(RoSTI) ANNUAL REPORT 2003 - WIDECAST

RoSTI Annual Report 2003
Franklin, Byrne and Eckert (2004)
Of the 34 Hawksbill cases, 62% occurred at La Plaine and 38% at Rosalie. Approximately 17% of these
cases were identified by direct observation, and the balance identified from beach crawls. The percentage
of false crawls was 67.6%. There were 2 (5.9%) confirmed nests and 9 (26.5%) “suspected nests” (see
Table 6b), together representing only 32.4% of all activity recorded for this species.
Table 6b. 2003 Results by Species: Hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, at Rosalie Bay, Dominica.
Hawksbill Turtles
Results Numbers of Cases Percentage
Confirmed Nests 02 05.9
Suspected nests 09 26.5
False Crawls 23 67.6
Total 34 100.00
More Green turtles were documented at Rosalie Beach (80%) than were documented at La Plaine Beach
(20%). In the case of Green turtles, a roughly equal number of sightings resulted from encounters with a
nesting female and observations of nesting tracks in the sand. There was each a single case of a
confirmed nest, a single case of an aborted nest, and a single juvenile tagged and released. False crawls
were the most frequent occurrences, followed by “confirmed” and “suspected” nests (see Table 6c).
Table 6c. 2003 Results by Species: Green turtles, Chelonia mydas, at Rosalie Bay, Dominica.
Green Turtles
Results Numbers of Cases Percentage
Confirmed Nests 01 10.0
Suspected nests 02 20.0
False Crawls 07 70.0
Total 10 100.0
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