World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

INDONESIAThe harvest of adult E. imbricata for shell production is more difficult toestimate, and is probably best derived from the international trade figures,on the assumption that most of the shell collected is exported and most goesto Japan, with lesser ammounts to Singapore, Korea and othe destinations inSouth East Asia.Historical trends The history of the landings of live turtles at Balihas been documented (Anon., 1984c), and the annual landings since 1969 aregiven in Table 89. It should be noted that these are only large turtles,the smaller ones not being registered. The landings show a more or lesssteady increase to a peak, in 1978, followed by a decline since then. Thispattern was interpreted (Anon., 1984c) as a growing harvest to meet agrowing demand up until 1978, followed by falling harvests caused bydeclining turtle populations. The size of turtles landed has progressivelydecreased, and fishermen reported having to travel further each year tocatch large animals. In 1984, most of the adult turtles came from IrianJaya and eastern Sulawesi (Anon., 1984c).There is less information regarding the trends in harvest of E. imbricata .Uchida (1979) cited several fishermen who complained that Hawksbills werebecoming rare and large animals more difficult to catch. The average sizeof shells landed was said to have decreased markedly around both Bali andUjung Pandang.Table 89. Numbers of live turtles landed at Tanjung Benoa (Bali) from1969 to 1986. Data 1969-1983 from Anon. (1984c), 1984-1986 from Schulz(1987).Year Landing Year Landing1969