Management Research Needs 



Research Needs for Population BjoIocty (James I. 

 Richardson) 



My comments today will focus quite narrowly on my assigned 

 topic: Research needs to understand better the population 

 biology of sea turtles and, in so doing, to enhance our ability 

 to recover and manage sea turtle stocks in the Wider Caribbean . 

 What do we not know about the behavior of these creatures that we 

 absolutely must know to enable the fisheries officers and 

 resource managers of the WATS II region to carry out their 

 responsibilities? When can we begin to know that a management 

 decision is wise? When can we stop guessing? 



Several exciting avenues of research will not be covered in 

 my talk. These research areas are near and dear to some of my 

 colleagues who may become unhappy that I have not drawn attention 

 to their interests. For this I apologize, but I am determined to 

 talk about short term (5 years or less) , inexpensive research 

 needs with maximum value for recovering and managing sea turtle 

 populations in the Caribbean. What can we do now, with limited 

 funds? 



Reproductive Behavior 



How many eggs can one female turtle produce in a single 

 season? The other side of this coin would be . . . how many female 

 turtles produce the number of eggs or nests on the beach? The 

 average number of seasonal nests per turtle continues to climb 

 (greater than four for Caretta, six for Dermochelys , and possibly 

 as many as five for Eretmochelys ) , but we are still guessing. 

 The experts continue to argue. If the average sea turtle proves 

 ultimately to lay five or more clutches of eggs in a nesting 

 season, as I suspect it does, then we have been badly 

 overestimating the number of adult females calculated from nest 

 surveys. Overestimating numbers is not wise when dealing with a 

 dwindling species. 



For how many seasons can a female turtle return to nest 

 during her adult lifetime? Six nesting seasons in twelve years? 

 Eight seasons in 25 years? How many adult female turtles that 

 disappear from the nesting beaches are not dead but, in fact, 

 have just quit nesting, as C. Limpus has discovered for his 

 Australian loggerheads? We simply do not know. Our estimates of 

 survivorship are biased by the attrition of nesting females from 

 incidental and directed take, by the uncertainty with which we 

 locate our female turtles in subsequent seasons, and by tag loss. 



If an adult female can live for many years, as I suspect it 

 can, then our laws that persist in allowing the take of adult 

 females on and off the nesting beach are truly misguided. If, on 



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