1977 5,565 



1978 2,160 



1979 3,900 



No Statistical test is needed to confirm this upward trend; 

 but it seems probable that a large part of the increase derived 

 from a shift of animals from the very large rookeries immediately 

 to the east, in French Guiana, rather than from an absolute 

 increase. Nevertheless, a real increase appears in some other 

 areas. For example, in Trinidad, the leatherback is nesting in 

 far greater numbers in the 1980s than it did in the 1960s (N. 

 Gyan, pers. comm. , and pers. obs.), field patrols now often 

 encounter twenty or more nesting females per night on beaches 

 where only 3-4 may have nested per night in the 1960s. Moreover, 

 the reportedly very small size of many of the turtles today 

 suggests a wave of new nesters resulting from an episode of 

 enhanced recruitment. 



Much the same phenomenon is occurring in Guyana. The 

 leatherback was a rare species there in the 1960s,' according to 

 personal observations and the reports of the older turtle 

 hunters. Today it is possibly the commonest of the four nesting 

 species in the country, despite heavy persecution on the nesting 

 beach, and 3-4 individuals nesting on Almond Beach, near Waini 

 Point, in a single night is not unusual. 



The numbers of strandings of weakened or dead turtles in 

 areas outside the nesting range may also constitute an index to 

 the status of the overall population, although the sum total of 

 factors that control the numbers of stranded animals are 

 undoubtedly complex and variable. Prescott (1988) recorded the 

 following numbers of leatherback strandings around Cape Cod, 

 Massachusetts, USA, for the years in question: 



Year Number of strandings 



1976 



1977 1 



1978 1 



1979 1 



1980 2 



1981 5 



1982 



1983 6 



1984 10 



1985 6 



1986 10 



1987 14 



Again, the upward trend needs no statistical verification. 



Nevertheless, there may well have been declines in nesting 

 populations in some of the areas that are now considered minor 



150 



