An interesting question here is why there are so many turtles in this 

 area at these late dates. Could they be entangled in gill nets while 

 leaving the sounds through Oregon Inlet as the shallower waters cool off? 

 Or are the bottom trawls dragging them from hibernation in soft mud bottoms 

 just offshore? Unconfirmed reports of turtles hibernating in the Cape 

 Lookout Bight have been around for years (Richardson, pers. comm.). 

 Discussion with two geologists indicate the bottom in this area has not 

 been mapped yet. 



Lines — A relatively new Japanese longline fishery, set for tuna and 

 swordf ish, was mentioned by a number of researchers throughout the 

 southeastern states. Roithmayr (1981) states that NMFS observers estimated 

 96 turtles were caught by 24 vessels during a three month period (February, 

 March, April) in 1979. Barbara Anderson, of the South Atlantic Fisheries 

 Management Council, indicated to Bricklemyer (pers. comm.) that they are 

 completing a biological assessment on this situation for the swordfish 

 fishery and will soon initiate formal consultation under Section 7 of the 

 Endangered Species Act. 



Shoop noted (pers. comm.) hearsay reports of turtles caught by 

 longlines set for sharks. And George Balazs has recently finished an 

 annotated bibliography of longline/sea turtle interactions. 



Hildebrand (1980) reports that green turtles were frequently "caught" 

 (usually foul hooked in the flipper) on trotlines set in eel grass flats in 

 the Laguna Madre, Texas. Reports decreased after 1976, correlating to a 

 drop in the number of trotlines and a change in the area fished. 



Bricklemyer (pers. comm.) reported that Barbara Anderson has also 

 received hearsay reports of turtles taken in the hook-and-line fishery for 

 snapper and grouper. 



Seines — Schwartz (pers. comm.) states turtles are often caught in 

 menhaden purse seines, as did Carr (pers. comm.) and Shoop (pers. comm.). 

 Schwartz likewise mentioned tuna purse seines. Documentation is not 

 available for these reports. Shoop also received a report of a leatherback 

 caught twice in the same day in salmon purse seines off the west coast of 

 Canada, August, 1981. There was a large concentration of jellyfish in the 

 area. The turtle was tagged and released unharmed. 



A single loggerhead and two diamondback terrapins were reported form 

 61 longhaul seine catches in the sounds and estuaries in North Carolina 

 (DeVries, 1980). But Johnson (pers. comm.) reported "many" caught. He was 

 unsure about mortality. Clearly the situation with seines is muddy. 



Dredges — Even though dredges are used for fishing for scallops, 

 oysters, and clams, the clearly documented conflict with turtles is with 

 channel maintenance dredges in the Port Canaveral Shipping Channel 

 (Pritchard, 1981). This unfortunate situation seems to result from the 



