World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

KOREA,REPUBLIC OFPOPULATIONWhile sea turtles may be expected to occur in the waters around Korea, noevidence has been found to confirm this, nor whether any nesting occurs.International trade The Republic of Korea is not a Party to CITES.CITES Annual Reports indicate the import to the USA of a total of eightturtles between 1977 and 1984 from Korea. In 1984, F.R. Germany recorded thecommercial export to Korea of 58 kg of C. mydas meat said to have originatedin Nicaragua.Korean Customs statistics record the import and export of several categoriesof raw and worked tortoiseshell , but the chief trade is the import of workedshell (Table 110) and the export of worked products (Table 111). The chiefsource of raw shell has been Indonesia and the chief destination of theworked shell was Japan. Neither the Indonesian nor the Japanese Customsreports confirm this trade in comparable quantities. This may indicate thatthe shell is not of sea turtles, but it is difficult to see what other"worked tortoiseshell" products could be exported.Table 110. Sources of imports of "Tortoiseshell and plates" 05090501, and"Claws and waste of tortoiseshell" 05090599 reported in the Customsstatistics of the Republic of Korea (kg).1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986_ _Brunei _____Burma 300 - 1100 500 _ _ _China - 600 _ _ _ _ lOOO3500 500 1900Hong Kong 600 - - 500 - - 2255 _ _ _ _India _ _ _ _ 2370 600 - 700 - - -Indonesia 4300 5500 3900 4103 10319 9000 6300 12270 14400 6806 9191 11800____________Japan 5 - - - 500Malaysia 300 -__________- 600 500 _ _ _ loOO 1500Switzerland _ _ _ _ 1330Viet Nam 600Thailand 900 - 1100 520 1500 _ _ _ 1300 - 1150__ _ 130O 3500 5830 8975Others _____Total 7005 6100 6100 7333 18029 9600 10555 12970 21500 12306 16171 22675296