104 
Fishery Bulletin 110(1) 
May June August 
Figure 4 
Model-adjusted loggerhead sea turtle ( Caretta caretta) catch (mean ±95% confidence 
interval) per trawling event in the Charleston, South Carolina, shipping channel 
by year and month between 1991-92 and 2004-07. 
Size, sex, and genetic distributions 
Eighty-three percent (184 of 220) of loggerheads mea- 
sured <75.0 cm SCLnt (Fig. 5). Size distribution at time 
of initial capture during 2004-07 was not significantly 
different by month (H- 2.53, df=2, P= 0.283) or by year 
(77=2.27, df=3, P=0.518). Loggerhead sea turtles cap- 
tured between May and August in 2004-07 were larger 
(median=67.9 cm SCLnt) and exhibited a narrower size 
range (54.4-101.0 cm SCLnt) than loggerheads captured 
between May and August in 1991-92 (median=61.5 cm 
SCLnt; range = 51. 1-112. 0cm SCLnt); however, size dis- 
tributions were not statistically compared because only 
nine loggerheads were captured during daytime only 
trawling between May and August 1991-92. 
Sex was determined for 176 loggerheads <75.0 cm 
SCLnt at the time of initial capture during 2004-07, 
which occurred with a sex ratio of 3.9 females per male 
and which was significantly different from a 1:1 ra- 
tio ( X 2 =33.6, df=l, PcO.001). Sex ratio for loggerheads 
<75.0 cm SCLnt was not significantly different by month 
(^ 2 = 1.44, clf=2, P=0.486). Annual sex ratios for log- 
gerheads <75.0 cm SCLnt ranged from 2.9 females per 
male in 2004 (98) to 10.7 females per male in 2005 (35); 
however, sex ratios in 2004 were not significantly differ- 
ent from the pooled sex ratios between 2005 and 2007 
(78; j 2 = 3.47, df=2, P=0.062). Twice as many logger- 
heads >85.1 cm SCLnt captured during 2004-07 were 
female (11) than were male (6), but this ratio was not 
statistically different from a 1:1 sex ratio (^ 2 =0.77, df=2, 
P=0.380). Seventy percent (12) of loggerheads >85.1 cm 
SCLnt were captured in May, 23% (4) in June, and only 
one in August, whereas loggerheads >85.1 cm SCLnt 
were captured in all years, except 2007. Sex was not 
able to be determined for eight loggerheads <75.0 cm. 
mtDNA data were available for 213 of 220 logger- 
heads captured from the Charleston shipping channel 
between 2004 and 2007. Haplotypes other than CC-A01 
or CC-A02 were possessed only by loggerheads <75.0 
cm SCLnt (Table 3). The ratios of CC-A01 to CC-A02 
were not statistically different (j 2 =0.654, df=2, P=0.721) 
among three loggerhead size classes (<75.0 cm vs. 75.1 
to 85.0 cm vs. >85.1 cm SCLnt). Eighty-nine percent of 
loggerheads <75.0 cm SCLnt had the CC-A01 (93; 52%) 
or the CC-A02 (65; 37%) haplotype. Eleven percent (20) 
of loggerheads <75.0 cm SCLnt possessed haplotypes 
other than CC-A01 or CC-A02 (Table 3), of which 16 
were observed in 2004 (10 in June 2004) and two apiece 
were observed (in May) during 2005 and 2006. Haplo- 
type CC-A01 was twice as common as CC-A02 among 
19 loggerheads 75.1 to 85.0 cm SCLnt, but occurred 
with similar frequency among 16 loggerheads >85.1 cm 
SCLnt. 
Discussion 
Increased standardized catch rates of loggerheads in the 
Charleston shipping channel concurrent with expanded 
use of TEDs are encouraging for future species recov- 
