World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

HONG KONGPOPULATIONThe only sea turtle species known to have nested in Hong Kong is C. mydas(Rotner, 1978). Nesting was recorded by Herklots (1931, cited by Romer) on"some of the islands" near Hong Kong in July and August, and three decadeslater, but in the same months, specifically on Lamma Island (1961 newspaperitem, cited by Romer). This last source also reported that turtle eggs wereregarded by local villagers as a rare delicacy, and were sold on Lamma at15-20 cents apiece. No reports have been received of sea turtles nesting InHong Kong during the past decade (M.K. Cheung in litt. . 8 September 1986),although live or dead individuals are occasionally reported in Hong Kongwaters. There appear to be no records of the occurrence of E. imbricata inHong Kong.EXPLOITATIONInternational trade In the past Hong Kong has featured as a majorentrepot for sea turtle shell trade in South East Asia. Its Customsstatistics record the import, export and re-export of "tortoiseshell andwaste" and the figures are given in Tables 75 and 76. Up until 1979, alarge percentage of the shell imported under this Customs category was seaturtle shell (presumably mostly E. imbricata ). but following a clamp-downunder the newly imposed CITES controls, the trade in sea turtle shell slowedconsiderably, and most of the shell traded under this category was offreshwater turtles. The Hong Kong Management Authority has confirmed thatthe controls continue to be exercised and that all of the "tortoiseshell"traded is of freshwater turtles, although the volume of this trade hasincreased considerably (Luxmoore and Canin, 1985). It is notable thatbefore 1979 the suppliers included traditional sources of sea turtle shellsuch as Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, the Philippines and the Seychelles,whereas recently, most of the shell has come from Viet Nam and Thailand,known to be major traders of freshwater turtles. In 1985 the IndonesianManagement Authority reported issuing an export permit for 1000 shells ofE. imbricata to Hong Kong, but it is not known whether this shipment wasever imported to Hong Kong.Hong Kong is covered by the United Kingdom's ratification of CITES. Thereis little evidence in the CITES Annual Reports of a continuing trade in seaturtle shell products other than sporadic seizures of illegal importsreported by Hong Kong or of imports from Hong Kong reported by the USA.However there is evidence of a substantial trade in turtle leather. Italyhas reported exporting a total of 15 257 C. mydas leather items to Hong Kongbetween 1978 and 1984, but Hong Kong has also reported importingconsiderable unprocessed skins from Mexico and Japan, totalling 700 in 1978,3000 in 1979, 2500 in 1981, 2017 in 1982 and 1816 in 1983. From 1980onwards, all of the skins were declared as having originated in CaymanIslands, but in view of the facts that the Cayman Islands have neverreported exporting skins to Mexico, and that Mexico has a large skinindustry based on wild- caught turtles, it seems most likely that the countryof origin was falsely declared in a deliberate attempt to circumvent CITEScontrols229