World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

INTRODUCTIONNote^: the "indication of total annual nesting numbers" is no more than anindication; these are order of magnitude approximations from the dataavailable, not rigorously derived counts.Note-': a "major" population here is, for C . mydas , one known or stronglysuspected to have between 1000 and 5000 (or more) females nesting annually,and for E. imbricata , one with 100-500 (or more). Figures in parenthesesinclude borderline populations.Note^: for C. mydas these would include Galapagos, Suriname, Europa,Tromelin, Oman, New Caledonia (d'Entrecasteaux group), Queensland, WesternAustralia. Insufficient information is available for Eretmochelys tosuggest which, if any, populations may fall into this category.Note^: for C. mydas these would include Ascension, Costa Rica (Caribbean),Pakistan, Yemen (P.D.R.Y.). Insufficient information is available forEretmochelys to suggest which, if any, populations may fall into thiscategory.Note^: Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Israel, Mauritius, Rodrigues,Reunion.Table 9. Number of geopolitical units with breeding populations fallinginto each size class, summarised from Table 11. ? = nesting certain orpossible but no further data. For C. mydas , 1 = up to 250 females nestingannually, 2 = 250-1000, 3 = 1000-5000, 4 = 5000-10 000, 5 = more than10 000. Numbers separated by oblique - population intermediate. ForEretmochelys . the numerical limits of classes 1-5 are an order of magnitudelower.Size class 0/1 1 1/2 2 2/3 3 3/4 4 4/5 5C. mydas 55 12 40 12 10 7 7 3 2 2 2E. imbricata 60 10 9 12 9 2 14 4 3 2The conservation status of the Green TurtleReview of all available information, which is admittedly incomplete and ofvariable quality, suggests that on average between 100 000 and 200 000female Green Turtles, possibly more but not fewer, are nesting annually atthe present time. The annual nesting contingent is drawn from a pool ofmature animals that is probably two to three times larger. Assuming anoverall sex ratio at maturity near to equality, there will be a similarnumber of mature males, and the total adult Chelonia mydas population maynumber in the region of 1 000 000 individuals.Around half of the extant nesting populations are either known or suspectedto be depleted or in decline, but decline is well-substantiated in fewerthan half of these. Seven nesting aggregations are known to have beeneffectively extirpated; all but one of these were small-island populationswhich disappeared after human colonisation. In virtually all cases, decline46