World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

BEtAZILForaging sites Marcovaldi ( in litt. . 20 October 1986) reports thatjuvenile C. mydas are abundant on foraging grounds along the mainland coast;similarly, Reichart (igs-!!) reports that foraging C. mydas occur off allcoastal states from Para south to Bahia, also in the Arquip61ago dosAbrolhos.Migration Brazil provided the classic documented example of an importantfeeding area being shared by two discrete populations that, in this case,migrate to nest in Suriname and on Ascension Island (Carr, 1975).POPULATION: Eretmochelys imbricataNesting sites E. imbricata nests in all mainland states between Para andBahia, with numbers generally greater toward the south (Schulz and Reichart,1980), although this species was said to outnumber C. mydas in Para, in thenorth (Reichart, 198A) . On the other hand, the Projeto TAMAR team onlyfound significant Hawksbill nesting on the Bahia coast, notably at Praia doForte and adjacent beaches, extending to some 60 km in all (Marcovaldi,in litt. . 12 September). In contrast to C. mydas . no nesting is recorded onthe oceanic islands (Marcovaldi in litt. , 20 October 1986).Nesting numbers Around ten females a season nest in the Praia do Forteregion, Bahia (Marcovaldi in litt. . 12 September); this is reportedly themain known nesting site in Brazil, so the total nesting population must bevery small. On available information, the suggested figure of more than 800females in the breeding population (Bullis, 1984) seems likely to be anoverestimate.Nesting season In general, most E. Imbricata nesting in Brazil appearsto occur from December to April (M.A. Marcovaldi in litt. . 10 August 1988).Foraging sites Suitable foraging grounds appear to be widespread offnorth-east Brazil (Reichart, 1984) and juveniles are commonly seen inmainland waters (Marcovaldi in litt. .1986)THREATS Marcovaldi ( in litt. . 1986) notes that both C. mydas andE. Imbricata are heavily exploited along the mainland: the former for meat;the latter for shell. He implies that mainland nesting is very sparse dueto sustained exploitation pressure and, perhaps, disturbance.EXPLOITATIONCommodity C. mydas is exploited for meat, and its carapaces are used forhousehold decoration. E. imbricata is hunted for its shell, which forms thebasis of a small artisan industry. Turtle eggs are also collected on themainland (Marcovaldi in litt. . 12 September 1986).Hunting intensity Schulz and Reichart (1980) inferred from seeing shellson sale that turtle hunting still took place in Alagoas and Bahia. Accordingto figures supplied by the Superintendencia do Desenvolvimento do Nordeste(SUDENE) the main turtle fishing states are Pernambuco, Ceara and Rio Grandedo Norte (see Table 25). In Ceara, he estimated that the catch of C. mydasand E. imbricata was as much as 30 turtles a day at Almofala, and afisherman at Icapui claimed to catch 200 C. mydas a year. The Incidentalcatch of C. mydas in fish weirs may be quite high. The 1000 or so weirs In100