World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

VsAUSTRALIAArchipelago, all off the Pilbara coast, were cited as probable majorrookeries by Limpus (1982). The importance of the Dampier Archipelago andBarrow has since been amply confirmed by Morris (1986). Important nestingalso occurs at many beaches along the entire seaward (west) coast of NorthWest Cape, some 100 km in extent and 450 km southward along the coast fromDampier, and at Shark Bay, notably the northern tip of Dirk Hartog Island,around A50 km further south (Johannes and Rimmer, 198A), although C. carettaprobably predominates south of North West Cape. Nesting at Ashmore Reef wasdescribed as "minimal" (R.I.T. Prince in litt. , 20 August 1987).Nesting numbers Nesting density in the Kimberley area remains unknown indetail; the islands are probably "very important" (Morris, 1986). Taggingwork begun in 1986 at the Lacepede Islands resulted in 1500 C. mydas bein,?;tagged in two years (R.I.T. Prince in litt. . 1 July 1988). New data fromwork in progress on the Pilbara coast islands have been made available byMorris (1986). Green Turtles are the most cotnmon turtle along this coastand regular aerial surveys indicate that up to 1200 sea turtles,predominantly Greens, nest each night during the peak season(December-January) on the 40 km of suitable beach in the DampierArchipelago. Some 500 of these 1200 use a 5-km beach on the west coast ofRosemary Island, with 85% (=425) being C. mydas , (the remainder Hawksbills,Loggerheads and Flatbacks) (Morris, 1986). The west coast of Barrow Islandhas "a similar density of nesting" (Morris, 1986).Based on these data, it seems likely that on average several thousand GreenTurtles and possibly many more, nest annually in Western Australia.Trends in nesting numbers Although there is no long-term information.Prince ( in litt. , 1 July 1988) estimated that nesting at the LacepedeIslands was three to four times higher in 1987/88 than 1986/87. A smallerincrease was suggested at Barrow Island.Nesting season Peak nesting season is December-January in the DampierArchipelago (Morris, 1986).Foraging sites It has been suggested (Morris, 1986) that the Pilbaracoast Greens migrate to feeding grounds in Indonesia; a tagging programmewas initiated in 1986 by the WA Department of Conservation and LandManagement. It is also possible that these turtles use other sites inAustralia; large feeding-ground populations are known along the coast ofnorthern Western Australia (Limpus, 1982) and non-nesting Green Turtles are"very commonly" seen in the Abrolhos Islands (the southern-most Indian Oceancoral reefs) midway between Shark Bay and Perth (Johannes and Rimmer,1984). Prince ( in litt. , 20 August 1987) considered that the reefs aroundthe Lacepede Islands provided important foraging areas.Migration Two turtles tagged at Lacepede Islands have been recovered inwaters off the Northern Territory. A further recovery was made at One-armPoint, King Sound, of a turtle tagged in Indonesia, indicating interminglingof the two populations (R.I.T. Prince in litt. , 20 August 1987).POPULATIOK: Eretmochelvs imbricataNesting sites Relatively little information is available. Limpus (1982)states that the Dampier Archipelago may be an important nesting ground; thisis confirmed by Morris (1986), who reports that the Hawksbill is "relativelycommon" along the Pilbara coast and nests in low numbers on many islands in79