlings due to ingestion of tar, oil clots, paper, plastics 

 and nylon line (Carr 1986a) . 



A recent sea turtle management concern is impact of 

 exploitation of hatchlings by "ranching" operations. Mariculture 

 activities such as those on Reunion Island off Madagascar remove 

 hatchlings from the nesting beach, rear them under conditions 

 promoting accelerated growth and harvest them for commercial 



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