World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

PHILIPPINESPOPULATION:Chelonia mydaaNesting sites Most sea turtle nesting occurs in the islands andarchipelagos fringing the Sulu Sea; this area also constitutes the mainnon-nesting range of sea turtles in the Philippines (Alcala and White, 1981;White, 1981). The principal nesting site is the Turtle Islands group,shared with Sabah, in the southern Sulu Sea. Turtle Islands in Philippinesterritory are Baguan and Taganak. (these two with most nesting), Langawan,Baklcungan Besar, Lihiman, Boauan and Sibaong (no nesting); the group lieswithin Tawi-Tawi Province. The second most Important C. mydas rookery isreportedly the San Miguel Islands, also in Tawi-Tawi (G.P. Reyes in litt ,23 September 1986). Although information is sparse, some nesting is likelyto occur widely within both the Palawan and Sulu Archipelagos. It is knownto occur on Palawan itself and on certain nearby islands, primarily theQulniluban portion of the Cuyo group in the northern Sulu Sea. Main sitesin the Qulniluban group are Tayay, Pamalikan, Mandit and Halog (althoughthis last is used mostly by E. Imbricata) (Matlllano and Ladra, 1986).Nesting is also reported in southern Negros (Alcala and White, 1981) and mayoccur more widely in the central Visayas.Nesting numbers Virtually the only recent Information availablecomprises egg production figures for the Turtle Islands collected by TaskForce Pawikan (G.P. Reyes in litt. . 23 September 1986). The estimatednumbers of eggs produced on the five main turtle islands are given inTable 158. Limpus (1985) also noted that a small number of eggs,approximately 25 000 a year, are laid on Boan.Few data are available for sites outside the Turtle Islands. Matlllano andLadra (1986) recorded only 6, 7, 4 and 32 nests, respectively, on Mandit,Tayay, Pamalikan and Halog, in the Qulniluban group during surveys betweenHay 1981 and September 1984. Despite the reported relative frequency ofC. mydas in Qulniluban waters, nesting (based on the recorded data) appearsto be of little significance.Table 158. Egg yield on the three most productive Turtle Islands, for thethree months of peak egg production (generally July, August and September),based on 1951 data collected by Domantay (1953:19).Dally eggyieldMonthly egg yieldBaguan 5,333 160,000Taganak 4,000 120,000Langawan 1,500 45,000Trends in nesting numbers Virtually all workers, e.g. Alcala and White(1981), White (1981), de Cells (1982), Fontanilla (1979), Fontanilla and deCells (1978), Limpus (1985), state or imply that sea turtle populations inthe Philippines have greatly declined in recent years and remain insignificant numbers only around the Turtle Islands. These statements appearto be based partly on general impressions of relative abundance and on theincreasing effort necessary to catch turtles. Domantay (1953), whocollected information in the immediate post-war period, reported that eggyields at his time of writing were significantly lower than before World419