World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

1INDONESIAharvests are low in the beginning of the season, but when high, duringMay-August, eggs are exported to Sarawak, through intermediaries in the SouthNatuna Islands or in north-west Kalimantan. Schulz (1987) reported thatvirtually every egg laid was collected, representing about 800 000 eggs ofboth species harvested annually in the archipelago. He estimated that theC. mydas nesting population was about 2000.Berau Turtle IslandsThese comprise a group of several islands off the mouth of the Berau Riverin north-east Kalimantan. Pulau Sangalalci appears to be the foremostC. mydas site in the area, small numbers of E. imbricata also nest in thegroup. Thirty C. mydas nested on each of two nights (28 and 29 September1984) that Schulz spent on Sangalalci. Nesting is said to occur throughoutthe year, with a peak in July/August to October/November. The rights areleased for egg collection on seven islands in the area; the rent forSangalaki is almost twice as much as for any other Island in the group andmay thus be presumed to yield the largest egg harvest. A tender system wasoperated from 1934 until World War II, with collection prohibited in everyalternate year; the tender system was restored in the 1950s but from the waryears to the present no close season has been in force. Schulz (1984)estimated the annual egg yield in the Berau Islands as in the region of2 000 000 eggs; using Schulz' s figures of 120 eggs per clutch and threeclutches per female per year, around 5 500 female C^ mydas may nest annuallyin the group. All Schulz 's informants in the area confirmed that the numberof nests had declined during the last few decades. In 1943, it was notunusual for 200 turtles to nest each night, whereas in the 1980s it wasunusual to see more than 25. The decline is attributed primarily to excessegg harvest, also to dynamite-fishing ever the local reefs practised byoverseas fishermen, decline of seaweed beds in the area (according to thelocals, due to bombing of ships during the last war), and fishing byBalinese turtle boats (Schulz, 1984).AruIslandsCompost (1980) reported that turtles are common in waters around the AruIslands, being frequently found in the sea channels separating the fourlarger islands of the group; large numbers of C. mydas nest, particularly onEnu, Karang and Jeh, with the first two being most important. According toCompost, the Aru group holds the largest C. mydas population in Indonesia.Information collected by Compost on P. Enu is summarised in Table 83. Enu,the most southerly island in the archipelago, is some 6 km by 2 km inextent, surrounded by coral reef, and has fine sand beaches along its west,south and north coasts. These beaches are, respectively, 600 m, 800 m and700-900 m long. Some nesting reportedly occurs all year, but with highestnumbers when the tide is high in the evening. Turtles are harpooned in thearea, and eggs are collected; Compost (1980:22) estimated that only around50% of the nests are taken, due in part to the inaccessibility of thenesting islands at some times of year, and the fact that the search fornests is limited to the vicinity of the boat landing place. No signs ofdecline in numbers of nesting C. mydas was evident to Compost and,accordingly, he considered that harvest of eggs and turtles, at its presentlevel, posed no threat to turtle populations in the area. However, heforecast that increasing populations and industrial development in the Arugroup would be likely to lead to over-exploitation in the future. A mean of50-100 nests nightly would suggest that around 1000 females are likely tonest annually, with the total Aru annual nesting number perhaps in the lowthousands244