place in shallow water offshore of the laying 

 beach. Occasionally males will crawl up the beach 

 in an attempt to mate with nesting females (Le- 

 Buff 1976). Photographs of courtship and mating 

 are in Bustard (1973). 



MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION 



The Malayan Nature Society transplanted eggs 

 into enclosures to increase numbers of hatchlings. 

 This project is now under the control of Malayan 

 Fisheries Department (lUCN 1968). 



Marquez M. (1976) recommended formation 

 of seven natural reserves for the coast of Mexico. 

 These are the major Mexican sea turtle nesting 

 sites and include Playa de la Escolbilla, Oaxaca 

 State, a leatherback nesting beach. 



Other protective measures should include ef- 

 forts to curtail the loss of leatherbacks in fishing 

 or shrimping trawls, protection of nesting beaches 

 from turtles, and a limitation of development on 

 nesting beaches (Pritchard 1971). 



Legal protection to varying degrees exists in 

 Mexico, Costa Rica, Surinam, French Guiana, 

 Ascension Island, Trust Territory of the Pacific, 

 Tahiti, Fiji Islands, Kingdom of Tonga, Australia, 

 Sarawak, British Indian Ocean, Seychelle's Islands, 

 South Africa and the United States (Pritchard 

 1969b; U.S. Department of Commerce 1976). 



The leatherback is listed in Appendix 1 of 

 1976 Convention on Internation Trade in Endan- 

 gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Commer- 

 cial trade in this species is subject to strict regula- 

 tion, and both an export and import permit are 

 necessary for trade by participating countries. 



Critical Habitat has been determined to in- 

 clude a major nesting area on Sandy Point Beach 

 at the western edge of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Is- 

 lands (43 FR 43688-43689; 26 September 1978), 

 as well as adjacent waters (44 FR 17710-17712; 

 23 March 1979). 



AUTHORITIES 



Archie Carr 



Department of Zoology 

 University of Florida 

 Gainesville, FL 32611 



George Hughes 



Oceanographic Research Institute 



P.O. Box 736 



Durban, Natal 



South Africa 



Frank Lund 



P.O. Box 541 



Jupiter Island, FL 33458 



Nicholas Mrosovsky 

 Department of Zoology 

 University of Toronto 

 Ontario , Canada M5 3 1 A 1 



Peter Pritchard 

 Florida Audubon Society 

 P.O. Drawar 7 

 Maitland,FL 32751 



J. P. Schults 

 Surinam Forest Service 

 P.O. Box 436 

 Paramaribo, Surinam 



PREPARER'S COMMENTS 



Nesting records for the United States are not 

 complete because the entire coast has not been 

 surveyed. 



LITERATURE CITED/SELECTED 

 REFERENCES 



Brongersma, L. D. 1970. Miscellaneous notes on 

 turtles. 111. Koninkl. Nederl. Akademic Weten- 

 schappen-Amoterdam. Proc. Serv. C. 73(4): 

 323-335. 



Bustard, R. 1973. Sea turtles, natural history, and 

 conservation. Taplinger Publ.,New York. 220 

 pp. 



Caldwell, D. K. 1959. On the status of the Atlan- 

 tic leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea 

 coriacea, as a visitant to Florida nesting 

 beaches, with natural history notes. Quart. J. 

 Florida Acad. Sci. 21(3):285-291. 



Caldwell, D. K., and M. C. Caldwell. 1969. Addi- 

 tion of the leatherback sea turtle to the 

 known prey of the killer whale, Orcinus orca.. 

 J. Mammal. 50(3):636. 



Caldwell, D. K., and W. F. Rathjen. 1969. Unre- 

 corded West Indian nesting sites for the leath- 

 erback and hawksbill sea turtles, Dermochelys 

 coricaea and Ertmochelys i. imbricata. Copeia 

 1969(3):622-623. 



Carr, A. F. 1952. Handbook of turtles. Turtles of 

 the United States, Canada, and Baja Califor- 

 nia. Comstock Publ. Assoc, Cornell Univ. 

 Press, Ithaca, N.Y. 542 pp. 



. 1967. So excellent a fishe. The Natural 



