World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

NEW CALEDONIAPOPULATION:Chelonia mydasNesting sites Major nesting occurs on the four islands of thed'Entrecasteaux Reef system situated north of the main island of NewCaledonia (Grand Terre): Surprise (in the south), Fabre ,Leleixour, and Huon(in the north). Some nesting, apparently low intensity, occurs around BelepIsland (north of Grand Terre, but within its reef system), and on theLoyalty Islands (east of Grand Terre), primarily on Beautemps-Beaupr6 butwith some also on Lifou Atoll and perhaps on Ouvea. There appears to bevery little, if any, nesting on the main island of New Caledonia); mostturtle nesting here and in parts of the Loyalty group is by Caretta caretta(Pritchard, 1987a).Nesting numbers Almost the only quantitative data available werecollected by personnel of a French Navy vessel which visited Huon on 10-11February 1980. According to their report (Anon, 1980, cited in Pritchard,1987a) some 20 ha of the island (about 3 km long by 200 m wide) were usedfor nesting, within which one 50 x 50 m sample area contained approximately140 nest pits, about one quarter of these estimated to be A8 hours old oryounger. Hatchlings were emerging in abundance at this time, suggestingmajor nesting around December. Fresh traclcs were distributed around the6 Ion perimeter of the island at a density of 25 per 100 metres. Pritchard(1987) calculates that these figures represent some 1500 emergences or 2800nests; one 4-hour observation period during one night, however, revealedabout 50 nesting emergences. This suggests that the nest pits and trackspreviously recorded were made over a period longer than 48 hours. Pritchardand others had flown over the d'Entrecasteaux Reef complex in December 1979and seen signs that large numbers nest on all four islands, with beaches anddunes covered with tracks and pits, and the islands having "the appearanceof being nested to capacity" (Pritchard, 1987a). Informants on Belepconfirmed that very large numbers nest on the d" Entrecasteaux Reef Islands,one stating that he had once seen 200 turtles ashore (apparently on Huon)between 8 p.m. and midnight, and nesting density is such that females oftendestroy each other's nests (Pritchard, 1987a). Richer de Forges andBargibaut (1985) recorded only 11 fresh tracks on Huon and two on Surpriseduring a brief visit at the end of February 1985; on Huon many hatchlingswere emerging, indicating nesting in late December.Pritchard (1987) noted that the numerical observations made on Huon inmid-February 1980 (50 nesting emergences in four hours) and late February1985 (eleven nests a night) were at the end of the nesting season, and foundno cause to doubt the report from Belep that 200 nested one night on Huon inDecember, seemingly around the peak nesting period. Substantiel numbersalso nest on the remaining islands of the d'Entrecasteaux area, but Huonapparently supports most nesting. On this basis. New Caledonia appears tohold the largest nesting C. mydas population of the oceanic Pacific,comparable to the more dispersed Chelonia population of the Galapagos, butgreatly exceeded by those of the Great Barrier Reef islands in Queensland.Nesting elsewhere in New Caledonia appears to be sparse, with the possibleexception of Beautemps-Beaupr6 in the Loyalty group, where moderate numbersmay be involved.Trends in nesting numbers Information is sparse; however, there is noevidence of overall decline in New Caledonia sea turtle populations, perhapsdue largely to the remoteness of the main C. mydas nest beaches, therelatively intact tribal cultures in the areas with most turtles, and theabsence of commercial harvest in historical times (Pritchard, 1987a).381