World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

CYPRUSPOPULATION : Eretmochelys imbrlcataThere are no records of Hawksblll in Cypriot waters.THREATSTourism and agriculture are the main sources of. income on Cyprus, and mostbeaches in the southern part of the island are already adversely affected bytourist development and are now totally unsuitable for turtle nesting(Hadjichristophorou pers. comm. , 2 September 1987); the remaining relativelyundisturbed beaches, all in the Akamas area, are threatened by developmentplans.Beaches in Northern Cyprus are mostly relatively undisturbed at present, andsome, primarily along the Karpas Peninsula, are virtually pristine (apartfrom presence of seaborne debris). Tourist development, however, isspreading westward and eastward from the main centre of Girne (= Kyrenia)midway along the north coast, and several parts of Gazi Magusa {= Famagusta)Bay are used as beach resorts. Plans exist for tourist development at someimportant turtle nesting beaches, and disturbance appears to be increasingin parallel with increasing tourism.Most beaches appear to be affected by pollution, in the form of tar ballsand plastic litter, probably seaborne. Although nesting turtles mustsometimes crawl through accumulations of such debris, the effect on nestingsuccess is unknown (the visual amenity value of such beaches is of coursediminished). Beaches in the Lara area are manually cleaned at intervals,and they tend to remain clear of litter for quite long periods(Demetropoulos ,pers. comm.).A significant number of turtles are caught in Northern Cyprus, apparently byaccident, as a result of fishing activities. Most or all are caught in setnets near to shore, often near nesting beaches, and many are drowned.Estimates of the number so caught in Northern Cyprus range from 10 to 50animals per year; if a high proportion are mature animals, incidental catchwill be having a severe adverse effect on the turtle population, which isnot large. Demetropoulos and Hadjichristophorou (1987), referring tosouthern Cyprus, reported that turtles are occasionally killed on the beachfor their shell, and some turtles are drowned or killed when caught infishermen's nets; although turtle populations have reportedly suffered as aresult, no data are available on the numbers lost.EXPLOITATIONHunting intensity There seems to be very little direct exploitation ofsea turtles in Cyprus. Occasionally turtles are still killed on theirnesting beaches for their shells, and some may be caught in fishermen's nets(Demetropoulos and Hadjichristophorou, 1986). In 1982, a fisherman was fined£30 after being found with the shell of a C. caretta in his boat, and thisis said to have had a noticeable deterrent effect on other fishermen (Anon.,1982)International trade There is no evidence of any international trade inturtles from Cyprus, except for two exports of leather items from Italy in1981, said to have originated in Cyprus. This may have been a typographicalerror in the ISO country code for Cayman Islands.158