PROCEEDINGS OF THE WESTERN ATLANTIC TURTLE SYMPOSIUM San Jose, Costa Rica 17-22 July 1983 ENGLISH EDITION VOLUME 2 Appendix 6 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SEA TURTLE RESEARCH IN THE WESTERN ATLANTIC PROCEEDINGS OF THE WESTERN ATLANTIC TURTLE SYMPOSIUM EDITORS Peter Bacon Fred Berry Karen Bjorndal Harold Hirth Larry Ogren Michael Weber SYMPOSIUM ON SEA TURTLE RESEARCH OF THE WESTERN ATLANTIC (POPULATIONS AND SOCIOECONOMICS) 17-22 July 1983 San José, Costa Rica Sponsored By The INTERGOVERNMENTAL OCEANOGRAPHIC COMMISSION ASSOCIATION FOR THE CARIBBEAN AND ADJACENT REGIONS Supported By The FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Published By RSMAS PRINTING MIAMI, FL 33149 USA APRIL 1984 In Cooperation With The GULF AND CARIBBEAN FISHERIES INSTITUTE Distributed By The CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION 624 9th Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001 USA With a grant from the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, WIDECAST has digitized the databases and proceedings of the Western Atlantic Turtle Symposium (WATS) with the hope that the revitalized documents might provide a useful historical context for contemporary sea turtle management and con- servation efforts in the Western Atlantic Region. With the stated objective of serving “as a starting point for the identification of critical areas where it will be necessary to concentrate all efforts in the future”, the first Western Atlantic Turtle Symposium con- vened in Costa Rica (17-22 July 1983), and the second in Puerto Rico four years later (12-16 October 1987). WATS I featured National Reports from 43 political jurisdictions; 37 presented at WATS II. WATS I opened with these words: “The talks which we started today have the multiple purpose of bringing our knowledge up to date about the biological peculiarities of the marine turtle populations of the western Atlantic; to know and analyse the scope of the National Reports prepared by the scientific and technical personnel of more than thirty nations of the region; to consider options for the orderly management of marine turtle populations; and in general to provide an adequate forum for the ex- change of experiences among scientists, administrators, and individuals interested in making contri- butions for the preservation of this important natural resource.” A quarter-century has passed, and the results of these historic meetings have been lost to science and to a new generation of managers and conservationists. Their unique importance in providing baseline data remains unrecognized, and their potential as a “starting point” is neither known nor appreciated. The proceedings document what was known at the time concerning the status and distribution of nest- ing and foraging habitat, population size and trend, mortality factors, official statistics on exploitation and trade, estimated incidental catch, employment dependent on turtles, mariculture operations, public and private institutions concerned with conservation and use, legal aspects (e.g. regulations, enforce- ment, protected areas), and active research projects. In most cases it was the first time a national sea turtle assessment had been conducted. Despite the potential value of this information to agencies responsible for conducting stock assess- ments, monitoring recovery trends, and safeguarding critical habitat in the 21st century, the hand- written National Reports, largely illegible in the published proceedings, have slipped into obscurity. To help ensure the legacy of these symposia, we have digitized the entire proceedings, including the National Reports, plenary presentations and panels, and annotated bibliographies of both meetings, and posted them online at http://www.widecast.org/What/RegionalPrograms.html. Each National Report, as well as this Proceedings volume, has been scanned from the original docu- ment. Errors in the scan have been corrected; however, to be true to the original content (as closely as we can discern it), potential errors of content have not been corrected. This article should be cited: Bacon, P., F. Berry, K. Bjorndal. H. Hirth, L. Ogren, and M. Weber (Editors). 1984. Proceedings of the Western Atlantic Turtle Symposium, 17-22 July 1983, San José. Volume II: Annotated Biblio- graphy of Sea Turtle Research in the Western Atlantic. RSMAS Printing, Miami. 