World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

REUNION AND ILBS EPARSBSNesting season Vergonzanne (1974, unpublished) recorded maximuin nestingin May-July. Frazier (1975) suggests that nesting activity is likely to beat a peak in June-July, corresponding with the peak on nearby Aldabra(Seychelles)Migration Frazier (1975) commonly saw groups of turtles offshore andsuggests that the island is a transit point in migrations between feedingand breeding areas.POPULATION : Eretmochelys imbricataFrazier (1975) records finding three E. imbricata nests, presumably fresh,and 23 nest pits, during his month's visit in January-February 1972. Heestimates the annual nesting total at around 50. The main island has a verylarge reef area which would be likely to provide suitable foraging grounds.Bonnet (1986) notes that no nesting by this species was observed byVergonzanne during a prolonged stay on the island in 1973-1974.THREATSFrazier (1975) believes that the large population of ghost crabs Ocypodespp. , which burrow into nests and consume hatchlings, is responsible for thevery low level of turtle nesting activity, despite apparently suitableconditions. Frazier (1975) noted that his informants in the Seychellesspoke of large numbers of C. mydas having been taken in the lies Glorieusessome years ago; no details of the intensity of past exploitation areavailable, and the extent to which it may have posed a threat is not clear.JUAN DE NOVA,BASSAS DE INDIAAccording to Bonnet (1986), C. mydas nests on Juan de Nova but probably notat Sassas de India; both islands are located in the Mozambique Channel.Bonnet (1984) noted that scarcely any turtles had nested on Juan de Novaover the last decade or so, and attributed this to the long-term presence ofhuman colonists (for exploitation of guano and palms). Recent information(Anon., 1987a) suggests that nesting numbers may have begun to recover.Populations do appear to have been greater in the past; Petit (1930) notedthat Malgache fishermen formerly (i.e. before 1930) visited Juan de Nova totake marine turtles, and that the shoreline at that time was a veritablegraveyard of turtle bones.446