World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

TURKEYMigration In the absence of tag return data, no specific information isavailable. Sella (1982) reported evidence from fishermen who operated inthe eastern Mediterranean between World War I and II, suggesting a northwardmigration along the Levant, possibly toward nest sites in Turkey If thiswas the case, then Turkish waters may have held a resident and a migratorypopulation of Green Turtles.POPULATION: Kretmochelys imbricataNo Hawksbill nesting has been recorded on Turkish territory. There appearto be no specific records of the species occurring in Turkish waters, andrecords for the Mediterranean as a whole arc very sparse (there are nonesting records )EXPLOITATIONComnodity In the past there has been an extensive fishery for turtlesfor the export of meat (see below), but there is apparently littleindigenous consumption of meat, although medicinal uses are reported. Thereis a widespread belief that fresh turtle blood cures asthma and that themeat can be used for the treatment of haemorrhoids. There are occasionalreports that when the blood of Caretta caretta has been used for medicinalreasons that the rest of carcase is sometimes discarded (Geldiay, 1978).Hunting intensity Sella (1982) implies that there is little commercialexploitation at present, due at least in part to the depletion of regionalstocksHunting methods Although Sella (1982) reported that turtles were takenat sea, Baran (1987) stated that females were collected on the beach nearIskenderun, often before they had nested.Historical trends A turtle fishery existed in the Mersin-Adana area ofsouth-east Turkey in the 1950s and 1960s. By the late 1960s a number ofcompanies were involved in buying turtles from fishermen working off Mersin;most turtles were processed at an abbatoir at Iskenderun, the entireproduction of which was exported to Europe. In the main hunting season(April-June) 200 turtles or more, mostly C. mydas , were processed daily; upto 15 000 turtles were reportedly taken from the Mersin area between 1952and 1965. Most of the turtles weighed 120-150 kg, although animalp as smallas 15 kg were also thought to have been processed (Sella, 1982). As turtlestocks around Mersin became depleted the focus of fishing activity shiftedeastward to the area south of Adana. Reportedly 100 Green Turtles or morewere being caught daily in this area in May 1965, and Hiersch (cited inSella, 1982) reported in 1972 that around 1200 turtles were being caught offYumurtalik (south-east of Adana) each season. Geldiay et al (1982) quotedfisheries statistics which showed that there was a sudden decline in thereported catch of turtles, from 286 505 kg in 1968 to 52 355 kg in 1969. Itwas not known whether this was attributable to a decline in the abundance ofturtles or to economic factors. According to Mendelssohn (1983) (and it isnot clear whether this refers to the same fishery) an Israeli set up aturtle soup production plant in the region in the 1960s, and "within 20years, virtually annihilated the sea turtle population in the region".International trade Apart from the export trade in turtle meat to Europecited above, the only evidence of a continuing international trade in turtle533