World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

HONDURASHONDURAS: ISLAS DEL CISNB (SWAN ISLANDS)POPULATION: Chelonia mydas and Eretmochelys imbricataThe Islas del Cisne (Swan Islands) lie ISO km north-east of Honduras andcomprise Isla Grande (3.2 by 0.8 km), Isla Pequena (2.4 by under 0.8 km) andBooby Cay, a small limestone islet. Little is known of turtle populationshere, although in the 1950s C. mydas and E. imbricata were both said to becommon and to nest on the islands. The current status of the populations isunknown although it appears from Wells (1987) that there is little suitablenesting habitat as the islands are raised reefs with limestone cliffscomprising most of the shoreline. There is a manned US weather station onIsla Grande; Isla Pequena and Booby Cay are uninhabited (Wells, 1988a).HONDURAS:PACIFICPOPULATION: Chelonia mydas and Eretmochelys imbricataThere is virtually no information on the status of either Chelonia mydas orEretmochelys imbricata . Although most of the 65-km mainland coast (withinthe Gulf of Fonseca) is apparently unsuitable for nesting, turtles are knownto nest on several of the nearshore and generally uninhabited islands in thegulf. The Olive Ridley is apparently the principal species nesting; thereis no recent information on the status of other species, although theHawksbill definitely used to nest (Cornelius, 1981) and Carr (1948, cited inCornelius, 1981) reported Green Turtles, Hawksbills and Olive Ridleys forsale in the market places of Tegucigalpa.THREATSThere is reportedly no developed shrimp fishery on the Pacific coast ofHonduras, although the subsistence cast net and set net fishery for finfishprobably takes turtles occasionally (Cornelius, 1981).EXPLOITATIONAccording to Cornelius (1981) there is no exploitation of turtles for oil,meat or leather. Eggs are, however, heavily exploited - Cornelius (1981)reported an estimate that c. 90% of all eggs were taken for commercialtrade, most from Olive Ridley nests. In the 1940s such collection wasapparently mainly carried out by Salvadoreans, the eggs being taken to LaUnion, El Salvador for sale (Carr, 1948); Cornelius (1981) implies that morerecently most or all eggs were consumed within the country.For details of international trade see HONDURAS: CARIBBEAN above.LEGISLATIONThe General Fishing Law. 29 May 1959.Requires a permit for the export of all live specimens of aquatic fauna.227