World Status, Exploitation and Trade - WIDECAST

AUSTRALIALEGISLATIONWildlife Conservation Act No. 77. 1950 + amendments.All fauna, including sea turtles, are totally protected in the state,but people who are native under the definition of the Aboriginal AffairsPlanning Authority Act, 1972 may take turtles for subsistence purposeson land outside sanctuaries. Sale of turtles is prohibited.See also Commonwealth legislation under "Queensland".RANCHINGAs part of the turtle ranching project run by Applied Ecology Pty Ltdprimarily in Queensland (q.v.), C. mydas farms were set up in 1973 atOne-arm Point in the Bardi Aboriginal community using stock obtained fromthe Torres Strait and Lacepede Islands. Three farms were in existence inOctober 1973 and a further three were planned (Carr and Main, 1973),although all were closed down by early 1974, largely as a result of socialupheavals (R.I.T. Prince in litt. . 20 August 1987).AUSTRALIA:NORTHKRN TERRITORYPOPULATION:Chelonia mydasNesting sites No major Green Turtle beaches are known in the NorthernTerritory (Limpus, 1982).Nesting numbers No details available; presumably nests in small numbersonly.Foraging sites Large numbers of C. mydas occur on feeding groundsthroughout the Northern Territory coast (Limpus, 1982). An estimated 1000Greens (mainly large females) were stranded by Cyclone Kathy (23 March 1984)on the south-west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, adjacent to the SirEdward Pellew Islands (Limpus and Reed, 1985a). This would seem to be animportant feeding area (two stomachs examined in detail contained theseagrass Halodule pinifolia almost entirely, with traces of H. uninervis andHalophila spinulosa ; Halodule pinifolia appeared to be the primary diet ofall other turtles examined).Migration Four of the turtles stranded by Cyclone Kathy near the SirEdward Pellew group had been tagged in previous years at the major RaineIsland rookery, off north-east Queensland. These individuals would havecovered at least 1057 1cm moving between the Sir Edward Pellew group andRaine Island, without (so far as is known) nesting at the large rookery atBountiful, Pisonia and Rocky Islands in the south-eastern Gulf ofCarpentaria; similarly, turtles on feeding grounds in the Great Barrier Reefdo not necessarily breed at the closest rookery (Limpus and Reed, 1985).POPULATION: Eretmochelys imbricataNesting sites Low density nesting has been reported at several sites(Limpus, 1982).Nesting numbers No details available; apparently only small numbers nest.81