FRETEY ; 



G. MARCOVALDI: 



LIMPUS ; 



MORTIMER; 



LIMPUS ; 



facilitation of new recruits in finding the 

 nesting beach. 



Movements of tagged nesting females from French 

 Guiana and Ascension Island to the foraging 

 grounds off Brazil were discussed. Radio tracking 

 would be an interesting method for monitoring 

 these movements. Data on the Amazon region were 

 requested of G. Marcovaldi. 



Efforts have been concentrated on the nesting 

 beaches. They are aware that Brazil is a foraging 

 area, but they are not working intensively on this 

 aspect. No information is available on turtle 

 captures in the Amazon region. 



Many turtles may be concentrated in foraging areas 

 and then move to different nesting beaches. 

 Lengthy movements from foraging areas to nesting 

 beaches (up to 1,500 km), even when a suitable 

 nesting beach is adjacent to a foraging area were 

 noted. Feeding grounds near nesting beaches do 

 not imply that a turtle will nest there. 



Are there exceptions? Do some turtles move from 

 foraging areas to nearby nesting beaches? 



There are a few exceptions. At Heron Island, one 

 individual among 300-400 nested in the same area 

 as its foraging ground. 



The chair opened the discussion to national representatives 

 and other participants at this point. 



HORROCKS ; 



BJORNDAL; 



RUE DA; 



LIMPUS ; 



(National Representative of Barbados) - Are there 

 differences in nest success between high and low 

 density years? 



It varies from beach to beach. Some high density 

 areas may have lower nest success because of nest 

 destruction by other nesting turtles. 



(National Representative of Colombia) - Limpus was 

 asked if reproductive cycles might be related to 

 age? 



The question cannot be answered directly from 

 observations of C. mydas . C. caretta have been 

 followed from subadult to first nesting, and 

 nesting intervals appear to be unrelated to age. 

 The primary influence appears to be environmental 

 changes . 



99 



