World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

NICARAGUANesting numbers Hontiel (1984) estimated a population of perhaps 2Snesting females in 1981.Trends in nesting numbers Nietschmann (no date) implies that the specieshas declined although there is a scarcity of numerical data.Foraging areas Nietschmann (no date) notes that the Hawksbill rangesfrom the Miskito Cays area in the north to the waters off San Juan delNorte; although they were found in many of the same feeding grounds (20-30fathoms in depth) and sleeping shoals (3-5 fathoms) used by the GreenTurtles, most were concentrated off the middle and southern coast ofNicaragua. He cited most of the known Hawlcsbill areas as: shoals in theimmediate vicinity of Tyara Cay, 18 lun east of Rio Grande Bar; Tungla Shoal,7 km east-south-east of Tyara Cay; Kamutrabuskan Shoal, 6 kmsouth-south-west of Tyara Cay; Lupia Banks; Ao Dakura (Western Rock), 6 kmsouth-west of Kings Cay; small shoals 4-8 km south of Kings Cay; KalinbilaShoal, 11 km east-north-east of Kalinbila Cay in the Set Net Cays; watersaround several cays off Honesound Bar and south to Monkey Point; GreytownBanks, 15 km east of San Jaun del Norte.Migration Tagging returns suggest that some parts, at least, of theCaribbean Nicaraguan population may make long distance journeys. FourHawksbills tagged at Tortuguero in Costa Rica have been caught in reefforaging areas off the Miskito Cays; one female tagged near Hiskito Cays wasrecovered nesting at the Pedro Cays, Jamaica, some 390 miles (c. 625 km)away and a male also tagged at Miskito Cays was takon off Almitante Bay,Panama, near a nesting beach frequented by Hawksbills (Parsons, 1981).THREATSThe principal threat is undoubtedly exploitation of turtles and their eggsand incidental take, principally by shrimp trawlers. Latest figures (inMontiel, 1984) indicate that incidental take of Chelonia mydas exceedsdeliberate capture in the Caribbean. Cornelius (1981) notes that theincidental capture of turtles in shrimp nets on the Pacific coast isgenerally low, probably because most trawling takes place at depths ofgreater than 20 m, inshore waters being rocky and poorly known; this tendsto reduce contact between trawlers and turtles near nesting beaches.EXPLOITATIONHunting intensity Latest available figures indicate a 1982 take on theCaribbean coast of 720 Chelonia mydas . reportedly used only for subsistenceand local sale (Hontiel, 1984). If this figure is accurate, it representsonly c. 10% of the harvest level of the early 1970s. Incidental take for1982 appears to be only 910 lbs (414 kg), with that for 1981 slightly higher(exact figure illegible); that for 1980, however, is given as 53 144 lbs(24 156 kg) (Montiel, 1984). It is not clear whether these figuresrepresent live weight or yield, and thus the number of turtles involvedcannot be estimated. Although according to Montiel (1984) there is noofficially recorded harvest of Eretmochelys . Carr et al (1982) andNietschmann (1981) indicated intense and sustained harvest levels of bothturtles and eggs and some tortoiseshell is officially reported as havingbeen exported in each of the years 1980-82 (see below). In 1979 one femaleHawksbill was reportedly worth up to $50 or $60 from the sale of its shell,meat, eggs, skin and calipee, this being equivalent to one or two weeks'386