Research needs on behalf of the hawksbill are many and 

 costly. Further reconnaissance of nesting and foraging habitats 

 is critical. An analysis of WATS II data should help direct 

 these efforts. At the time of writing of this paper, key areas 

 for exploration within the Caribbean appear to be Jamaica's 

 offshore islands, Mexico's offshore islands in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Haiti, Brazil, 

 the southern coast of Nicaragua, and the Grenadines of St. 

 Vincent and Grenada. 



Also needed is an intensive study of the reproductive 

 biology of the hawksbill at the few beaches where nesting 

 concentrations occur. These projects will admittedly have 

 smaller yields than those on major nesting beaches of other 

 species, but they are essential to management efforts. 



As with all of the other marine turtle species, the life 

 history of the hawksbill remains poorly known. Studies on the 

 foraging grounds are needed to determine growth rates, dispersal 

 patterns, habitat preferences and population structure. 



The survival situation of the hawksbill turtle has probably 

 not changed significantly since 1983, although our knowledge of 

 it has certainly increased. I find the new data reviewed for 

 this report very discouraging, and I suspect now that the 

 hawksbill 's status in the Caribbean is far worse than we may have 

 realized in 1983. Heightened interest in marine turtles in the 

 Caribbean since the WATS I meeting and extensive surveys to find 

 new beaches have yielded relatively few rewards. The largest 

 known nesting aggregation consists of, at most, only a few 

 hundred females. Trade in tortoiseshell continues to threaten 

 populations throughout the region, and is even increasing in some 

 countries, abetted by new fishing techniques and markets. It 

 would seem that only a concerted effort at both the national and 

 international level could change the prospects for the 

 hawksb i 1 1 ' s future . 



I would like to thank Karen Bjorndal, Patricia Castaneda, 

 Lynn Corliss, Anastasia Kontos, James Richardson, Anton Tucker 

 and Jack Woody for contributing information for this report. 

 Pedro Gonzales, of the WATS team, kindly supplied numerous 

 documents . 



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