318 pp. Karen L. Eckert WIDECAST Executive Director June 2009 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY of SEA TURTLE RESEARCH in the WESTERN CENTRAL ATLANTIC Peter R. Bacon University of the West Indies Jamaica June 1983 This Annotated Bibliography of Sea Turtle Research in the Western Central Atlantic has been prepared as a background document for the Western Atlantic Turtle Symposium (WATS), July 1983, San José, Costa Rica. It contains references to sea turtle research, populations and socio-economics. Collection of references has been in progress for some time, but the major work of annotation and cross ref- erencing was carried out between November 1982 and May 1983. Only papers received up to the end of May 1983 are included here. Financial support for this Bibliography was provided by FAO, through their Fishery Resources & Environment Division, whose help is gratefully acknowledged. Sources of information Published information on sea turtles was obtained from a variety of sources: (a) Bibliographies Bonnet, B. 1979. Introduction bibliographique a la physiologie de la tortue verte, Chelonia mydas (L.), avec references complementaires recentes - 1974 a 1979 - sur l'ecologie, l'exploitation et la protection de l'espece. Collection Travaux et Documents, No.4; UER Sciences. Carr, A.F., Iverson, J.B. & Jackson, D. 1979. Sea Turtle Bibliography, Worldwide 1974 - 77 (Draft). Center for Natural Areas, Maine, 14 pages. v Dodd, C.K. 1979. A Bibliography of endangered and threatened amphibians and reptiles in the United States and its territories (Conservation, distribution, natural history, status). Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service, No. 46; 35 pages. (Plus various Supplements). E.S.I.C. 1980. Bibliography of sea turtles. Prepared by the Environmental Science Information Center, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Rockville, Maryland, Nov. 1980. FAO 1979 Turtle: Library & Documentation Division - ISIS Batch Retrieval, Data Base & Bibliography13/08/79; 10 pages. Rebel, T.P. 1974. Sea Turtles and the turtle industry of the West Indies, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, University of Miami Press, 250 pages. Bibliography, pages 143 - 236. (b) Symposia & Meetings Papers delivered at a number of Symposia, Conferences, Workshops and Society Meetings have been included only when these have been published in "Proceedings". These appear in the Bibliography by author, and the Proceedings are cited by editor. (c) Libraries The author is grateful for access to and assistance received in the libraries of the University of the West Indies; The British Museum of Natural History, London; National Marine Fisheries Service, Miami and Panama City, Florida; and the University of Florida, Gainesville. Thanks are due to Professor A. Carr, Ms. J. Mortimer & Ms. A. Meylan, University of Florida, Gainesville, for access to their personal libraries. vi Types of publications consulted This Bibliography contains 954 annotated reference citations, which were derived from the following publications: Scientific journals 604 Books 56 Theses 12 Newsletters 36 Government Reports 116 Miscellaneous 130 The last category includes conference proceedings, reports to the international agencies and manuscript reports. References were published in the following languages: English 841 Spanish 64 French 19 Dutch 13 Portuguese 8 German 8 Danish 1 vii Scope of the Bibliography As far as possible, only references relevant to the Western Central Atlantic Region have been included. This region is as defined by WECAFC/FAO - Fishing Area 31 - and extends approximately from Latitudes 35°N to 10°S, and Longitude 20°E to the coastline of the Americas. This definition excludes parts of Brazil and the United States of America and Ascension Island, while including Bermuda. Consequently, references to sea turtles in the southern parts of Brazil and US states north of the Carolinas have usually been omitted from this Bibliography. For ease of treatment in the geographical indexing, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are given separately from mainland USA. Isla Aves is listed with Venezuela, however, as are the Colombian islands of San Andres and Providencia listed with Colombia, as much less information was available for these islands. A number of general reference works on sea turtle biology, and some on physiology and taxonomy, are included where the research was carried out in the Region or where the data is of importance to the WATS symposium objectives. The Bibliography contains the following numbers of references to the six sea turtle species found in the Region: Chelonia mydas 332 Caretta caretta 254 Dermochelys coriacea 187 Eretmochelys imbricata 134 Lepidochelys kempi 124 Lepidochelys olivacea 61 viii Published works are included from the earliest paper in 1731 up to 1983. There was a dramatic increase in sea turtle research in the 1970's as the following listing of date of publication shows: Year of Publication Number of papers Before 1900 21 1900 - 1909 15 1910 - 1919 10 1920 - 1929 12 1930 - 1939 16 1940 - 1949 29 1950 - 1959 52 1960 - 1969 169 1970 - 1979 401 1980 - 1983 223 + 6 undated References to sea turtle research in the United States of America dominated the geographical citations, as shown: Country Number of papers