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Marine Turtle Newsletter 102:14, © 2003

Marine Turtle Newsletter-Online

Loggerhead Sea Turtle Tagged in Brazil Caught by a Trawler in Waters of the Common Argentinian-Uruguayan Fishing Area

Martín Laporta1 & Gustave Lopez2
1C.I.D., Proyecto Karumbé, Tortugas Marinas del Uruguay J. Paullier 1198/101, Montevideo, Uruguay, (E-mail: karumbe@adinet.com.uy)
2Projeto TAMAR-IBAMA. Caixa Postal 2219 Salvador, Bahia, CEP 40223-970 Brazil (E-mail: protamar@tamar.org.br)

On March 22, 2002 the trawler Besugo II incidentally caught an adult female loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) in waters of the common Argentinian-Uruguayan Fishing Area (3610'S and 5605'W), near Rouen Bank, southwest of Montevideo. The turtle was dead when the net was hauled and it had only one tag with the number BR12309 (Monel 681 tag, National Band Co., Newport, KY, USA). The turtle was tagged on October 21, 1995 at one of Projeto TAMAR's stations in Arembepe, Bahia (12o45'S 38o10'W), and had not been observed in the seven intervening years. At the time of tagging, the turtle measured 107.5 cm CCLn-t. and 95.5 cm CCW. Measurements taken by the Karumbé Project seven years later were identical. Both projects use the measurement methods outlined by Bolten (1999).

This is the first loggerhead turtle tagged in Bahia and then recaptured by an Uruguayan fishing vessel. Almeida et al. (2000) registered a case in which a loggerhead sea turtle tagged in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo, was found stranded in Uruguay. Together these data suggest that some Brazilian loggerhead sea turtles may migrate to Uruguayan waters to feed.

Currently, TAMAR and Karumbé are developing an "Action Plan for the Reduction of Incidental Sea Turtle Capture in Fisheries". The cooperation between both projects is extremely important to achieve success in the conservation of sea turtles in Brazil, Uruguay and elsewhere.

Acknowledgements: Karumbé Project is supported by the British Petroleum Conservation Programme, and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. TAMAR is supported by Petrobras, affiliated with IBAMA and co-administrated by the Pró-TAMAR Foundation. We thank the fisherman Andres Vidal for collecting the turtle and contacting Karumbé Project, and Neca Marcovaldi and Philip Miller for their comments.

ALMEIDA, A.P, C. BAPTISTOTTE & J.A. SCHINEIDER. 2000. Loggerhead turtle tagged in Brazil found in Uruguay. Marine Turtle Newsletter 87:10.

BOLTEN, A. B. 1999. Techniques for measuring sea turtles. In: Eckert, K.L., Bjorndal, K.A., Abreu-Grobois, F.A. & Donnelly, M. (Editors). Research and Management Techniques for the Conservation of Sea Turtles. IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group Publications N 4 pp. 110-114.