FRAZER; 



MARQUE Z : 



RUIZ: 



MARQUE Z I 



of the trucks which carried the contraband eggs, 

 we were led to Punta Maldonado, once an isolated 

 spot near the border of Qaxaca where hundreds of 

 leatherbacks nest. Families walk the beaches, 

 marking the nests and returning to remove the 

 eggs; they respect each other's territory. 

 Commercial traffic in eggs and take of turtles has 

 been banned in Mexico since 1966. We found a 

 nesting beach in Michoacan with hundreds of 

 turtles; later, Pritchard did a reassessment of 

 leatherbacks worldwide. We have no organized 

 fishery, only contraband (illegal) . 



Do you think there are undiscovered leatherback 

 nesting areas? 



Yes, there are. Leaving Acapulco near the airport 

 there is a coastal strip which has turtles. Also 

 at Playa Colorado, and at Bahia Achacagua and 

 farther north, as well as near the Chiapas border. 

 Leatherback turtle nesting in Mexico has not been 

 fully quantified. There should be some more 

 nesting beaches farther south, also. 



We had 3,000 nests in 1982, and in the period from 

 1983-86 this collapsed down to 500/year. Has this 

 type of fluctuation been seen elsewhere? 



Often we blame the El Nino phenomenon when we 

 cannot explain something. This has been seen 

 elsewhere. 



ROSS: 



I'd like to draw your attention to what was said 

 by Frazer. In Oman we are dealing with a 

 situation where we must manage the people 

 associated with sea turtles. Oman is a very small 

 country with a modest income from oil. Sea turtle 

 populations are large and management in Oman is 

 not necessarily applicable to other areas. I have 

 worked in Oman for 10 years. The Oman authorities 

 consider turtles to be a fisheries resource from 

 which there must be an economic return. We have 

 not developed our own population model for their 

 management, but have utilized those of Frazer and 

 Richardson. We have four species f Chelonia my das , 

 Caretta caretta, Eretmochelvs imbricata and 

 Lepidochelvs olivacea) for which we have used a 

 management plan based on protection of all species 

 concentrating on major nesting beaches; we do not 

 regulate the taking of eggs because too small a 

 number are taken. We have tried to protect 

 habitat as well (used example of a large clinic 



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